Suggestions to improve handling of virtual desktops

Brainstorm
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1

I’m a big fan of virtual desktops. But the current usability in KDE let’s room for improvements.

  1. We need the ability to re-order virtual desktops. Let us re-shuffle in grid view or give us the ability to re-order in the system settings.
  2. Prevent users from accidentally deleting a desktop. At least in grid view (didn’t try others), there is a small delete button. If you hit this button unintentional, the desktop is deleted without further confirmation. To restore the order, you have to add a new desktop at the end. This destorys your own desktop order.
  3. The setting for changing the overview shortcut is very hidden. Without some web search you won’t be able to find it. It took me about 10 min to find the correct answer. It’s separated from all other desktop related settings. ‘Window management > desktop effects’ is not a logical place to find without help.

I am very convinced of KDE and the KDE community. So I was really surprised that the usability of an old Linux feature like virtual desktops still has flaws.

1 Like
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You can also find it by searching in Keyboard > Shortcuts.

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The OP has good points. I have a roommate who’s machine I maintain and every once in awhile he accidentally creates a additional desktop that I have to remove. The thing is with the order of items in the rightclick context menu I could see him easily deleting a desktop by mistake. First Add Widgets and Show Panel Configuration don’t have any need to be in the Virtual Desktops rightclick menu. Second we should have a confirmation for if we want to delete or add a virtual desktop if we are doing it from the menu. Lastly yes it would be nice to have the ability to reorder the virtual desktops for more than a couple of reasons.

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Thanks for the suggestion. This was the first approach I tried. But you have to know how this setting is named. I even tried a direct comparison with my second device and still only found the setting with a web search.

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About usability of virtual desktops in Overview (and Grid view lets us reorder virtual desktop but doesn’t organize them to use all the space in the screen), some time ago I proposed something: Automatic virtual desktops management