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Gnome and PaperWM keyboard shortcuts

monitor ws move
Windows and workspaces
Go to window
Go to first/last
Super ◀▶⯅⯆
Home/End
Move window Super Ctrl ◀▶⯅⯆
Go to workspace Super Fn ⯅⯆
Move window to workspace Super Fn Ctrl ◀▶⯅⯆
Go to workspace 1..4 Super Shift 1..4
Move window to workspace 1..4 Super Shift Ctrl 1..4

Monitors
Go to to monitor Super Shift ◀▶⯅⯆
Move window to monitor Super Shift Ctrl ◀▶⯅⯆
Move workspace to monitor Super Shift Fn Ctrl ◀▶⯅⯆
Swap workspace with monitor Super Shift Fn Alt ◀▶⯅⯆

Window control
Cycle preset widths / heights Super Alt ◀▶⯅⯆
Adapt width / height Super AltCtrl ◀▶⯅⯆
Toggle maximum width Super /
Center window horizontally Super Menu
Drift window left / right Super [ / ]
Toggle fullscreen Super Shift F
Create new window for current app Super Enter
Close window Super Backspace

Stack and scratch windows
Create new window horizontally / vertically Super Ctrl H / V
Move next window into this column Super I
Move bottom / active window out to its own column Super O / ShiftO
Show / hide recent scratch window Super Esc
Toggle regular / scratch window Super Ctrl Esc
Center scratch window vertically Super V

Other
Open settings Super S
Open messages Super M
Open display setup (F9 displays key) Super P
  1. I changed many shortcuts to my own liking, so this is not the default set of PaperWM.
    • The Fn key changes ◀/▶/⯅/⯆ into Home/End/PgUp/PgDn but keeps the intuitive movement.
    • PaperWM sets some of the Gnome Shell keys as well, and I changed some of those too.
      • Moving a window to the workspace left/right is effectively the same as moving it to the monitor left or right.
  2. Scratch windows float on top of regular windows

Placing windows automatically

To place windows on a workspace, add a "winprop" via Settings.

Use Gnome Looking Glass to find the window wm_class: Alt+F2, then lg as command.

With a wildcard * on wm_class, it is possible to set (for instance) the default width for all new windows to for instance 50%.

Fixed number of desktops

In order to make placing windows and adding workspace settings work well, I've had to set the workspaces in Gnome to a fixed number. Otherwise, Gnome will just create new workspaces when needed: that creates an unstable sequence that does not keep the associated names.