Default an app or window title to be visible on all workspaces

[igorsantos07]

This is a reduction of #1052: simply allow us to configure specific windows (such as music players, chatting) to, by default, be visible on all workspaces.

Wouldn't require that amount of work trying to figure out if said workspace is available on which monitor, etc, and could be a good start for such an important feature for advanced users.

Semi-related topics:

• workspace restore upon restart (and/or hibernation?): https://github.com/orgs/linuxmint/discussions/49

[cplittlfield]

Right-clicking on the icon in the panel shows "Visible on all workspaces" as an option, and right-clicking on the window's title bar has the option "Always on visible workspace." Would either of those existing options work for you?

[igorsantos07]

The problem is, precisely, that I have to do that over and over again every time I restart, with the same apps I usually do that 🤷🏻‍♂️

That's what I meant with "configure specific apps by default to be visible on all workspaces".

[cplittlfield]

Sorry! It never occurred to me that there might be a use case involving so many apps that this is a problem. When I use separate workspaces for projects, I almost never want the same app window to be visible on all workspaces. For my use case, that would defeat the point of using a different workspace. "Chaque chat, son rat," as they say in French.

I've been looking around for options for you, but to no avail, probably because of my own ignorance. There have to be startup settings for each app somewhere. Wmctrl has no facility such as you need. I'm wondering if dconf might be a solution, but I am unfamiliar with dconf-editor, and have had no luck so far. But I can't shake the feeling that there ought to be a parameter you could enter in the Exec= line of the relevant desktop files. If there isn't, I agree with you that there should be.

[igorsantos07]

I use workspaces to split concerns - work on the first, pet projects on another, Home Assistant troubles on another, home errands on the last... But all of them should have access to my email, chats and music apps, for instance :)

I've been using wmctrl right now for some keyboard shortcuts to open specific windows, but it has a little side-effect of always moving me to the original workspace of a window - even if it's tagged as "show everywhere". Go wonder, but I that's a topic for another issue 😂

As a reference, I know this feature from the old Compiz - it was possible to indicate which apps should have specific states by default, like opening minimized, shaded, always on top, on all workspaces, etc.

[cplittlfield]

That makes sense.

I''ve heard of Compiz but have no experience with it. I guess I'll have to install it and try it out.

[igorsantos07]

Maybe not, I think it's falling out of fashion hahah
I used it because it was the compositing layer (or something like that) that allowed great flexibility in Gnome 2 / Mate, but IIRC it's unsupported in Gnome 3, Cinnamon, KDE, etc.

But it's possibly useful as reference on other methods of configuring and organizing desktops and windows.

[Jopp-gh]

1. Add Mint's grouped-window-list applet
2. launch your app,
3. right click on your app and pin it (note the pin icon)

Works for all workspaces.

[igorsantos07]

Hmm.... Are we talking about the same thing?
I never mentioned the panels... I'm talking about the actual window. The pin option from that applet simply makes the application fixed in the panel.

What I mentioned is the possibility to have, for instance, Spotify with "visible in all workspaces" by default. Not only in the panel.

[cplittlfield]

There are two places I know of where a window can be set to be displayed on all workspaces. The first is in the application menu, which is accessed with Alt + Space or by right-clicking the window's title bar. The other option is to right-click on the panel icon, and select from that menu. So you have your choices of a window menu and a panel menu.

The Grouped Window List applet also has an option that either displays the icons of all open windows, or limits the icons to just those for the windows open in the active workspace. That's different from what I was talking about. It affects only the icons in the panel, not open windows.

And just to add to the confusion, Alt + Tab allows us to toggle through all the windows open in the current workspace, whereas Alt + Ctrl + Tab allows toggling through all open windows, regardless of workspace.

To this former Windows user, this is a bewildering variety of choices.

[ramioimar]

Adding my voice to this request. Having to manually enable 'Visible on all workspaces' every time is tedious for applications that naturally work across workspace boundaries.
Consider these common use cases:

• Music players: The audio doesn't stop when switching workspaces, so why should the interface disappear?
• Note-taking apps: Often used to jot down thoughts while working on different projects across workspaces
• Password managers: Essential security tools that shouldn't be confined to a single workspace
• To-do organizers: Task management often spans multiple project contexts
• Calendar applications: Scheduling and time management are workspace-agnostic activities
• VPN clients: Network security tools that need to remain accessible regardless of current workspace
• Timer/Pomodoro apps: Time tracking continues across all workspaces, the UI should too

The fundamental issue is that the current design assumes all applications should be workspace-bound by default, which doesn't reflect real-world usage patterns. Different users partition their workspaces for different reasons (project separation, context switching, work/life balance, etc.), and the system should respect this diversity by giving users the option to decide whether an app should be visible on all workspaces by default or not.
Currently, there's no way to configure this behavior - not through window manager settings, not through any configuration file. This forces users into repetitive manual actions for what should be a set-once preference. Even having the option to edit a config file somewhere would be a big improvement over the current situation.

This seems like a relatively straightforward enhancement that would significantly improve the user experience for those of us who work with multiple workspaces regularly.

[Axel-Erfurt]

An example for starting celluloid and having it visible on all workspaces

celluloid & sleep 3;wmctrl -r 'Celluloid' -b add,sticky

[ramioimar]

Thank you, you have made my life better 🙏
I did not know about this solution.

[klangman]

I think a Cinnamon Extension would be a good way to implement this feature. I'll give it a shot.

[ramioimar]

Thanks for taking this on! Looking forward to trying it out when you're ready!

[klangman]

I created a Cinnamon Extension that remembers which applications have had the "Always on Top" or the "Always on Visible Workspace" setting applied, and when new windows of those application(s) are opened the settings are restored. If the user then changes any application window to remove the settings, then new windows for that application will not not have the settings applied from that point forward, until, of course, the user enables the settings once again.

Currently it's only on my Github. I'll push to Cinnamon Spices once more testing is done.

https://github.com/klangman/NewWindowSettings

I think this will satisfy your needs, but I can add options to allow users to setup select application to have hard-coded setting for new windows. I was also thinking of allowing the extension to force new windows to be maximized, minimized, resized, re-positioned and tiled. But this will only happen if there is some demand for such things.

Let me know if this extension does what your guys were hoping for.

[ramioimar]

Wow! I didn't expect the extension to appear so quickly.
I checked and it works for me too. It looks like we can forget about the problems I described!

[klangman]

Wow! I didn't expect the extension to appear so quickly. I checked and it works for me too. It looks like we can forget about the problems I described!

Thanks for testing it. I guess there has been enough testing now so I will prep for pushing to Cinnamon Spices.

[Axel-Erfurt]

It works.

[klangman]

It works.

Thanks for testing it out.

[klangman]

The extension is now up on Cinnamon Spices Extensions.

https://cinnamon-spices.linuxmint.com/extensions/view/108

For those that installed my Github version, if you want to switch to the "stable" version you can do this:

1. Disable the extension.
2. Delete the link to the extension from the ~/.local/share/cinnamon/extensions/ directory.
3. Reboot (or just restart Cinnamon)
4. Use the "Extension" tool under System Settings to install the "Stable" version of "New Window Settings"