Ideas: Smarter Window Management for Docky

By , Published March 14, 2010

Docky. I love it. So when Herr Gabriel e-mailed me with his suggestion for improving multiple application window management in Docky I must admit that I was certainly interested.

€œSince Docky is able to indicate if more than one window is opened and since it can tell us what windows are already opened by right-clicking on the respective application’s icon, it should be able to show a little window switcher when left-clicking on this icon. The attached image I made should give you an idea of how I think this should look like.€

image

I'll happily admit that the currently €œright click€ menu for application windows isn't as useful as it could be and this suggestion gives a good starting point for discussing the best way for users to utilise window switching in Docky.

As much as some people might groan at the suggestion i feel that a Windows 7 superbar style 'hover + thumbnail' approach would be a preferable method of invoking window switching rather than 'right click > menu select'.

See the Bug report and on-going discussion over @ https://bugs.launchpad.net/docky/+bug/538449

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

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  2. Official Docky Development PPA
  3. The Future Of Docky – Docky Creator Jason Smith Tells Us Why Docky Is Going To Get Even More Awesome
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  • http://juick.com/renya renya

    +++

  • http://juick.com/renya renya

    +++

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    i agree that they should remove the maximize and minimize. i never used them. The new can can be removed too as it can be done by clicking or just middle-clicking, but i think the close can be come handy sometimes.

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    i agree that they should remove the maximize and minimize. i never used them. The new can can be removed too as it can be done by clicking or just middle-clicking, but i think the close can be come handy sometimes.

    • Anonymous

      The ‘new’ is useful since there are people that won’t know that middle clicking will open a new window and not everyone is using an actual mouse; middle clicking on a laptop can be very annoying.

    • Anonymous

      The ‘new’ is useful since there are people that won’t know that middle clicking will open a new window and not everyone is using an actual mouse; middle clicking on a laptop can be very annoying.

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      Please don’t get it mixed up. I do not want to remove the right-click functionality :)

      • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

        I don’t want to remove the right-click functionality, i just want to remove unused items, because it take space and clutter the interface.

      • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

        I don’t want to remove the right-click functionality, i just want to remove unused items, because it take space and clutter the interface.

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      Please don’t get it mixed up. I do not want to remove the right-click functionality :)

    • Anonymous

      Tell me how to middle-click with a MacBook’s trackpad, and I will agree with you on everything forever.

      • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

        just click CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+Q+W+E+R+T+Y+Command+CLICK

      • Anonymous

        I don’t know if thats a limitation of the macbook or not, but on my macbookpro one of the first things I got setup was three-finger middle-click. Frankly I can’t live without it-and the way I have it working now-which is absolutely flawless(except for the application support of anything more than two-fingers(scroll)-I simply cringe when I have to use any other kind of laptop trackpad. When I am forced to use someone elses non-mac laptop I feel like I am being thrown back into the darkages. on mine I had to create a hal fdi file-xx1-synaptics-bcm5974.fdi (found on:http://vegard.hammerseth.com/2009/08/ubuntu-904-on-macbookpro53) and install the bcm5974-dkms_1.1.4_all_test.deb -since then I have had three-finger middle-click and two-finger window select-hold(one finger) while moving window(second finger) just like in osx….

  • http://twitter.com/cedr cedr

    Good idea, but it should just show when hovering, or else those extra left clicks would get tiresome.

  • http://twitter.com/cedr cedr

    Good idea, but it should just show when hovering, or else those extra left clicks would get tiresome.

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      Yes. In the Bug-discussion we came to the conclusion, that something like the Windows 7 Superbar would be a nice thing to have in Docky.

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      Yes. In the Bug-discussion we came to the conclusion, that something like the Windows 7 Superbar would be a nice thing to have in Docky.

  • fab

    In window management, Cairo-Dock is much more efficient, it can group multiple windows in a sub-dock.
    That makes very easy to switch from windows of a same application.

  • fab

    In window management, Cairo-Dock is much more efficient, it can group multiple windows in a sub-dock.
    That makes very easy to switch from windows of a same application.

  • Anonymous

    I don’t know how WIndows7 works, but I think that if you hover over the icon, the list of open windows should appear, without any clicks.

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      That’s the conclusion we came to :)

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      That’s the conclusion we came to :)

  • Anonymous

    I don’t know how WIndows7 works, but I think that if you hover over the icon, the list of open windows should appear, without any clicks.

  • dRewsus

    dockybarx works similar to that and I love it.
    In fact, docky should cycle through the open windows when you left click on it. or, like dockbarx, give you options about what happens when you right/left click on an item with multiple windows.

  • dRewsus

    dockybarx works similar to that and I love it.
    In fact, docky should cycle through the open windows when you left click on it. or, like dockbarx, give you options about what happens when you right/left click on an item with multiple windows.

  • drew

    great idea. would like to see this implemented

  • drew

    great idea. would like to see this implemented

  • http://sharkbite1414.deviantart.com/ sharkbite1414

    Use the scroll wheel to switch between multiple windows

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      This gives the unpleasant side-effect of having to cycle through every opened window from a certain application. Thus leaving unneeded windows on your screen. Not very tidy, is it?

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      This gives the unpleasant side-effect of having to cycle through every opened window from a certain application. Thus leaving unneeded windows on your screen. Not very tidy, is it?

      • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

        Agreed, and if you have *lots* of windows from the same application open, you probably don’t know what the order is going to be when scrolling, so you have to take time to check each window as you go through them.

      • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

        Agreed, and if you have *lots* of windows from the same application open, you probably don’t know what the order is going to be when scrolling, so you have to take time to check each window as you go through them.

      • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

        Agreed, and if you have *lots* of windows from the same application open, you probably don’t know what the order is going to be when scrolling, so you have to take time to check each window as you go through them.

