How to have more Workspaces created/removed Automatically?

Question

Is there a way to have the number of workspaces automatically increase and decrease intelligently?

For example: I set a minimum of 2 workspaces, but if I have windows on those workspaces, a 3rd workspace is automatically created. If I close out the windows on workspace 2, then workspace 3 is removed.

i guess this is your "solution": http://askubuntu.com/questions/87332/is-it-possible-to-make-workspaces-in-unity-act-like-they-do-in-gnome-shell — Stefan, Oct 24 '12 at 16:41
possible duplicate of How can I reduce or increase the number of workspaces in Unity? — stephenmyall, Oct 24 '12 at 16:47
@StephenMyall He wants something that works automatically, without having to change unity settings by hand. — Evandro Silva, Oct 24 '12 at 17:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

I am guessing you are using Unity. This idea is a feature in the Gnome-3 desktop environment see the right column on the image below - workspaces are added and removed as necessary. In this case there are two, but if the user puts something in the second workspace, a third one is created.). enter image description here .

To install the gnome-shell, use these commands here:

How do I install and use the latest version of GNOME?

Then, log-out and before you log back in, change your desktop by clicking on the Ubuntu icon near your login name. Here are more detailed instructions.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 05 '13 at 18:00

If you don't mind puzzling pieces together yourself, you can use wmctrland a bit of bash scripting.

count current workspaces: wmctrl -d | wc -l
change number of workspaces: wmctrl -n 4
check which workspaces currently have windows: wmctrl -l
move a window to another workspace: wmctrl -ir 0x0120017b -t 3

Tested on xfce and unity. On unity, however, wmctrl seems to be unable to move xmessage windows.

How to have more Workspaces created/removed Automatically?

2 Answers2

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