View contents of workspace switcher panes on mouse hover

sputnik-1 · 2017-07-26 06:29:16

Hi all,

Having used a Mac at work for almost 3 years I really miss being able to see a preview of what is running in each virtual desktop when I hover my mouse over that particular desktop in the workspace switcher plugin.

Currently when I hover my mouse over the workspace switcher grid of virtual desktops, all I can see is a tooltip with a text message like: "click to switch to "14" which doesn't tell me anything about whats running in that workspace. This means I have to keep hunting round to find the particular application I want to switch to, which is a VERY slow process.

I'm using 20 workspaces in 2 rows with numbers.

What I'd like to do is hover my mouse over a particular inactive workspace, and see a large window pop up about 25% size of my real physical screen size that shows me exactly what is running in that workspace.

Is it possible to configure this to happen with XFCE please?

I would find this a great help in switching between inactive workspaces, as at the moment it is a painfully slow process.

TIA

Keith

Last edited by sputnik-1 (2017-07-26 06:30:39)

ToZ · 2017-07-26 09:25:33

Hello and welcome.

That particular functionality doesn't exist and it doesn't appear that its been requested yet. You can create an enhancement request over at bugzilla.

I use the window menu list to see what is running on all of my different workspaces. It's not a visual representation of the contents of the window but rather a text listing. You can get this by using the "Window Menu" plugin or middle-click on the desktop.

Xfdashboard in another Xfce utility that can display visual representations of running programs that might be of interest.

sputnik-1 · 2017-07-26 11:55:52

Hi ToZ,

Thanks for your reply and welcome to the forums.

I'll check out that link to Xfdashboard to see if it's suitable.

If not I'll add this as a feature request soon.

Kind regards,

Keith

sputnik-1 · 2017-07-26 14:58:58

That looks OK, but it's not what I'm looking for.

Are there any links how to setup a development environment for the XFCE desktop please?

TIA

Keith

ToZ · 2017-07-26 17:55:48

sputnik-1 wrote:

Are there any links how to setup a development environment for the XFCE desktop please?

There is this set of instructions on building Xfce from source packages.

One thing to keep in mind is that Xfce is currently being migrated to GTK3. I'd guess that it's probably about 75% complete. If you choose to build on the current versions of the packages that you are running, be aware that your code may or may not work on the migrated GTK3 version.

MountainDewManiac · 2017-07-26 19:25:00

ToZ wrote:

One thing to keep in mind is that Xfce is currently being migrated to GTK3. I'd guess that it's probably about 75% complete. If you choose to build on the current versions of the packages that you are running, be aware that your code may or may not work on the migrated GTK3 version.

Might it be worth it for sputnik-1 to join the Xfce developers' email list, so as to have a better chance to read what's going on in that regard and, possibly, be able to discuss any specifics that he has concerns about? Could end up contributing to the general state of Xfce development, too, I suppose.

Regards,
MDM

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#1 2017-07-26 06:29:16

View contents of workspace switcher panes on mouse hover

#2 2017-07-26 09:25:33

Re: View contents of workspace switcher panes on mouse hover

#3 2017-07-26 11:55:52

Re: View contents of workspace switcher panes on mouse hover

#4 2017-07-26 14:58:58

Re: View contents of workspace switcher panes on mouse hover

#5 2017-07-26 17:55:48

Re: View contents of workspace switcher panes on mouse hover

#6 2017-07-26 19:25:00

Re: View contents of workspace switcher panes on mouse hover

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