Linux Mint Debian MATE Easily Splitting Windows

Posted on by on June 13th, 2013 | 0 Comments »

split_windows

Overview

While multitasking on my computer, I often want to split windows up on my screen.  Ideally I want to either make a window take up the left half, or right half, or I want to split it in one of the quadrants.  An easy way to do that in mate is to use the program wmctrl, write a few simple bash scripts, and configure shortcuts.

Installation

 sudo apt-get install wmctrl

Scripts

Save these scripts somewhere accessible.  For example, my username is slayer, so I can save scripts in a sh directory in my root. 
mkdir /home/slayer/sh





You will need to replace my variables if your screen size is not 1920x1080.
  • Replace 1080 with your full screen size height
  • Replace 960 with half your window width
  • Replace 540 with half your window height


Full Left (full_left.sh)








#!/bin/bash
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,0,960,1080












Full Right (full_right.sh)




#!/bin/bash
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,960,0,960,1080












Top Right (top_right.sh) [Quadrant 1]




#!/bin/bash
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,960,0,960,540












Top Left (top_left.sh) [Quadrant 2]




#!/bin/bash
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,0,960,540












Bottom Left (bottom_left.sh) [Quadrant 3]




#!/bin/bash
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,0,540,960,540












Bottom Right (Quadrant 2)




#!/bin/bash
wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -e 0,960,540,960,540














Configure Shortcuts

1. Go to System >> Preferences >> Keyboard Shortcuts

configure_shortcuts

 

2. Click Add

3. For each window shortcut, name it something, and select the full path (ie /home/slayer/sh/full_left.sh)

4. Click on the newly made shortcut and give it a keybinding.  I prefer to use the Windows key (aka Mod4) with a modifier.

    
	
  • Mod4 + Left = Full Left
    • 
	
  • Mod4 +  Right = Full Right
    • 
	
  • Mod4 +  1 = Quadrant 1 (aka Top Right)
    • 
	
  • Mod4 +  2 = Quadrant 2 (aka Top Left)
    • 
	
  • Mod4 +  3 = Quadrant 3 (aka Bottom Left)
    • 
	
  • Mod4 +  4 = Quadrant 4 (aka Bottom Right)
    • 


Now I can easily position windows using (Mod4) + ( Left | Right | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ), which is exactly the functionality I am looking for.

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About Nick Guthrie

            			            
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