How to switch between full-screen browser and Kate Editor without losing full-screen view of the browser

Help
1

I am trying to keep a full screen view for browser, but need Kate editor to pop up without losing the full screen of the browser. Without using virtual desktop.

I looked around in windows management but can’t figure out what to tweak. Thanks in advance

kf5-config --version
Qt: 5.15.8
KDE Frameworks: 5.103.0
kf5-config: 1.0

plasmashell --version
plasmashell 5.27.5

cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME=“Parrot Security 6.4 (lorikeet)”
NAME=“Parrot Security”
VERSION_ID=“6.4”
VERSION=“6.4 (lorikeet)”

2

What’s wrong with virtual desktop? I think that would be the easiest solution.

3

MetaAltArrow

Did you look in your settings at all?

Screenshot_20260325_125250
Screenshot_20260325_125250790×523 81.7 KB

4

Not if you want to drag something from that window and drop it in the fullscreen app below it.

5

kolour paint no menu bar
kolour paint no menu bar1367×568 64.8 KB

From here i am not sure what to tweak? Am in the right area?

6

Nope, type “shortcuts” in the search box.

7

I searched ‘windows management’ nothing came up under shortcuts (see below). Where should I be looking?

switch between full screen
switch between full screen1661×945 113 KB

8

type meta+alt into the search box.

9

When I understand what you like to have, I think I have the answer for you.
Open KDE Settings, go to Window management, Window behavior. There you find this:

image
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The top item should be filled with either:
Focus follows mouse, or the one I use Focus follows mouse (mouse precedence)

When you have your browser full screen and a smaller window with Kate over it, you can switch very easy from one window to the other by simply moving your mouse (don’t click) over to the other window. This will automatically get focus, so you can type in Kate, move the mouse to the browser, scroll the page, move the mouse to Kate and type.
I use this all the time and it works great.

1 Like
10

No, the window title there is ‘Shortcuts’ and it is part of Settings.

I filtered ‘switch to window’ and selected ‘window management’.

In my screenshot, it clearly shows searching shortcuts for ‘switch to window’ and all the shorcuts in the filtered view said ‘switch to window’

11

No, this doesn’t work - because once the browser is made fullscreen, the other window is covered. Also, any time the Browser is activated, it will cover the other window unless you disable that behaviour.

It’s frustrating to change these behaviours and it also takes quite a long time to become accustomed to them - sometimes with frustrating side effects (the fact that you can’t move your mouse out of the Kate window without shifting focus to another, for example).

It’s very much more under control if you use the keyboard shortcuts to switch windows.

13

i’m not understanding your USE CASE.

you have a full screen browser (i’m assuming here the ONLY screen).

but you want to some how access kate “without losing the full screen of the browser”

does that mean you want to be able to type or paste into kate blind without seeing the kate GUI and keeping the bowser full screen

or are you trying to have windowed kate appear on top of the full screen browser in the z-order but somehow not give it focus?

please be precise in what you are asking for.

1 Like
14

Agree. That’s why I wrote: don’t click. As long as you hover the browser window you can scroll in the web page, but it will not cover the other window. That’s how I do it.

I seldom use shortcuts, I’m a mouse type of person. Reason: I never can remember the shortcuts because there are so many.

15

you might also have unchecked the Click raises window setting so that you can interact with the focused widow underneath without it popping on top.

16

image

All I do is hover the mouse over the web page in the full screen window and that windows gets focus. I see that for example in the buttons at the top right of the screen.
Scrolling in the window is now possible, but I may not click otherwise the window comes to the foreground and the text editor is hidden. Moving the mouse back to the editor window makes that window to get focus again and I can click and type in it. Just try it, you will see I am right.

17

OP has not explained what they intend with the browser so if it’s just scrolling then, yes your idea would work.

but if they wanted to, say paste some text from kate into the browser without having the browser pop on top of kate then they would need to uncheck that box.

but that would mean raising a window would require more than simply clicking on it in every other situation.

1 Like
18

This is actually the most important part. It would be quite possible to PIN Kate ‘on top’ and just have both windows visible…

But OP only states that Kate is now behind, and they want to bring it forward without losing fullscreen status…

So there are a dozen ways to do that.

But if you want to copy-paste text both ways, then using the clipboard - same story… drag and drop is different.

For drag and drop I’d likely use my window switcher, or present windows, or something else to get Kate in view - then pin it on top.

That way you can drag and drop from browser to editor and back again without using clipboard.

Sure, but it also seems that OP has forgotten that they can still use the mouse to click the Kate icon to bring kate to the front of the browser…

Bascially this whole question has failed, as @skyfishgoo says - without a USE case, then it makes no sense that this could ever be a problem.

16 hours later (as of now) Prado hasn’t visited to read any responses, so maybe we should just wait and see…

So what answers did we get?

  1. Mouse to Taskbar and click Kate icon to get kate on top. (Mouse only)
  2. Keyboard shortcut Meta+Alt+Arrow to switch windows (Keyboard only)
  3. Window switcher
  4. Present windows and select Kate (both)
  5. Overview and select Kate (both)
  6. Grid and select Kate (both)
  7. Krunner - really needs mouse to select the window, as it’s likely down the list a long way.
  8. Use a keyboard shortcut to ‘Toggle Window Raise/Lower’ which would actually enable the ‘focus follows mouse’ idea to work, but not as a way to switch window.
  9. Option to pin Kate so that it stays on top when using the browser.

It could also let you type into Kate window without even viewing it (yes, weird - I know - but there are probably many more theoretical possibilities for this - as there’s no actual ‘point’ to it anyway.

Op is only trying to ‘bring kate forward’ and as far as we know - nothing else.

With so many paths, it begs the question - why are they asking?

1 Like
19

So having the browser fullscreen and just using alt+tab to bring kate to the front when needed doesn’t work?
My browser stays full screen when working with kate. see screenshot

alt-tab_Screenshot_20260325_224708
alt-tab_Screenshot_20260325_2247085120×2640 1.08 MB

1 Like
20

Listed #3. along with suggestion for pinning it to avoid losing it when going back to the browser ;

I mean, right now this just ended up a discussion amongst ourselves as OP doesn’t seem too interested at this point (1 day ago now).

21

meta+alt
meta+alt955×381 12.8 KB

I need to be able to write within Kate Editor whilst the web browser is actively playing in full screen mode, e.g. looking at a computer screen one would see a YouTube video in full screen, and kate edit in minimized window somewhere in the middle of that full screen Youtube video. The task bar would not be visible.

It appears this would be the solution even though the task bar is visible it will do