Is it possible to place windows with keyboard shortcuts in Gnome-Shell?

Question

With Compiz in Unity, I could press Ctrl+Alt+6 to place a window on the right-half of the screen, Ctrl+Alt+4 to place it on the left half, Ctrl+Alt+7 to place it in the top left quarter of the screen, and so on. Is there something similar in Gnome-Shell?

Answer 1

Install gconf-editor.

sudo apt-get install gconf-editor

Now, run gconf-editor ( Alt+F2 gconf-editor)

Go to apps/metacity/window_keybindings and edit the move_to_center / move_to_corner entries to your liking. (see screenshot:)

Answer 2

Try the Put Windows GNOME Shell extension, which claims to be a fully customizable replacement for the Compiz Put plugin.

Answer 3

You can use Ctrl + Super + any of the arrow keys.

Answer 4

Ubuntu 18.04+ (with GNOME) supports placing windows using the keyboard out of the box, but the shortcuts are disabled by default.

To set the shortcuts (also known as keybindings), you can use gsettings on the command line or use the dconf-editor app.

For example, to set the keybinding for moving the window to the lower left corner:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-corner-sw "['<Control><Super>j']"

See all the available keybindings:

$ gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings | grep move-to | sort
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-center ['<Control><Super>i']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-corner-nw ['<Control><Super>7']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-corner-ne ['<Control><Super>9']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-corner-sw ['<Control><Super>j']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-corner-se ['<Control><Super>l']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-side-e ['<Control><Super>o']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-side-n ['<Control><Super>8']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-side-s ['<Control><Super>k']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-side-w ['<Control><Super>u']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-monitor-up ['<Super><Shift>Up']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-monitor-down ['<Super><Shift>Down']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-monitor-left ['<Super><Shift>Left']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-monitor-right ['<Super><Shift>Right']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-1 ['<Super><Shift>Home']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-2 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-3 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-4 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-5 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-6 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-7 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-8 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-9 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-10 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-11 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-12 @as []
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-up ['<Super><Shift>Page_Up', '<Control><Shift><Alt>Up']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-down ['<Super><Shift>Page_Down', '<Control><Shift><Alt>Down']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-left ['<Control><Shift><Alt>Left']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-right ['<Control><Shift><Alt>Right']
org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings move-to-workspace-last ['<Super><Shift>End']

Answer 5

In Ubuntu you can still use Compiz Config (or, alternatively, gconf-editor) to set up the keys the same way you do in Unity.

But, unfortunately, it does not work as expected. It does move the window where you asked it to, but then (at least, for some windows) they will jump back to the original position.

For example, in gconf-editor open apps/metacity/window_keybindings and add some shortcut for move_to_side_e, e.g. type in

<Ctrl><Alt>KP_6

Now open Files (Nautilus) and press this key combination. The window will move to the right side. Now double click any folder to enter it: the window will jump back to the position it was...

I am not sure whether it is a bug or the fact that Gnome-Shell does not support Compiz anymore, but hope that the feature will be supported sooner or later. This Compiz plugin and Place Windows (the one that opens new windows such that they occupy open space on the desktop) are, probably, the only, or at least the most important, plugins I still miss from the Gnome 2 and Compiz...