Using Virtual Desktops

An Invitation to KDE
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# 4.3. Using Virtual Desktops

Now, what was that "sticky" thing?

It may happen that you have more windows open than space on your desktop. In this case you have three possibilities:

1. Leave all windows open (cluttered desktop)

2. Iconify those windows which you do not need at present and use the taskbar or Alt-Tab to switch between them (still a bit confusing and much work!)

3. Recommended: Do what a real operating system does if there is not enough physical memory: Use virtual memory, in this case virtual desktops.

Item 3 is the way to go! KDE can handle several different desktops, each with its own windows. The default configuration provides four desktops. You can switch between the virtual desktops easily with a click on one of the desktop buttons on the panel. Also Ctrl-F1...F8 will send you to the corresponding desktop immediately, or Ctrl-Tab will cycle through the desktops. Finally, if you move the mouse to a corner of the screen and hold it there briefly, KDE will switch to the desktop in the direction you indicated.

Virtual desktops are very nice. But sometimes you want a window to be present on every desktop. This could be for example a small chat window or a alarm clock or whatever. In this case you can use the above mentioned "sticky"-button which will pin the window on the background so that it will appear on every virtual desktop.

The sticky button can also be used to move a window from one virtual desktop to another one: push the sticky pin on the window, switch to a different desktop, and release the pin by pushing it again. It is easier if you use the context popup menu of the window's entry in the taskbar (menu item "Onto current desktop") or the "Send to" option on the window operations menu.

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