(This is less about the M705 and more about how to configure mouse buttons in Ubuntu 14.04.)
Goal![]() Figure 1: Unity Spread
I typically have a cluttered display with many windows open and therefore many windows hidden behind others. Ubuntu 14.04 has a neat feature called 'Unity Spread' that scales all the windows to fit on the display and lets you click on the window you want to be on top. But, I prefer to access the function with a mouse button rather than the keyboard shortcut, <SUPER>+W.
This seemed like it would be easy and in the end it was. However it took much longer to figure out the process than I expected due to terminology confusion. This exercise shows how I finally got the configuration I wanted.
PreparationThe tool you need,
compizconfig-settings-manager , is probably not installed, but that is easily handled:
Next we need to know how the physical buttons map to button numbers. I used
xev to empirically figure out the map:
ProcedureThe procedure is simple: open the
compizconfig-settings-manager tool and set the mouse binding for Unity Spread to the button of your choice. The complication is that there is no setting, or group of settings, labeled Unity Spread. And if you think the control would be associated with the Ubuntu Plugin, then you would be wrong. Instead the function that you need to find is the Window Picker settings. And they are part of the Scale Plugin!
Once you figure out the right terminology, the setup is actually easy:
I also assigned Button 8 to the Initiate Window Picker for All Windows action. I could not find a difference between the Initiate Window Picker action and the Initiate Window Picker for All Windows action, so it doesn't matter which button I press, my cluttered desktop: turns into this:
as long as I hold the button. Which ever window my pointer is over when I release the button comes to the front of the window pile.
OptionsButton Bindings Toggle Scale Mode If you check this box at the top of the Scale plugin/Bindings tab then clicking the mouse button spreads the windows and then you can click on a window to select it. If it is not checked, then the windows stay spread as long as you hold the button. When you release the button the window that the pointer is located over becomes the selected window.Roller tilt buttons You might prefer to use these buttons, particularly if you already make use of the side buttons actions in your browser (see the Side Effects below).Side EffectsLoss of browser forward/back actionThe side buttons seem to be assigned as Foward/Back actions in both the Firefox and Chrome browsers. Configuring them as described here over-rides their browser functionality. Questions
FeedbackYou can contact me about this exercise by commenting on my Google+ post.
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