It takes me about 5 tries to resize a window on my computer.
Is there a way to increase the resize margin on the edge of windows?
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As others have mentioned, it depends on the theme. Try a few out. What I frequently do instead is hold down Alt and middle-click (right-click in some environments) and drag to resize, which works anywhere on the window.
Note that many themes that seem to have a 1px border (or no border at all) actually do tend to have a generous invisible border just outside the window. You usually don't have to pinpoint a tiny window border to resize.
Jacob Peddicord
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To modify Ambiance to have a wider margin, open /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/metacity-1/metacity-theme-1.xml and increase the values of the following properties:
<distance name="left_width" value="1"/>
<distance name="right_width" value="1"/>
<distance name="bottom_height" value="1"/>
You may want to back up the original file before modifying, and/or make a duplicate of the entire theme.
Note that you can also resize windows by pressing Alt + Button2.
mgunes
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There is also a default keyboard short-cut in gnome -- Alt-F8 -- that is a 'resize window' function.
belacqua
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The GNOME desktop environment is designed to give priority to usability and simplicity over customizability. Hence, the width of the window border is something that is not easily changeable. In all practical considerations, Jacob's recommendation that you use Alt+middle-click instead of dragging the window borders is likely to be the best solution for most users.
With that said, the size of the window border does vary between Metacity themes. As a first step, you might try picking a different theme from GNOME-Look.org.
If you're really determined to adjust just the window border without changing the rest of the theme, it is possible to modify existing themes. Here's a reference to get you started.
ændrük
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The thickness of the window border is set by the theme you are using.
So to make the window edges bigger try a different theme.
Isaiah
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(This is from my answer to a duplicate question that was closed. )
It depends on the theme used. You could change your theme, or edit the theme if you really wanted to, but an easier and more consistent way is to hold down Alt and drag with the middle mouse button. You can imagine it as slicing the window into a 3x3 grid, and clicking in any rectangle but the center one will allow you to drag the appropriate side or corner.
Note that Alt + MiddleButton is the default configuration. To change it (at least in Compiz):
- Go to System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager if running classic Gnome, or search for CompizConfig Settings Manager in the Dash if running Unity.
- Find the Resize Window plugin; it's under Window Management.
- Open it and go to the Bindings tab if you aren't already there.
The last two settings are called Initiate Window Resize. One of them is the middle click option described above; the other is a similar keyboard binding that allows you to resize with the keyboard arrow keys (as well as the mouse without clicking).
2
Current Solution (2019) for Ubuntu-MATE 16.x, 18.x**
(possibly more, pls add to comments)
Yes, those borders are a pain, bordering on –pun intended– masochism...
1 create copy of a theme
Well, ClearLooks is (for some reason) not really a "full theme" to pick on the Theme tab, but rather a "Border Theme" under „customize..“ on the Window Border Tab:
Well, never mind, let's create a copy (use rsync or cp as you please):
(If you are fond of another "border theme" then duplicate that one accordingly. Look it up under customize theme-> Window Border what you are currently using.)
sudo rsync -vr /usr/share/themes/ClearlooksRe/* /usr/share/themes/ClearlooksReBIGGER
2 change border width in the xml File
sudo pluma /usr/share/themes/ClearlooksReBIGGER/metacity-1/metacity-theme-1.xml
There are actually two places:
- under
<frame_geometry name="normal"... - under
<frame_geometry name="border"...
For left, right and bottom I went for a rather generous 12px:
<distance name="left_width" value="12"/> <!-- FRANK: was: 4 -->
<distance name="right_width" value="12"/>
<distance name="bottom_height" value="12"/>
3 pick the new Window Border theme and there you are
Frank N
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I know this is an old question, but IMO none of the answers really solved this particular question, they just added workarounds.
The actual answer to this is what's described in this GitHub issue's comment, which is to manually edit a setting that isn't exposed in the GUI. (No, the Settings > Windows > Behavior > Window drag/resize threshold (Pixels) entry doesn't fix this, contrary to what 99% of users would think.)
TL;DR The "real" solution to this is:
dconf write /org/cinnamon/muffin/draggable-border-width 20
where 20 represents "20 px". The default is 10 px. Note that cinnamon and/or muffin would be replaced with whichever environment you're using. Should be somewhat easy to decipher which pertains to your system since all the other Settings > Windows fields would be listed inside it (i.e. running dconf list /org/env/windowsSettings/ would show the other Windows settings' fields).
yuyu5
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Alt+MiddleButton is the right way to resize windows; it's right are your hands, and you don't have to move the pointer to the window edges first.
However, I still find that the scroll overlay often gets in my hair. So I went for a different approach and disabled the overlays all together! Scroll still works, of course, and the nice orange scroll indicator is still present. On Ubuntu 13.04, I did it like this:
gsettings set com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode 'overlay-touch'
You can revert it by doing:
gsettings set com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode 'overlay-auto'
Zta
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OK, to maximize the window the keyboard shortcut is ctrl+super+ up(on the keyboard) to minimize it is ctrl+super+down. To resize it is alt+ F8
Revan
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