How to move and resize windows with alt + LMB/RMB

alextrune · September 3, 2019, 4:21am

In KDE you can resize the window by pressing the ALT key and using LMB if you want to move the windows or RMB to resize it. This is a nice feature b/c you don’t have to be precise with the placement of the mouse (currently you have to get withing a few pixels of the border if you want to resize).

nightromantic · September 3, 2019, 6:34am

Hi @alextrune! Welcome to the community! Please have a look at the introductory posts in the #start-here category if you haven’t had a chance to do so.

Are you asking how to do similar things in Gnome or did you want just share with us this neat trick from KDE land?

You can move your windows in a similar fashion in Gnome as well, but you need to hold [Super] (or [Windows]) key while using LMB. The key you need to hold can be configurable from the settings, I’m not sure.

Trick with RMB and windows resize I couldn’t reproduce, I happen to use from time to time another way instead (though a bit more involved):

call window context menu by either right-clicking on a window title or by pressing [Alt]+[Space.]
click or select with cursor keys Change size menu entry. Window has to be not-maximized for this entry to be active.
now you can change window size either using your cursor keys or using you mouse (without clicking or holding any mouse button). Press [Enter] or click to accept the new size.

vgaetera · September 3, 2019, 1:50pm

Window resizing in GNOME Shell

Defaults

Shortcuts: Super+MiddleMouseButton

Customization

Mouse button: RightMouseButton

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences resize-with-right-button "true"

Modifier key: Alt

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences mouse-button-modifier "<Alt>"