Xfce Forum

lostandfound

Member

Registered: 2008-03-14

Posts: 5

Keyboard Shortcut for "Open Terminal in current directory" in Thunar

Hello,

I have already searched the forum and the xfce wiki, but couldn't found anything suitable...

How can I add an keyboard shortcut for "open a terminal in the current displayed directory" in Thunar?
In KDEs Konqueror there is an default keyboard shortcut with "F4" to start KDEs Konsole.
Such a thing would be very nice in XFCE...

Best regards, lostandfound

pmackinney

Member

Registered: 2008-02-14

Posts: 2

Re: Keyboard Shortcut for "Open Terminal in current directory" in Thunar

You don't mention it, so I can't tell if you're aware that there's a built-in contextual menu item to do this named "Open Terminal Here".

However it's unsatisfactory for two reasons: You have to be in the parent folder in order to invoke the contextual menu on the target folder, and you can't assign a shortcut key to contextual menu items.

The first item is kind of weird. Thunar shows the path to the current director as a row of icons across the top of the directory listing. These have a different contextual menu than the one you get for folders in the directory listing. Why?

This second item is the deal-breaker. Thunar allows you to create custom items for the contextual menu, of which "Open Terminal Here" is an example, but the method for setting and changing key shortcuts described in their help doesn't work for contextual menus. This is just bad design--the odds are that anyone who cares enough to create a custom menu item is going to want to assign a key shortcut to it.

Until they improve this, or someone posts an alternate solution, here's what we've got:

You can open a terminal window in three clicks using the mouse:
1. Click the parent folder in the row of icons above Thunar's directory listing.
2. Right-click the target folder to open the contextual menu.
3. Click "Open Terminal Here"

Or use the following incredibly cumbersome procedure to do it from the keyboard:
1. Backspace (move to the parent folder)
2. <first letter of the folder's name> (move to the first folder listed that starts with that letter)
3. <down arrow 0 or more times> (highlight the desired folder)
4. Menu (the key in between the right Windows key and the right Crtl key, opens the contextual menu)
5. <up arrow 2 times> (highlight the "Open Terminal Here" menu item)
6. Enter (opens a Terminal window)

lordcris

Member

Registered: 2009-06-22

Posts: 3

Re: Keyboard Shortcut for "Open Terminal in current directory" in Thunar

Hello,
Has the situation changed?
Is it possible to assign a keyboard shortcut to "Open terminal here" action?

gorgon

Member

Registered: 2010-08-19

Posts: 2

Re: Keyboard Shortcut for "Open Terminal in current directory" in Thunar

is there any plans to include this? or has it happened? to me it seems an essential function to have.

cheers,
g

GS

Member

From: place once called Transylvania

Registered: 2010-06-23

Posts: 41

Re: Keyboard Shortcut for "Open Terminal in current directory" in Thunar

I don't know if this will help any of you who want this feature, but changing the side pane to "tree" mode makes use of the right-click context menu item (for opening a terminal window) somewhat more convenient. I'm not sure why anyone would need a keyboard shortcut for this, since it's understood that you've just used the file manager to find the location where you want a terminal window opened. It's just one right-click and a context menu selection away at that point. You don't have to be in the parent directory. You can be in one directory and right-click on another directory in the tree and get the terminal window opened in that other directory.

Or am I missing something? I'm real keyboard kind of person, hardly touching the mouse except when I'm actually using the file manager or a browser. I hadn't even noticed anything onerous about the way this is implemented in Xfce.

gorgon

Member

Registered: 2010-08-19

Posts: 2

Re: Keyboard Shortcut for "Open Terminal in current directory" in Thunar

personally I want to use gloobus.net by pressing spacebar on any file. This should be very possible and accessible to map in my opinion.

etnlWings

Member

Registered: 2007-10-30

Posts: 218

Re: Keyboard Shortcut for "Open Terminal in current directory" in Thunar

Perhaps this should be filed as a thunar bug: namely, that not all context menu entries are accessible from the menubar. Menubar menus are easy to set keyboard shortcuts for. Perhaps custom actions should also appear in the Edit menu.

jannis

Member

Registered: 2011-06-09

Posts: 19

Website

Re: Keyboard Shortcut for "Open Terminal in current directory" in Thunar

@etnlWings I'm working on that now: http://mail.xfce.org/pipermail/xfce4-de … 29239.html