# Fullscreen -bindsym mod+f f +bindsym mod+f fullscreen # Restart bindsym mod+Shift+r restart @@ -436,7 +437,8 @@ you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag it to the position you want.
To display a window in fullscreen mode or to go out of fullscreen mode again, press mod+f.
There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will span all -available outputs.
You can enable floating mode for a window by pressing mod+Shift+Space. By +
You can toggle floating mode for a window by pressing mod+Shift+Space. By dragging the windowâs titlebar with your mouse you can move the window around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You can also do that by using the [floating_modifier].
i3 stores all information about the X11 outputs, workspaces and layout of the windows on them in a tree. The root node is the X11 root window, followed by the X11 outputs, then dock areas and a content container, then workspaces and -finally the windows themselve. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists +finally the windows themselves. In previous versions of i3 we had multiple lists (of outputs, workspaces) and a table for each workspace. That approach turned out to be complicated to use (snapping), understand and implement.
# Fullscreen -bindsym mod+f f +bindsym mod+f fullscreen # Restart bindsym mod+Shift+r restart @@ -436,7 +437,8 @@ you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag it to the position you want.
When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If -you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional.
Syntax:
The maximum and minimum dimensions of floating windows can be specified. If +either dimension of floating_maximum_size is specified as -1, that dimension +will be unconstrained with respect to its maximum value. If either dimension of +floating_maximum_size is undefined, or specified as 0, i3 will use a default +value to constrain the maximum size. floating_minimum_size is treated in a +manner analogous to floating_maximum_size.
Syntax:
floating_minimum_size <width> x <height> +floating_maximum_size <width> x <height>+
Example:
floating_minimum_size 75 x 50 +floating_maximum_size -1 x -1+
New workspaces get a reasonable default orientation: Wide-screen monitors (anything wider than high) get horizontal orientation, rotated monitors (anything higher than wide) get vertical orientation.
This option determines in which mode new containers on workspace level will start.
Syntax:
This option determines which border style new windows will have.
Syntax:
new_window <normal|1pixel|borderless>+
new_window <normal|1pixel|none>
Example:
With the for_window command, you can let i3 execute any command when it encounters a specific window. This can be used to set windows to floating or to change their border style, for example.
Syntax:
for_window [criteria] command+
for_window <criteria> command
Examples:
The valid criteria are the same as those for commands, see [command_criteria].
As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later, @@ -544,38 +568,58 @@ configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your ~/.xsession file).
Specific windows can be matched by window class and/or window title. It is -recommended that you match on window classes instead of window titles whenever -possible because some applications first create their window, and then worry -about setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The -window starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does -the title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the +
To automatically make a specific window show up on a specific workspace, you +can use an assignment. You can match windows by using any criteria, +see [command_criteria]. It is recommended that you match on window classes +(and instances, when appropriate) instead of window titles whenever possible +because some applications first create their window, and then worry about +setting the correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window +starts up being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the +title change. As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the window (mapping means actually displaying it on the screen), youâd need to have to match on Firefox in this case.
You can prefix or suffix workspaces with a ~ to specify that matching clients -should be put into floating mode. If you specify only a ~, the client will -not be put onto any workspace, but will be set floating on the current one.
Syntax:
assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [â] [workspace]+
assign <criteria> [â] workspace
Examples:
assign urxvt 2 -assign urxvt â 2 -assign urxvt â work -assign "urxvt" â 2 -assign "urxvt/VIM" â 3 -assign "gecko" â 4+
# Assign URxvt terminals to workspace 2 +assign [class="URxvt"] 2 + +# Same thing, but more precise (exact match instead of substring) +assign [class="^URxvt$"] 2 + +# Same thing, but with a beautiful arrow :) +assign [class="^URxvt$"] â 2 + +# Assignment to a named workspace +assign [class="^URxvt$"] â work + +# Start urxvt -name irssi +assign [class="^URxvt$" instance="^irssi$"] â 3
Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not -> or something like that.
To get the class and instance, you can use xprop. After clicking on the +window, you will see the following output:
xprop:
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "irssi", "URxvt"+
The first part of the WM_CLASS is the instance ("irssi" in this example), the +second part is the class ("URxvt" in this example).
Should you have any problems with assignments, make sure to check the i3 +logfile first (see http://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html). It includes more +details about the matching process and the windowâs actual class, instance and +title when starting up.
By using the exec keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure which commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup. exec commands will not run when restarting i3, if you need a command to run @@ -584,18 +628,22 @@ keyword. These commands will be run in order.
