[TUTORIAL] MultiMonitor setup with keyboard controlled windows placement.

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jrj
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[TUTORIAL] MultiMonitor setup with keyboard controlled windows placement.

Post by jrj »

The following guide will show how to use the built-in multi monitor support in Linux Mint, and how to navigate Workplaces and placement of application windows with keyboard shortcuts. Everything I will show here is default behaviour in Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon edition - no special configuration needed.

When starting with a single monitor, you can already take advantage of application windows placement via keyboard shortcuts. When you have selected a given application windows, either by clicking with your mouse or via selecting it with ALT+TAB, you can then use the keyboard combination of SuperKey (Windows Keys on most keyboard) and the Arrowkeys. This will move the application windows UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT, and "snap" the window to the edge of your screen.
Pressing SuperKey and UP one more time, after it snapped to top of screen, will make the window full-screen. To revert to non-full-screen just press SuperKey+DOWN (or UP).

Running out of space on the screen, well Linux Mint offers additional virtual screens called Workplaces. The default is a total of 4 Workplaces, and can be use to place different application that you might wish to keep running, put out of sight, so you can focus on your main working area. You can use a keyboard shortcut to switch between the available Workplaces by pressing CTRL+ALT+LEFT/RIGHT. You will see the current application slide to the side and you will be presented with a blank screen (Workplace) where you can open more applications. To get back to you initial screen you simply press CTRL+ALT+LEFT/RIGHT (opposite direction as before).

When using multiple workplaces you can chose to move application you already have running on one Workplace to another, by clicking the right mouse button on the application windows titlebar and selecting "Move to another Workplace", and then the specific workplace you wish it to be moved to.

Image


Adding a second monitor to you computer is where this becomes alot more useful :D

For the purpose of this tutorial I will use my desktop. It has a nice GTX1660S with have multiple monitor connections, to which i have hocked up my main Dell 24" and an old Philips 22" monitor. However the setup should work with just about any combination of GFX cards and monitors.

Once the second monitor have been connected, you can used the Display Settings tools to place then in the right order according to their physical placement on your desk. In my example, it looks like this.

Image

From this point you can have easily move windows between the monitors, by dragging them with your mouse. You still have the options to used Workplaces, however now the initial content of BOTH monitors is consideres 1x Workplace. This means that CTRL+ATL+LEFT/RIGHT will shift both screen to the LEFT/RIGHT. This gives you alot of virtual desktop areas, where its easy to loose track of where is my application. A small trick is to then use CTRL+ALT+UP, as this will bring you to a workplace selector screen, showing you the content of all workplaces. In my example, it looks like:

Image

You can not use the ARROW keys to select, and then press ENTER on the workplace you wish to switch to.

You can still use the same keyboard shortcuts to place and snap application windows around the screen (SuperKey+UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT), however due to the feature of snapping to the windows edge of the monitor it placed on, you can use this compination to move the application from one monitor to another (within the same joined workplace). However there is an easy solution to this, just add the SHIFT key. So when you wish to move a windows, via the keyboard from one monitor to another, just press SuperKey+SHIFT+UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT.

Using these shortcuts have increase the speed of how i can work with and enjoy Linux Mint Cinnamon.
I hope the tutorial above have been useful - have a great day

/JRJ
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