Is there a shortcut to tile windows to left or right side of the screen?

Out of the box, most non-tiling managers and desktop environments such as XFCE/Xubuntu does not have tiling support.

A notable exception in Compiz which can be used with the majority of Desktop environments such as Xubuntu/Unity but not Gnome-Shell.

Specifically for Xubuntu, to get mouse tiling support you will need to either compile or install a modified window manager such as this Q&A:

Automatically size windows using Xfce like in gnome

To get keyboard tiling support without compiz and a non-tiling window manager, you will need to be more inventive and control the window position and sizing yourself - this answer gives you this solution.

However, for the best tiling support you should use a dedicated tiling-window manager such as Awesome.

Keyboard Tiling

A basic python script on launchpad allows you to control windows such as moving them to the left or right.

I've slightly modified this to work with XFCE/Xubuntu and to allow you to install in either 11.10 or 12.04. This can easily be tailored for other DEs such as unity-2d

Create keyboard shortcuts - an example is below:

enter image description here

You call the script stiler.py with the following parameters:

  • left - tile the current window to the left side of the screen.
  • right - tile the current window to the right side of the screen.
  • vertical - tile all windows vertically
  • horizontal - tile all windows horizontally
  • cycle - tile windows in a cyclical manner and rotate between those windows
  • prev - move the focus to the previous window
  • next - move the focus to the next window
  • maximize - maximise the current window

Some examples:

cycle windows

enter image description here

tile vertically

enter image description here

to install

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fossfreedom/xfwm4
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install stiler

Xubuntu LTS 16.04 has the ability to tile windows by default by using the mouse. Grab a window with your mouse and move it to the top, bottom, left, right, top-right, top-left, bottom-right or bottom left.

If you want to use your keyboard instead, you have to configure the shortcuts in the Window Manager as the following screen shot shows:

Window Manager

I answered this old question here because as a Xubuntu novice I was looking for this feature too and couldn't find it in the beginning.


I've had better luck with quicktile. Use it the same way, create shortcuts to the command.

http://ssokolow.github.com/quicktile/

Tags:

Shortcut Keys

Window Manager

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