201–210 of 221 posts
My favorite function key trick is to first move the number keys into a “virtual numpad” and then move the function keys down onto the unused number row. That way the function keys are easy to reach without looking and always available without conflicting with the laptop’s media/utility keys.
I couldn't disagree more. My mental sanity depends on some fixed beliefs. One of those is that every key sequence not involving the Win key is sent to and handled by the application in focus. Including F-keys, which many applications expect, in any case. Ex: F2=edit cell, F9=recalculate in Excel. Global actions handled by the SO or DE must involve Win. Ex: Win+L lock screen. And yes, Redmond-imposed Alt-Tab is an abo…
Eh..? Don't get me wrong - if it works for you or OP, great! Keep doing it. I use Sway and KDE depending on what tickles my fancy. For application launching, I just use Alt+Space and type the first few letters of what I want. My frequent flyers get assigned to Meta+Alt+Letter. - Krunner / Rofi - Alt+Space (Meta+D was a bit contorted for me) - Meta+Enter - Konsole (KDE) / Kitty (Sway) - Meta+Shift+ - move active windo…
He does cover this briefly: "Is it up to an app launcher such as Spotlight or Alfred?" I'd be curious as to why he finds the F keys faster. Perhaps not having to wait for the bar to appear, not having to "context switch" by thinking about the app's name and not having to type anything. He talks about how one key is his music software for example, so by simply remembering F6 it skips having to even know what the app's…
Simply because it's a single key press, even no modifier is needed. So, yeah, it's faster and less thinking.
-- ~/.hammerspoon/init.lua
function define_shortcut(appName, key, mod)
hs.hotkey.bind(mod, key, function()
hs.application.enableSpotlightForNameSearches(true)
local app = hs.application.find(appName)
if app and app:isFrontmost() then
app:hide()
else
hs.application.open(appName)
end
end)
end
define_shortcut("Alacritty", "F1", {})
define_shortcut("Firefox", "F2", {})You know, the CTRL-Fn combinations are usually mapped to virtual workspaces on Linux, what is much more powerful than applications and give you the same kind of speedup. Who organizes things around application anyway, instead of windows? Anyway, no, it's bad to remap the Fn keys. They have been used to fast intra-application navigation since they appeared, and they are still in wide use. (Does the author not use appl…
> Who organizes things around application anyway, instead of windows? macOS. There's no Alt+Tab, for example: no way to switch between two arbitrary windows on the Z-stack¹. The not-equivalent that exists is ⌘+Tab, and it switches apps ; the usability of it, vs. Alt+Tab, is horrendous. (It fronts stuff you don't want, covering up stuff you do want.) There are workspaces … but I have found them hard to get productive…
You can rebind it in settings, though at that point you may as well get the bonus features of 3rd party implementations.
I really want my keyboard brightness key back. The M-series MacBooks have Siri and … something else I don’t use instead of keyboard brightness.
You'll still be able to do that with Fn+F1/F2.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He does cover this briefly: "Is it up to an app launcher such as Spotlight or Alfred?" I'd be curious as to why he finds the F keys faster. Perhaps not having to wait for the bar to appear, not having to "context switch" by thinking about the app's name and not having to type anything. He talks about how one key is his music software for example, so by simply remembering F6 it skips having to even know what the app's…
> I'd be curious as to why he finds the F keys faster. Simply because it's a single key press, even no modifier is needed. So, yeah, it's faster and less thinking.
No, you're using the computer wrong. See, you should use a tiling window manager with several workspaces and shortcuts without having to look at your keyboard, e.g. Meta+4 to go to workspace 4 where you have your chat apps.
I've tried tiling WMs several times and they inevitably drive me nuts because on normal computer screen sizes, windows frequently end up awkwardly-sized adding scrolling requirements that wouldn't be present with overlapping windows that are sized to fit the content… If I were to commit to a tiling WM I think I'd have to replace my main monitor with a 4k TV large enough to run at 1x UI scale without the UI elements b…
The tiling part is just there to making your windows manageable without the mouse and in a predictable way. Out of my 5 preassigned workspaces, 3 are fullscreen windows, 1 is split in 2, and 1 is split in 3 usually.
When I want a new program running big, then I either 1) close and make space in some workspace I'm not using right now, 2) send it to one of the empty "non-preassigned" spaces, or 3) change the current space layout into "all windows fullscreen" temporarily (with the new window on front, obviously).
~/.config/i3/config: # emacsclient set $em_daemon ~/.local/bin/em # make a quick launcher for specific things I do all the time bindsym $mod+o mode "spotlight" mode "spotlight" { ## specific files in a new emacs buffer # dired in home bindsym d exec $em_daemon ~/; mode "default" # ibuffer bindsym e exec $em_daemon --eval "(ibuffer)"; mode "default" # # guaranteed new scratch buffer bindsym s exec $em_daemon --eval '(…
I like the mode idea, wonder if I can get an equivalent in KDE.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I like the mode idea, wonder if I can get an equivalent in KDE.
Maybe checkout https://vickychijwani.me/blazing-fast-application-switching-... . Personally I use jumpapp which does more or less the same thing. https://github.com/mkropat/jumpapp .