Syntax:
exec command -exec_always command+
exec [--no-startup-id] command +exec_always [--no-startup-id] command
Examples:
exec i3status | i3bar -d -exec_always ~/my_script.sh+
exec chromium +exec_always ~/my_script.sh + +# Execute the terminal emulator urxvt, which is not yet startup-notification aware. +exec --no-startup-id urxvt
The flag --no-startup-id is explained in [exec].
If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens @@ -604,25 +652,27 @@ the second screen and so on).
Syntax:
workspace <number> output <output>+
workspace <workspace> output <output>
The output is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the available outputs by running xrandr --current.
If you use named workspaces, they must be quoted:
Examples:
workspace 1 output LVDS1 -workspace 5 output VGA1+workspace 5 output VGA1 +workspace "2: vim" output VGA1
You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations.
Syntax:
colorclass border background text+
colorclass border background text indicator
Where colorclass can be one of:
Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
Examples (default colors):
# class border backgr. text -client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff -client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff -client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 -client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff+
# class border backgr. text indicator +client.focused #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff #2e9ef4 +client.focused_inactive #333333 #5f676a #ffffff #484e50 +client.unfocused #333333 #222222 #888888 #292d2e +client.urgent #2f343a #900000 #ffffff #900000
Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of the window.
The indicator color is used for indicating where a new window will be opened. +For horizontal split containers, the right border will be painted in indicator +color, for vertical split containers, the bottom border. This only applies to +single windows within a split container, which are otherwise indistinguishable +from single windows outside of a split container.
i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
The IPC socket is enabled by default and will be created in -/tmp/i3-%u/ipc-socket.%p where %u is your UNIX username and %p is the PID -of i3.
You can override the default path through the environment-variable I3SOCK or by specifying the ipc-socket directive. This is discouraged, though, since i3 -does the right thing by default.
Examples:
ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock+
ipc-socket ~/.i3/i3-ipc.sock
You can then use the i3-msg application to perform any command listed in the next section.
If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want to disable focus follows mouse and control focus only by using your keyboard. @@ -725,7 +783,7 @@ to click on links in your browser window).
When you are in fullscreen mode, some applications still open popup windows (take Xpdf for example). This is because these applications may not be aware that they are in fullscreen mode (they do not check the corresponding hint). @@ -756,7 +814,7 @@ Leave fullscreen mode. This is the default.
When being in a tabbed or stacked container, the first container will be focused when you use focus down on the last container — the focus wraps. If however there is another stacked/tabbed container in that direction, focus will @@ -777,10 +835,368 @@ will always wrap.
force_focus_wrapping yes
As explained in-depth in http://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html, some X11 +video drivers (especially the nVidia binary driver) only provide support for +Xinerama instead of RandR. In such a situation, i3 must be told to use the +inferior Xinerama API explicitly and therefore donât provide support for +reconfiguring your screens on the fly (they are read only once on startup and +thatâs it).
For people who do cannot modify their ~/.xsession to add the +--force-xinerama commandline parameter, a configuration option is provided:
Syntax:
force_xinerama <yes|no>+
Example:
force_xinerama yes+
Also note that your output names are not descriptive (like HDMI1) when using +Xinerama, instead they are counted up, starting at 0: xinerama-0, xinerama-1, â¦
This configuration directive enables automatic workspace back_and_forth (see +[back_and_forth]) when switching to the workspace that is currently focused.
For instance: Assume you are on workspace "1: www" and switch to "2: IM" using +mod+2 because somebody sent you a message. You donât need to remember where you +came from now, you can just press mod+2 again to switch back to "1: www".
Syntax:
workspace_auto_back_and_forth <yes|no>+
Example:
workspace_auto_back_and_forth yes+
The bar at the bottom of your monitor is drawn by a separate process called +i3bar. Having this part of "the i3 user interface" in a separate process has +several advantages:
+It is a modular approach. If you donât need a workspace bar at all, or if + you prefer a different one (dzen2, xmobar, maybe even gnome-panel?), you can + just remove the i3bar configuration and start your favorite bar instead. +
++It follows the UNIX philosophy of "Make each program do one thing well". + While i3 manages your windows well, i3bar is good at displaying a bar on + each monitor (unless you configure it otherwise). +
++It leads to two separate, clean codebases. If you want to understand i3, you + donât need to bother with the details of i3bar and vice versa. +
+That said, i3bar is configured in the same configuration file as i3. This is +because it is tightly coupled with i3 (in contrary to i3lock or i3status which +are useful for people using other window managers). Therefore, it makes no +sense to use a different configuration place when we already have a good +configuration infrastructure in place.
