Aero snap using keyboard

March 31st , 2014 by Ankur Gupta |

If you’re using Lubuntu 13.10, then chances are that you can snap a window to any of the screen edges (top, bottom, right or left) by pressing Windows+ArrowKey. Or, if you’re on a Mac, then Command+ArrowKey.

But these don’t produce the exact same result as Windows 7 (or greater) does. The Windows+Right and Windows+Left keys align the window to the right or left edge but the window does not occupy the full height of the screen. The Windows+Up and Windows+Down keys only take up half the screen.

These settings are set in the file ~/.config/openbox/lubuntu-rc.xml. This is the relevant snippet of the section:

<!-- Keybindings for window tiling -->
    <keybind key="W-Left">        # HalfLeftScreen
      <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
      <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>0</y><height>97%</height><width>50%</width></action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Right">        # HalfRightScreen
      <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
      <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>-0</x><y>0</y><height>97%</height><width>50%</width></action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Up">        # HalfUpperScreen
      <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
      <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>0</y><width>100%</width><height>50%</height></action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Down">        # HalfLowerScreen
      <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
      <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>-0</y><width>100%</width><height>50%</height></action>
    </keybind>

Edit the file using your favorite text editor.

Change the number between <height>x%</height> to 100%. But, that’s not all. The Windows+Up key will fill the entire screen but still keep the window unmaximized, requiring you to click the maximize button. This annoys me. To change this you can replace "UnmaximizeFull" with "Maximize" in the W-Up section. And, you’re done.

Now, save the file. The corresponding section of the edited file looks like this.

<!-- Keybindings for window tiling -->
    <keybind key="W-Left">        # HalfLeftScreen
      <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
      <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>0</y><height>100%</height><width>50%</width></action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Right">        # HalfRightScreen
      <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
      <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>-0</x><y>0</y><height>100%</height><width>50%</width></action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Up">        # HalfUpperScreen
      <action name="Maximize"/>
      <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>0</y><width>100%</width><height>100%</height></action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Down">        # HalfLowerScreen
      <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
      <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>-0</y><width>100%</width><height>50%</height></action>
    </keybind>

Then, restart openbox by typing this in the terminal

openbox --restart