Use only `Alt+Tab` (without pressing Enter), like in kde

[pablospe]

It would be nice to use only Alt+Tab (without pressing Enter) to change the focus.

The proposed method would change the focus when Alt is not longer pressed. Once the menu is displayed, Alt+Tab can be used to go to the item in the menu (observe that actually only Tab is pressed again since Alt is continuously pressed). And Alt+Shift+Tab for the previous item. In order to cancel, ESC can be used (while pressing Alt). This is the default behavior in kde, for example.

I believe it is faster and uses less hand movements.

[DaveDavenport]

Patch is welcome.

[adeleda]

+1 for this feature :)
super job dave !

[sanderboom]

An option to always select the MRU (most recently used) window would already be a big step 👍

[vyp]

@sanderboom Probably better left to the wm in my opinion.

[roomcays]

@sanderboom isn't MRU already implemented in window modi? It works for me at least.

[sanderboom]

@roomcays for me the current active window is selected by default. If I want 'alt-tab-like' behavior, I have to press keydown, enter.

I did a quick test with -a 1, but this didn't seem to work as expected. Are you using this or an other switch?

[sanderboom]

@vyp The scenario I'd like to use rofi for is a 'cross workspace alt-tab'. Could probably be done using wm as well, although I think it would be a nice and non-intrusive addition to rofi.

[roomcays]

I see now what you're trying to achieve. Got the same behaviour.
As a workaround you can try to emulate rofi, keydown, enter with xdotool and xbindkeys (or alternatives).
It would be in line with UNIX philosophy (one tool to do one thing).

[sanderboom]

@roomcays thanks for the suggestion. In this case I'd need to use a second shortcut for this as I still want to be able to use rofi in different ways. That's why an option to preselect not the current but logical MRU item would be nice :) I'll experiment some more.

[vyp]

@sanderboom Well yes, a non-cross workspace alt tab would be pretty limiting. Which window manager/de are you using? Been a long time since I've used a de, but most de's usually have some sort of alt-tab behaviour built in.

Otherwise, even if you're using a non-ewmh wm, this should be pretty easy to achieve with wmutils. But I haven't tried it myself so I'm not sure.

[sardemff7]

Now that we have on-release bindings (in master), it should be possible.

I think I managed to work around the X11 limitation about already-down modifiers.

To achieve that: rofi -kb-accept-entry '!Alt-Tab' -kb-row-down Alt-Tab.
Does it work for you?

[CyberShadow]

Does it work for you?

Two nits:

• Tab must be pressed at least one more time after rofi opens
• There seems to be a half-second delay between releasing Alt and rofi closing.

[DaveDavenport]

Just tested this:

• only need to hit tab once more when you are not selecting next entries. (so you want to select the first one) Works fine when tab pressed atleast once.
• 1/2 s delay I can reproduce.