In my opinion, titlebars are a total waste of space on maximised windows.
Hiding window borders (including titlebars) is easily done on Plasma on a per-window basis using the Window Operations Menu, default shortcut: Alt+F3, or on a per-application basis, by setting Window Rules. But that is quite slow and cumbersome, as you would have to do it manually for every window. Not good. You can also set a keyboard shortcut to hide and show window borders. Better, but you still have to do it manually.
Fortunately, there also exists a hidden setting in KWin to automatically hide titlebars and window borders on maximised windows. To apply it, edit the following file:
~/.config/kwinrc
Find the section [Windows] and add BorderlessMaximizedWindows=true under it. It should look something like this:
[Windows]
BorderlessMaximizedWindows=true
Log out and log back in. Open any application and maximise it to see the effect.
This way you have the best of both worlds: floating windows still have titlebars and fancy shadow borders and whatnot, and maximised windows have none of that clutter, letting you utilise your screen real-estate to the fullest.
What happens to the Window Control Buttons when you use this setting?
One of the reasons why I have not used this setting for all my Windows is I use some windows in unmaximsied and Maximised modes, and want to switch between those modes⌠removing the title bar (AKA Window Decoration) also removes the Window Control Buttons.
As a Consequence I use this only for the Windows I only ever run maximised.
Firefox is the only App I can run sans the Title Bar, and still have the Window Control Buttons available, but that is a Firefox thing
If you decide to hide the titlebars on maximised windows, when the window is maximised you donât have control buttons. When The window is not maximised, you have the titlebars normally, with the control buttons.
Personally, I donât need the control buttons on maximised windows. But if that is a problem, you might not want to do this.
I will continue to do it the way I currently do⌠Only those windows that I only use at Maximum (In other words, I never use them in any other size mode) will be set to No Title bar.
I donât use titlebars at all, maximized or unmaximized. Iâve set it through my windowdecorator. To control them, there are options . Me, Iâve always used the active control widget, but there are others that provide titlebar buttons on the panel. As for dragging , use the meta or alt ( whatever your choice) or you can even make a panel app to do just that. Itâs a pitty a custom toolbar button still isnât implemented in kde apps for that would give a more csd styled layout. In either case, the active window control provides an option to undecorate maximized windows if you like and a mouse scroll up/down to max/unmax as well as min/max/close buttons.
Actually I just realised that the windows I run at Maximised is pretty much most of my Windows, there are only a small number, like kCalc and Kate and âtemporaryâ konsole windows that donât get the Maximised treatment, even windows like Kwallet and Mullvad which arenât run at maximised can be run without a title bar, as they are tiled on one workspace permanently.
On my netbook (where screenestate is scarce) I also disable titlebars for maximised windows.
To get Min, Max and Close I have an autohide plasma panel in the upper right corner with an active window control plasmoid (which also sports a GUI switch to disable the titlebar). Itâs generally hidden unless I move the cursor to that very spot.
Thanks.
It wasnât working properly when I tried it 3 years ago, and tried again now: installing âqml-module-org-kde-graphicaleffectsâ seemed to help display the buttons this time.
Actually, I would be happy to use it instead of Window Buttons and Window Title if it the buttons could be positioned at the top right corner as well.
For Iâve recently changed my preference back to the default position for system-wide consistency - like the close buttons of tabs, notifications etc.
Thanks. Yes, I saw it, but it didnât work when I tried it earlier. However, it worked now.
Nevertheless, it seems Active Window Control is only good if you prefer window control buttons in upper left corner (Mac-style), because if you choose upper right, they are displayed (perhaps inevitably?) just at the right end of the widget, and not at the right end of the panel.
With a top panel configuration like mine, which has three groups of widgets (left,center and right), one would normally expect window control buttons of maximized windows to be at the top right corner of the screen, and using Window Title and Window Buttons makes more sense.
Then windows buttons is what you need. It makes no sense for the active window control widget to âsplitâ itself up. If you want that it would take up the entire panel. In my case, I donât use titlebars at all and use the mouse scroll function of the widget to max/unmax windows. As such I only need a close button ( although I can use a middle click to do it as well, so without any button). For me, since I sometimes switch to a tiling mode I only need to highlight the specific tiled window and max it using a mouse scroll. But no, if you want buttons in a specific place and the window title in another, you canât use this widget. Unless you put two of course and hope they donât clash by their settings.
