Bug 92218

Summary: Tab box: support for using other keys than Alt-Tab and Alt-Shift-Tab
Product: [Plasma] kwin Reporter: Wilco Greven <greven>
Component: generalAssignee: KWin default assignee <kwin-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: wishlist    
Priority: NOR    
Version: unspecified   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Compiled Sources   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Wilco Greven 2004-10-27 21:26:25 UTC 
Version:            (using KDE Devel)
Installed from:    Compiled sources

When you have a lot of windows on the screen it would be easy to be able select another window from the tabbox using some other key than just Alt-[Shift-]Tab. 

Let me give an example. I have 10 windows on the screen. One of them is named
"Bug Entry Form - Konqueror", and I want to bring it to the front. I press
Alt-Tab to open the tabbox, and then press b (from Bug), keeping Alt pressed. The indicator in the tabbox moves to the first entry beginning with a b, which in this case could be the window "Bug....", I let go of the Alt key and the window is brought to the front.

Other possibilities are supporting the cursor keys for moving up and down the list.
Comment 1 Turing Test 2005-04-07 19:41:49 UTC 
This could be extended to work with several key presses, like an incremental text search. This is a precise description of how it could work:

1) When you press Alt-Tab, it shows a panel showing all windows open
on the current desktop, their titles and descriptions (see an example
image):
http://www.zurb.qc.ca/megaoctet/kde330/alt-tab.png

2) Release Tab while still holding the Alt key. This starts what is
known as a Quasimode or Spring-loaded mode ( see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasimode ).

3) While in the quasimode, typing performs a search over the
descriptions of the listed windows, selecting the first word that
matches the typed keys.

4) When releasing Alt, KDE opens the application in which the search
focus was placed.


For example, to select The Gimp you type Alt\  Tab\/   g\/  i\/  m\/  p\/  Alt/
(where "\" means that the key is pressed, "/" that it is released and
"\/" that it is tapped). This will open the first window which has the
word "gimp" in its title, no matter which application where previously
selected.
Comment 2 Lubos Lunak 2005-12-12 15:42:00 UTC 

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 118184 ***