Configuring your workspace bar starts with opening a bar block. You can have +multiple bar blocks to use different settings for different outputs (monitors):
Example:
bar {
+ status_command i3status
+}
+By default i3 will just pass i3bar and let your shell handle the execution, +searching your $PATH for a correct version. +If you have a different i3bar somewhere or the binary is not in your $PATH you can +tell i3 what to execute.
The specified command will be passed to sh -c, so you can use globbing and +have to have correct quoting etc.
Syntax:
i3bar_command command+
Example:
bar {
+ i3bar_command /home/user/bin/i3bar
+}
+i3bar can run a program and display every line of its stdout output on the +right hand side of the bar. This is useful to display system information like +your current IP address, battery status or date/time.
The specified command will be passed to sh -c, so you can use globbing and +have to have correct quoting etc.
Syntax:
status_command command+
Example:
bar {
+ status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status.conf
+}
+You can have i3bar either be visible permanently at one edge of the screen +(dock mode) or make it show up when you press your modifier key (hide +mode). The modifier key can be configured using the modifier option.
The hide mode maximizes screen space that can be used for actual windows. Also, +i3bar sends the SIGSTOP and SIGCONT signals to the statusline process to +save battery power.
The default is dock mode; in hide mode, the default modifier is Mod4 (usually +the windows key).
Syntax:
mode <dock|hide> +modifier <Modifier>+
Example:
bar {
+ mode hide
+ modifier Mod1
+}
+Available modifiers are Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control (see xmodmap(1)).
This option determines in which edge of the screen i3bar should show up.
The default is bottom.
Syntax:
position <top|bottom>+
Example:
bar {
+ position top
+}
+You can restrict i3bar to one or more outputs (monitors). The default is to +handle all outputs. Restricting the outputs is useful for using different +options for different outputs by using multiple bar blocks.
To make a particular i3bar instance handle multiple outputs, specify the output +directive multiple times.
Syntax:
output <output>+
Example:
# big monitor: everything
+bar {
+ # The display is connected either via HDMI or via DisplayPort
+ output HDMI2
+ output DP2
+ status_command i3status
+}
+
+# laptop monitor: bright colors and i3status with less modules.
+bar {
+ output LVDS1
+ status_command i3status --config ~/.i3status-small.conf
+ colors {
+ background #000000
+ statusline #ffffff
+ }
+}
+i3bar by default provides a system tray area where programs such as +NetworkManager, VLC, Pidgin, etc. can place little icons.
You can configure on which output (monitor) the icons should be displayed or +you can turn off the functionality entirely.
Syntax:
tray_output <none|primary|output>+
Example:
# disable system tray
+bar {
+ tray_output none
+}
+
+# show tray icons on the primary monitor
+tray_output primary
+
+# show tray icons on the big monitor
+bar {
+ tray_output HDMI2
+}
+Note that you might not have a primary output configured yet. To do so, run:
xrandr --output <output> --primary+
Specifies the font (again, X core font, not Xft, just like in i3) to be used in +the bar.
Syntax:
font <font>+
Example:
bar {
+ font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
+}
+Specifies whether workspace buttons should be shown or not. This is useful if +you want to display a statusline-only bar containing additional information.
The default is to show workspace buttons.
Syntax:
workspace_buttons <yes|no>+
Example:
bar {
+ workspace_buttons no
+}
+As with i3, colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb). The following colors can +be configured at the moment:
+ Background color of the bar. +
++ Text color to be used for the statusline. +
++ Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace + has focus. +
++ Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace + is active (visible) on some output, but the focus is on another one. + You can only tell this apart from the focused workspace when you are + using multiple monitors. +
++ Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace + does not have focus and is not active (visible) on any output. This + will be the case for most workspaces. +
++ Border, background and text color for a workspace button when the workspace + window with the urgency hint set. +
+Syntax:
colors {
+ background <color>
+ statusline <color>
+
+ colorclass <border> <background> <text>
+}
+Example (default colors):
bar {
+ colors {
+ background #000000
+ statusline #ffffff
+
+ focused_workspace #4c7899 #285577 #ffffff
+ active_workspace #333333 #5f676a #ffffff
+ inactive_workspace #333333 #222222 #888888
+ urgent_workspace #2f343a #900000 #ffffff
+ }
+}
+Commands are what you bind to specific keypresses. You can also issue commands at runtime without pressing a key by using the IPC interface. An easy way to @@ -797,16 +1213,19 @@ the following keybinding:
Example:
bindsym mod+x move workspace 3; workspace 3+
bindsym mod+x move container to workspace 3; workspace 3
Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers +
Furthermore, you can change the scope of a command, that is, which containers should be affected by that command, by using various criteria. These are prefixed in square brackets to every command. If you want to kill all windows which have the class Firefox, use:
Example:
bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill+
bindsym mod+x [class="Firefox"] kill + +# same thing, but case-insensitive +bindsym mod+x [class="(?i)firefox"] kill
The criteria which are currently implemented are:
+ Compares the window role (WM_WINDOW_ROLE). +
++ Compares the urgent state of the window. Can be "latest" or "oldest". + Matches the latest or oldest urgent window, respectively. + (The following aliases are also available: newest, last, recent, first) +
+@@ -860,10 +1297,39 @@ con_id
Note that currently all criteria are compared case-insensitive and do not -support regular expressions. This is planned to change in the future.
