How can I make windows easier to resize in Xfce?

Question

I'm using Xfce 4.10 with xfwm4 as my window manager. I'm finding it difficult to resize windows by grabbing the border. The region where the mouse cursor changes to the "resize window" cursor seems to be only 1 or 2 pixels wide, and I keep moving right through it.

How can I make that region a bit wider? I don't want to change the appearance of window borders, just make their hit target a bit wider. (I know about the Resize option in the window menu, but that doesn't allow you to resize a window in only 1 dimension.) I've looked in the window manager settings & tweaks, but I don't see any setting that appears to apply.

Answer 1

It's "very easy", you can use Alt + right-click + drag.

Answer 2

Apparently this problem has been around for years, and one bug report has been closed "won't fix". The issue has been reopened with Bug 11808 - Xfwm: Increase the resize border of window.

The width of the grab area is controlled by the theme. Another circumvention is to try different themes until you find one you can live with. One developer has commented:

That is coded in the theme itself AFAIK, at least that's what we found out during MX-15 development. If you are using greybird (or bluebird) and a Debian-based distro, then you can take a look at our mx-greybird-themes package, where we expanded the border to 3 pixels after much tester feedback about how annoying it was to try to grab it. (We are about to update that BTW to include a Stretch version that fixes other appearance problems.)

Here is a blog entry about how themes set up the boarders.

Another post suggests something to change in the theme definition (and actually this file is not part of a definition, but the window manager), ~/.gtkrc-2.0

style "default-style"
{
        GtkWindow::resize-grip-height = 4
        GtkWindow::resize-grip-width = 4
}
class "GtkWidget" style "default-style"

gives me a smaller grip area. Increasing that number should give you a larger grip area. You will need to reload the theme for the setting to take effect.

I personally haven't tried altering the theme definition, but this looks like a good starting point.

---

Edited to add:

Another approach involves installing and configuring Compiz (the base package may already be present in recent distributions). I repeat it as it's part of a bug report and may get deleted as not "relevant" by the bug manager.

 tm.selsingen 2017-02-11 19:40:45 CET 


This may be a rough solution not suited for those needing xfwm4 because 
of limited system resources. But you can change the default window 
manager to compiz. This solved the issue for me and I can now enjoy the 
xcfe simplicity combined with generous grabbing areas. 

https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Compiz/ 

Enter in terminal: 

"sudo apt-get install compiz compiz-gnome compiz-plugins-extra" 

"sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager" 

"ccsm" _______________________ 

In CCSM you need to enable OpenGL, Composite, GNOME Compatibility in 
'General' Tab. Within the 'General Options' menu, you can set the focus 
steal prevention to zero, so that new windows are placed always on top, 
and choose your workplaces 

In 'Effects', enable Fading Windows, Window decorations, and if you like 
Animations 

In 'Other', you can enable Window previews (may need png) 

In Tools enable Compiz Library Toolbox, D-Bus, Mousepolling (gets 
activated if you choose Window previews), Session Management and 
Workarounds 

Now in 'Window Management', you need to choose Application Switcher, 
Move Windows, Place Windows, Scale Windows Put and Window Rules. 

Ring, Static & Shift Switcher are more advanced Application Switchers 
you can configure as you like. 

In the CCSM Settings you need to enable Gsettings Configuration Backend. 

________________________ 

Now Compiz is configured, make a Backup of 
"/home/user/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml" 
and enter 

"xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /sessions/Failsafe/Client0_Command -t 
string -sa compiz" 

in terminal to configure xcfe to use compiz as the default window 
manager. ________________________ 

To spare you from needing GNOME Tweak to set your theme now, you can use 

"gsettings set org.gnome.metacity theme insertyourthemehere" to change 
the window decoration theme 

and the default xcfe theme settings to change the rest of the UI. 

I experienced that my minimize/maximize Buttons were gone after that. 

you can use "gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences 
button-layout ':minimize,maximize,close,'" to restore them. 

And that's it. 

Comment 15 tm.selsingen 2017-02-12 09:11:22 CET 

I don't know how to edit posts, but I realized the desktop icon texts 
get displaced if you follow the steps. This is the fix: 

xfconf-query -c xfce4-desktop -p /desktop-icons/center-text -n -t bool 
-s false 

Answer 3

This is a long lasting issue and I just found a fix for that at least on Xubuntu 21.04: Go to Window Manager and change theme style from "Greybird" to "Default". The problem is not exactly on the XFCE, but in the Xubuntu default theme.

Answer 4

This is what I'm doing: Alt + space to invoke a window's menu then R to run resize then Left Right Top or Bottom Arrow Key to chose direction and finally use touch pad to actually resize a window.

Answer 5

I find it easiest to just map resizing a window to a keyboard shortcut. The option for this is in the Window Manager menu.

Answer 6

Works in Xubuntu 20.04 from a more recent MX Linux forum:

• ZIP file So far these files haven't been uploaded/posted to a repo or public platform, someone who knows more about it than I do could possibly clone/modify a theme which would work in a similar manner? Also Daloa theme seems to do the same thing, however, it doesn't preserve the same elements and looks different. It does, however, provide borders you can grab! From the MXlinux instructions: to use it, download the archive file from the given link, extract the contents to: $HOME/.themes, then apply it from Window Manager. Apply the theme in Settings-window manager- Style tab. select "borders."

• instructions

This is at MXlinux wiki under topic "changing-border-size-with-xfce4-window-manager/" There are also instructions there on how to change a current theme (based on GTK3+) to possibly include the changes, but it was a bit beyond me. A complete theme that seems to work is Daloa. Possibly just use that one and then modify your colors etc. using something like OOmox? Be aware you can also modify appearance in XFCE under the Settings-appearance Style tab but this is for another set of window decorations, the color of the titlebar, etc. if I recall. and under appearance you also change your icons and font, so that's separate from the actual window borders and tab bar, etc. Now I've muddied up the nice neat post I had by editing it to explain it though I don't understand it.

Answer 7

Or, just use Marco (window manager for Mate) You may have to install it using Synaptic or Software. (You may have to install Mate core and/or other dependencies. I actually like some of the Mate applications better, anyway. Just not the whole DE) Then, open terminal and type marco --replace
Marco provides window shading on the edges! It DOES work with Xubuntu, been using it for months now. You might lose "roll up windows" (but should be able to simply double click on titlebar for this if you want it.)

Answer 8

MX Linux now has a Window Manager theme with thick borders.

Goto MX Tweaks > Theme > select 'mx-comfort-thick-border'

'mx-comfort' was the default in my fresh install of MX Linux 21.3 (Wildflower)