  • http://sharkbite1414.deviantart.com/ sharkbite1414

    Use the scroll wheel to switch between multiple windows

  • Anonymous

    First Off, I don’t think it’s a step forward to remove functionality from the right click menu. We’ve had a lot of discussion on window management and it’s not that we don’t want to do all kinds of awesome stuff with Docky, it’s that some of it just doesn’t work out.

    I believe that there is still a branch with compiz previews, but it’s not as cool as it sounds. It looks like crap, really. And its buggy.

    We’ve wanted to do the Dock-expose feature where you drag something over an item on the dock and it uses Compiz’s scale effect so you can drag it in to the appropriate window. But, compiz doesn’t like that. The dragging throws it off.

    So, this has been a topic of much though.

    One thing that hasn’t been attempted, but sounds promising, is the legendary hotseating feature. Basically, in hotseating, you would click on an item in the dock, then the contents of the dock would change to reflect the opened windows of that application. So, if you have 6 windows of Firefox open, you will see 6 Firefox icons instead of your regular dock items.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I checked the compiz thumbnail branch out a while back and it did suck.

      hotseating, though, now that sounds freaking awesome.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I checked the compiz thumbnail branch out a while back and it did suck.

      hotseating, though, now that sounds freaking awesome.

    • Kurtins

      Too bad docky expose is a no go for now, it would be totally awesome!

    • Anonymous

      Hey danrabbit, I just tried out the drag’n'drop via compiz Scale on Ubuntu Lucid. It worked! I took a screencast: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2183944/CompizExposeDragNDrop.ogv

    • Anonymous

      Hey danrabbit, I just tried out the drag’n'drop via compiz Scale on Ubuntu Lucid. It worked! I took a screencast: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2183944/CompizExposeDragNDrop.ogv

    • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

      That really is too bad about expose/Compiz’s scale with Docky. That would be a pretty neat thing to have.

      I have to agree that hotseating sounds like a great option. Not only does it look cool, it’s also consistent with the Docky feel. Please tell me that the window title would appear on the dock, though. If clicking one firefox icon leads to six more firefox icons, and you can’t differentiate between them unless you mouseover, it’s not much more practical than just using the current scrollwheel method of switching windows.

    • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

      That really is too bad about expose/Compiz’s scale with Docky. That would be a pretty neat thing to have.

      I have to agree that hotseating sounds like a great option. Not only does it look cool, it’s also consistent with the Docky feel. Please tell me that the window title would appear on the dock, though. If clicking one firefox icon leads to six more firefox icons, and you can’t differentiate between them unless you mouseover, it’s not much more practical than just using the current scrollwheel method of switching windows.

    • http://www.martinsmucker.com Michael Martin-Smucker

      That really is too bad about expose/Compiz’s scale with Docky. That would be a pretty neat thing to have.

      I have to agree that hotseating sounds like a great option. Not only does it look cool, it’s also consistent with the Docky feel. Please tell me that the window title would appear on the dock, though. If clicking one firefox icon leads to six more firefox icons, and you can’t differentiate between them unless you mouseover, it’s not much more practical than just using the current scrollwheel method of switching windows.

  • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

    Thanks for sharing it on your site :)

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      No problem :) It’s what we’re here for!

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      No problem :) It’s what we’re here for!

  • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

    Thanks for sharing it on your site :)

  • Anonymous

    +1

    Very interesting, minimize and maximize are useless. I like that idea. I might have a Win7 feel to it, but it could work better that the actual window management.

  • Anonymous

    +1

    Very interesting, minimize and maximize are useless. I like that idea. I might have a Win7 feel to it, but it could work better that the actual window management.

  • Anonymous

    I think to that to.

    There is another thing that Docky miss, it is an option to move the windows.
    Some times the top of a window go under my top Gnome panel, and I have to had a windows list applet to move it…

    • http://twitter.com/Herr_Gabriel Gabriel Shahzad

      You could just hold down the Alt-Key and then drag the window around by clicking anywhere inside the window.

      • Anonymous

        Thanks ! It will help me.

        But it would still be a thing to add to Docky.

  • Anonymous

    I think to that to.

    There is another thing that Docky miss, it is an option to move the windows.
    Some times the top of a window go under my top Gnome panel, and I have to had a windows list applet to move it…

  • http://sharq.xtreemhost.com/ sharq

    Entries could be even higher, when multiple windows are opened. For example each entry in two lines, or with bigger font.

  • http://billishere.deviantart.com Billi

    how about this idea! Its radical! and no other operating system has anything like this:
    when you hover over one icon that represents multiple windows..the icon duplicates (with an icon painting effect) and each represents multiple windows. but when you move your mouse away, the icons for multiple instances of the same application combine back together!
    hows that? genius eh?

    • nathan

      OMG ! AWESOME !!!

  • Yi Sun-sin

    Speaking about Window management in Docky, there is one thing I love about it : when you hover over an icon and use the mouse wheel, it gives the focus to the different windows of this application.
    But I feel a very good improvement to this feature could be if it was working when you are drag-and-dropping something. Docky in Do used to do that, and without it it’s a real pain to drag-and-drop between windows (except if there is another way to give a window the focus when drag-and-droping, but I didn’t found any…)

  • Anonymous

    I posted a mock-up for dockbarx on deviant art it`s called Dockbarx mockup maybe something like that would work
    http://ssfantus1.deviantart.com/art/Dockbarx-mockup-145578722

    hope i`m alowed to post links

  • http://kroulee.com Brandon Sheppard

    I’ll give it a go. =0

  • http://kroulee.com Brandon Sheppard

    I’ll give it a go. =0

  • mcqr

    I think the best way is that every window has its own icon.