Individual application windows cannot be moved to different workspaces using drag and drop

[Saurabh Gupta]

Separate instances or windows of an application cannot be placed on separate workspaces using drag and drop in workspace overview. For example if I have two different files/marlin windows open or two different windows for browser open then they cannot be placed on separate workspaces.

Edit : I just realized that Shift + Meta + Arrow key can be used to do this. This is not at all intuitive. Also this can be cumbersome if you have more than two workspaces and want to switch from 1st workspace to 3rd workspace.

[Tom Beckmann (tombeckmann)]

You can't identify separate windows of one application by their icons anyway, as they look the same. So it would not make sense to place two icons if there are two windows of one application. Instead you should use "manual" moving via window menu or shortcut.

[Saurabh Gupta (bhaismachine)]

Yes but you can identify the application from it's window in the workspace instead of it's icon. Just like how you drag an application's window in Gnome shell or Unity.

[Dirk Mcbratney (djmcbratney)]

That was my thinking on this, too - during the workspace overview, overlay an icon on visible windows to drag to the appropriate workspace. Or is it not possible for Gala to make use of the desktop area during the workspace overview?

Bug #1007684 suggests implementing drag and drop as an alternative (which would replace the Aero Snap behavior.) I don't think that this is an appropriate fix - notably because it works only by "visiting" each workspace in sequence until getting to the intended one - but I'm also biased as I very much appreciate Aero Snap.

I do think that the manual workarounds help, but they're ugly and not very discoverable. They (and the desktop-edge suggestion) are also separate from the workspace overview, which should reasonably handle all things workspaces. Sending a window via the window menu is further inconsistent with the workspace overview in that it doesn't flip the workspace to follow the window.