KDE: how do I make applications present on all activities by default

Question

When I'm at work, I use KDE activities and map them to my projects. I always use the same applications on every project, so I'd like to keep my windows visible when I change the activity. For the moment, what I do is go through every window, right click on the title bar, and check the checkbox that makes the window appear on all activities. How can I configure my windows default value for this choice? I'd like every window to appear on all activities by default.

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 08 '14 at 20:40

11

This question may be old, but I think I have found the perfect solution.

Go to System Settings > Window Behaviour > Window Rules
Add a new Rule
Mark all window properties as 'Unimportant'
Select all 'Window' types like in the screenshot
In the tab 'Size & Position', tick 'Activities' and configure it as 'Apply initially' and 'All Activites', like in the screenshot
Click 'Ok'

This should set all windows to be on all activities by default.

answered Jan 08 '14 at 20:40

evertheylen

241
2
9

Looks awesome! I can't wait to test that at work tomorrow! And yes, the question is old, but the problem is still very present. – greg0ire Jan 08 '14 at 21:08
1

Woops, forgot to test until now, but it works like a charm! Many, many thanks! – greg0ire Jan 16 '14 at 14:27
In the mean time, the answer is old as well, but this still works :-) The settings are under System Settings > Window Management > Window Rules now. The (new?) Detect Window Properties button makes things easy, as you can click an existing window and use its settings to create rules. – AstroFloyd Nov 12 '21 at 12:40

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 26 '12 at 18:39

1

It's not elegant, but might help. Idea that comes to my mind is to search for such windows with xwininfo or xdotool search --name WINDOWNAME and then try to "inject" mouse clicks or - this is easier - keystrokes ( example: xdotool search --name WINNAME key ctrl+c. that results in such setting ( "alt+space" usually gets WM window options, later arrows... this should be possible to do by keystrokes injection ).

answered Jan 26 '12 at 18:39

Grzegorz Wierzowiecki

13,865
23
89
137

Not very elegant indeed, but if there is no other solution, I guess I should look into that... – greg0ire Jan 26 '12 at 21:47
That's why I've wrote it. If nothing better will be around, try this shot. – Grzegorz Wierzowiecki Jan 26 '12 at 23:43
I've tried to find out on http://community.kde.org/Main_Page and http://techbase.kde.org/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=activity and http://api.kde.org , but with no success. – Grzegorz Wierzowiecki Jan 27 '12 at 21:01
It seems there is no solution just the workaround you and I proposed... [for the moment](https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=285055) – greg0ire Feb 05 '12 at 14:35
Or solution needs going down to C++ implementation. I tried checking out API, but I haven't seen anything suitable. – Grzegorz Wierzowiecki Feb 06 '12 at 08:24

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 28 '12 at 10:05

I asked the question here : http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=111&t=98797&p=211999#p211999 and it appears not closing the windows when shutting the computer down makes them reappear on startup with the same options, which is a good workaround for this problem.

KDE: how do I make applications present on all activities by default

3 Answers3

Linked