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 don’t have control buttons. When The window is not maximised, you have the titlebars normally, with the control buttons.
Personally, I don’t 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 don’t use titlebars at all, maximized or unmaximized. I’ve set it through my windowdecorator. To control them, there are options . Me, I’ve 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. It’s a pitty a custom toolbar button still isn’t 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 ‘temporary’ konsole windows that don’t get the Maximised treatment, even windows like Kwallet and Mullvad which aren’t 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). It’s generally hidden unless I move the cursor to that very spot.
