Gala: Enable "Alt" + "~" to switch between windows of the same application

[uncertainquark]

Right now, there's no quick way to switch between multiple windows of the same application. In most operating systems, one does that with Alt + ~. It seems like the feature has been left amiss in elementary.

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[Blast-City]

I like this idea, but what would happen if the windows from the same app were spread through multiple workspaces?

I guess this would only be possible if there was a window switcher revamp. #72

[janxkoci]

IMHO the switcher should stick to the current behaviour of showing only windows from current workspace. If you change it to show windows from all workspaces, you will:

1. surprise people with unexpected behaviour
2. break workflows of people used to current behavior
3. make workspaces less useful (lot of people use them to prevent endless alt-tabbing)

[Blast-City]

IMHO the switcher should stick to the current behaviour of showing only windows from current workspace. If you change it to show windows from all workspaces, you will:

1. surprise people with unexpected behaviour

2. break workflows of people used to current behavior

3. make workspaces less useful (lot of people use them to prevent endless alt-tabbing)

Yeah, i agree.

Maybe limit "Alt+Key_Above_Tab" to all the app windows that are present on the current workspace.

The same could be also applied to middle scroll - or in the future left clicking when multiple windows are open - on the app dock icon. Leaving right click menu to select if you want a window on other workspaces. This menu could also have an indicator showing which windows correspond to which workspace.

[peteruithoven]

On OS X this seems to be done using Super + `:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/193937/shortcut-for-toggling-between-different-windows-of-same-app
Which on my Dell XPS 15 would be easier since the ~ would requite pressing Shift as well.

[berliner]

Not sure if I customised this, but for me on macos it's actually Super+< respectively Super+Shift+<, which I find to be very easy to use alongside the Super+Tab shortcuts.

[agrawalsourav98]

I used to do this on ubuntu and i guess all windows of an application should just be limited to the workspace.
Is there some progress on this issue?

[techdev5521]

I'm visually impaired and I'd also like to see this implemented. I use the Super + ` in macOS to switch between windows of the same app because it is visually easier than either:

• Looking for the application icon(s) and guessing which is the window I want in the all windows view,
• Looking for the correct window preview in the all window view.

I'm working on my first elementaryOS application right now and switching between Code windows is proving to be a pain without this feature.

[janxkoci]

@techdev5521 as a temporary workaround before this feature gets implemented, you could try using workspaces to help you:

• put Code windows on one workspace and all the other windows on another workspace
• now you can switch between Code windows with Alt+Tab - there will be no other windows to interfere
• for windows of the other programms you can swith to their workspace and back with Super+Tab

I use similar workflow all the time, when Alt+Tab gets too crowded.

[techdev5521]

@janxkoci I can certainly try this, yes! However, it replaces one problem with another for my particular workflow. I've like to put Code and Epiphany side-by-side when reading documentation. By separating applications into workspaces I gain the ability to navigate application specific windows by keyboard at the cost of visual continuity between the two programs.

Just today I found that Alt + Number will switch tabs in Code. This might be a temporary fix though I've only 9 numbers atop my keyboard which limits my switching ability and reaching past 5 is uncomfortable while holding Alt.

[janxkoci]

I see, that's more tricky.

Just today I found that Alt + Number will switch tabs in Code. This might be a temporary fix though I've only 9 numbers atop my keyboard which limits my switching ability and reaching past 5 is uncomfortable while holding Alt.

I had no idea this was possible :smile: And after trying it doesn't work on my laptop, maybe because of the czech layout (we hold Shift to get numbers).

I really wish Code had better tab switching (and same for Terminal too). I often use sublime-text (because multiple cursors are the best thing ever) and it allows to switch tabs easily with Ctrl+Tab (in order of last used) or even better Ctrl+PgUp/PgDn, which on my keyboard are next to each other (I use right Ctrl and I have PgUp & PgDn above left and right arrows, respectively).

[andreasfelix]

While implementing this in #585, I noticed that cycling between windows of the same application is already implemented in mutter. For some reason it does not work when switching between all instances of an application. But cycling between the two most recent instances works via AltF6.

It might be useful to expose this keybinding in the system settings. Until then the shortcut can be changed in the dconf editor:
Set /org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings/cycle-group to ['<Alt>Above_Tab'].