Bug 389499

Summary:	Ability to set global shortcut to add and remove virtual desktops
Product:	[Plasma] kwin	Reporter:	Gregor Mi <codestruct>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Natalie Clarius <natalie_clarius>
Status:	ASSIGNED ---
Severity:	wishlist	CC:	AndyKluger, david.cortes.rivera, natalie_clarius, nate, plasma-bugs
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Other
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Gregor Mi 2018-01-27 09:48:50 UTC

A student of mine asked me how to set a keyboard shortcut to add and remove virtual desktops.

I found out that in the year 2010 a similar wish was filed: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221115. I don't know if I should add comments to this bug because its status is WONTFIX.

So, here are my findings after playing around a bit with the virtual desktops in Plasma:

1) If the user has currently only one virtual desktop, how would he easily add a second one? Because the Pager Applet is not visible in that case. I would say, having the ability to add a keyboard shortcut for the "Add virtual desktop" action could be a way to solve this problem.

2) If the user wants to close the current virtual desktop there is a context menu action "Remove virtual desktop" in the Pager Applet. For a faster workflow and consistency with 1), it would be helpful to also have the ability to set a keyboard shortcut.

The idea of the student didn't came out of the blue but he actually wanted to know how to set a shortcut in Windows 10 where the virtual desktop concept has been finally added by default, see https://www.howtogeek.com/197625/how-to-use-virtual-desktops-in-windows-10/ (with screenshots). I just found out that they also have keyboard shortcuts for adding and removing virtual desktops, see https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/windows-10-virtual-desktop-shortcuts: Meta+Ctrl+D to open a new desktop and Meta+Ctrl+F4 to close the current desktop.

Comment 1 David 2018-05-01 10:44:31 UTC

(In reply to Gregor Mi from comment #0)
> A student of mine asked me how to set a keyboard shortcut to add and remove
> virtual desktops.
> 
> I found out that in the year 2010 a similar wish was filed:
> https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=221115. I don't know if I should add
> comments to this bug because its status is WONTFIX.
> 
> So, here are my findings after playing around a bit with the virtual
> desktops in Plasma:
> 
> 1) If the user has currently only one virtual desktop, how would he easily
> add a second one? Because the Pager Applet is not visible in that case. I
> would say, having the ability to add a keyboard shortcut for the "Add
> virtual desktop" action could be a way to solve this problem.
> 
> 2) If the user wants to close the current virtual desktop there is a context
> menu action "Remove virtual desktop" in the Pager Applet. For a faster
> workflow and consistency with 1), it would be helpful to also have the
> ability to set a keyboard shortcut.
> 
> The idea of the student didn't came out of the blue but he actually wanted
> to know how to set a shortcut in Windows 10 where the virtual desktop
> concept has been finally added by default, see
> https://www.howtogeek.com/197625/how-to-use-virtual-desktops-in-windows-10/
> (with screenshots). I just found out that they also have keyboard shortcuts
> for adding and removing virtual desktops, see
> https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/windows-10-virtual-desktop-
> shortcuts: Meta+Ctrl+D to open a new desktop and Meta+Ctrl+F4 to close the
> current desktop.

I would also like to have such a shortcut. It's unergonomic to have to go to the 'show desktops' effect each time to open a new virtual desktop.

Comment 2 Bug Janitor Service 2022-12-21 14:23:16 UTC

A possibly relevant merge request was started @ https://invent.kde.org/plasma/kwin/-/merge_requests/3353