Resizing Windows

[rg4w]

How easy is it for you to resize windows in Ubuntu?

Most of the new users I help support note that it's much harder to find the grippable edge of the window for resizing it than on Mac or Windows, and indeed I feel the same.

I understand many here prefer the Alt+Middle Mouse shortcut, but what exactly does "Middle Mouse" mean to a new user with a standard two-button input device?

Moreover, shortcuts are alternatives to direct interaction, not replacements.

Why not just have a larger grippable region at the window's edge?

Your thoughts will be appreciated, helpful in guiding a proposal for the Unity design discussion list if enough others here also feel this is an area ripe for refinement.

[sffvba[e0rt]

Thread moved to The Community Cafe.

Doesn't sound like a Testimonial to me?


404

[Grenage]

I think scrollbars would have to be lightyears ahead on the irritability scale; I have no problem resizing.

[vasa1]

I have problems resizing. And I don't want to install ccsm just to use the "love handles".

Scrollbars can be another thread

[ajgreeny]

I agree that resizing is difficult in Ubuntu 12.04 as a result of the incredibly narrow window borders, and these are no doubt set by the theme. Regrettably theme installation is nowhere as easy now as it was, or if it is, I've missed some obvious? way to do it.

To make things easier, try grabbing the bottom right corner of windows, which I have always found easier than the sides or bottom/top edges. I don't use Ubuntu 12.04 much at the moment, and when I do it is the Classic gnome fallback that I use, not unity, so forgive me if that does not work as it always has done in the past.

[drmrgd]

Not sure if this is helpful to you or not, but I found that if you hold the alt key and the right mouse button, you can resize the active window by dragging the mouse around. This is much, much easier than finding the 2px x 2px area that is designated for window resizing by default.

[vasa1]

Not sure if this is helpful to you or not, but I found that if you hold the alt key and the right mouse button, you can resize the active window by dragging the mouse around. This is much, much easier than finding the 2px x 2px area that is designated for window resizing by default.

True !!!

[epikvision]

Before I realized (just now) that alt+middlemouse was an ingenious way of resizing windows, I normally did this by dragging on the corners of the window. I drag the bottom right corner often when necessity calls.

If I feel lazy, I simply do ctrl+super+left or right, as it takes up half the screen for me.

[Copper Bezel]

I can't respond except as a rant.

Ubuntu solved this problem in 11.04 with the universal resize grip. They then turned the handle from an aesthetic deficit to an asset in 11.10. Then it disappeared in 12.04, back to the old system where only windows that specifically include resize handles have them and everything else depends on dragging vanishingly thin borders to resize.

I liked the thin borders. I still like the thin borders. There's no sense wasting UI space on fat, ugly borders that do nothing but resize windows. The grip offered a reasonable alternative; if you read left-to-right, then you're likely to resize windows that way, too, so a handle on the lower right corner just makes sense.

Of course, there's always the MT handles, and they're fine if you're using Unity and have a trackpad, and don't mind not having middle click, and are comfortable with a completely non-intuitive and ugly method for resizing windows. Peachy.

Personally, I'm using Shell, where the situation is slightly worse (because Gnome apparently hasn't acknowledged that they have a problem yet,) I do use middle click, and I want the damned handles back. The sloppy handling of resizing means that it's impossible to resize a window to the full height of the screen (you can get close, but there's always a gap, maybe 1px, just enough to be irritating. Of course, you can snap left and right, which is a great feature (and I'm ever thankful to Microsoft for coming up with it,) but then you have no control over the width. The saving grace must be that it's damned easy to accidentally grab edges and resize them by accident, which also doesn't happen if all resizing happens from resize grip.

So, effing resize grips. Six months to a year was exactly enough time to make the feature indispensable. Whoever's responsible for the regression really needs to be slapped with a ripe fish.

Edit: Oh, and the gripping area isn't 2px. It's like 5 or something - under Mutter, you can actually set it in dconf. But it extends outward from the window, which is why it's impossible to drag a window edge fully to the edge of the screen.

[drmrgd]

<snip>

Edit: Oh, and the gripping area isn't 2px. It's like 5 or something - under Mutter, you can actually set it in dconf. But it extends outward from the window, which is why it's impossible to drag a window edge fully to the edge of the screen.

</snip>

I was just being sarcastic about 2px (I really had no idea). The fact that it's actually 5px is hillarious! Before I learned the middle-click trick (which appears to be right click in KDE for some reason), I almost needed two hands just to resize windows. Then again, I do drink a lot of coffee