Hi there!
I recently decided to try out Zorin OS in a dualboot, and I'm loving it so far, haven't felt the need to boot into Windows for now.
I do have 1 issue though, in Discord I often switch servers using the "ctrl+alt+[up]/[down]" (arrow-keys). This isn't possible because it has a purpose in the OS apparently, but I cannot find it under "Settings-Keyboard Shortcuts".
The built-in function seems to only switch to desktop, which is useless as I have "Super+D" set to switch to desktop...
Does anyone know what I am missing, or is this just something I have to accept?
Thanks in advance for any info and tips!
Linux has the concept of workspaces, essentially multiple "desktops" where you can put different opened windows. Navigating through them with gestures or keybindings is a pretty convenient way to jump between programs and have an efficient workflow. I recommend you learn about this and try to use it as it's quite a handy feature.
But if you don't want to use it, or prefer to have other keyboard shortcuts, you can change it by running these two commands from a terminal window:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-down ['']
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-up ['']
This will disable the keyboard shortcut entirely so they won't get in your way anymore.
But there's actually another default shortcut that you may want to keep around just to test this feature, which is Super + Page Down/Up. Note that some notebooks or smaller keyboards don't have this key or is hidden away under an abstraction layer, depending on the keyboard.
To keep this keyboard shortcut, the command would be similar:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-down ["'<Super>Page_Down'"]
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-up ["'<Super>Page_Up'"]
For reference, in later versions of Gnome, which the upcoming ZorinOS 17 Core will use, workspaces are arranged horizontally instead of vertically so the same shortcut would use the left and right arrows, so you may not even need to make any changes.
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Thanks for such a quick and detailed answer!
I haven't found a use for multiple workspaces (or desktops on Windows) yet, but it seems a powerful feature, so I'll definitly keep it to the keybinds you suggested.
In fact, it seems like those keybinds already work for that too!
When setting the empty keybinds, it works like expected again, but the "Super+PgUp/PgDown" doesn't work anymore either. When then trying to run your commands for adding those keybinds, I get the error:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-down ['<Super>Page_Down']
expected value:
[<Super>Page_Down]
^
You may need an additional set of surrounding quotes, because of the terminal:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-down ["'<Super>Page_Down'"]
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Awesome, you solved it! Thank you for your help.
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Virtual desktops is like having multiple screens... open an application and maximize it here, move to the next and open another application there...i want quick access to these two, so I'll go back two and open the other application here. Never alt + tab, easily move between applications and without an animation if you choose.
I do this regularly... rarely lifting my hands off the keyboard... coding in ide, browser for research, slack, discord and zoom all for collaboration. It's amazing how fast you can be!
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