The criteria class, instance, role, title and mark are actually +regular expressions (PCRE). See pcresyntax(3) or perldoc perlre for +information on how to use them.
What good is a window manager if you canât actually start any applications? +The exec command starts an application by passing the command you specify to a +shell. This implies that you can use globbing (wildcards) and programs will be +searched in your $PATH.
Syntax:
exec [--no-startup-id] command+
Example:
# Start the GIMP +bindsym mod+g exec gimp + +# Start the terminal emulator urxvt which is not yet startup-notification-aware +bindsym mod+Return exec --no-startup-id urxvt+
The --no-startup-id parameter disables startup-notification support for this +particular exec command. With startup-notification, i3 can make sure that a +window appears on the workspace on which you used the exec command. Also, it +will change the X11 cursor to watch (a clock) while the application is +launching. So, if an application is not startup-notification aware (most GTK +and Qt using applications seem to be, though), you will end up with a watch +cursor for 60 seconds.
The split command makes the current window a split container. Split containers can contain multiple windows. Every split container has an orientation, it is either split horizontally (a new window gets placed to the right of the current @@ -884,7 +1350,7 @@ bindsym mod+h split horizontal
Use layout default, layout stacking or layout tabbed to change the current container layout to default, stacking or tabbed layout, respectively.
To make the current window (!) fullscreen, use fullscreen, to make @@ -905,8 +1371,9 @@ bindsym mod+t floating toggle
To change the focus, use the focus command: focus left, focus right, focus down and focus up.
To change the focus, use the focus command: focus left, focus right, focus +down and focus up.
There are a few special parameters you can use for the focus command:
+ Followed by a direction or an output name, this will focus the + corresponding output. +
+For moving, use move left, move right, move down and move up.
Syntax:
focus <left|right|down|up> +focus <parent|child|floating|tiling|mode_toggle> +focus output <<left|right|down|up>|output> +move <left|right|down|up> [<px> px] +move [absolute] position [[<px> px] [<px> px]|center]+
Note that the amount of pixels you can specify for the move command is only +relevant for floating containers. The default amount is 10 pixels.
Examples:
# Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right: +# Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right: bindsym mod+j focus left bindsym mod+k focus down bindsym mod+l focus up @@ -967,22 +1454,49 @@ bindsym mod+u focus parent # Focus last floating/tiling container bindsym mod+g focus mode_toggle -# Move client to the left, bottom, top, right: +# Focus the output right to the current one +bindsym mod+x focus output right + +# Focus the big output +bindsym mod+x focus output HDMI-2 + +# Move container to the left, bottom, top, right: bindsym mod+j move left bindsym mod+k move down bindsym mod+l move up -bindsym mod+semicolon move right+bindsym mod+semicolon move right + +# Move container, but make floating containers +# move more than the default +bindsym mod+j move left 20 px + +# Move floating container to the center +# of all outputs +bindsym mod+c move absolute position center
To change to a specific workspace, use the workspace command, followed by the number or name of the workspace. To move containers to specific workspaces, use -move workspace.
You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands workspace next and workspace prev, which is handy, for example, if you have workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and you want to cycle through them with a single key -combination.
To switch back to the previously focused workspace, use workspace +back_and_forth.
To move a container to another xrandr output such as LVDS1 or VGA1, you can +use the move container to output command followed by the name of the target +output. You may also use left, right, up, down instead of the xrandr +output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
To move a whole workspace to another xrandr output such as LVDS1 or VGA1, +you can use the move workspace to output command followed by the name of the +target output. You may also use left, right, up, down instead of the +xrandr output name to move to the next output in the specified direction.
Examples:
Workspaces are identified by their name. So, instead of using numbers in the workspace command, you can use an arbitrary name:
Example:
Note that the workspace will really be named "1: mail". i3 treats workspace names beginning with a number in a slightly special way. Normally, named workspaces are ordered the way they appeared. When they start with a number, i3 -will order them numerically.
You can rename workspaces. This might be useful to start with the default +numbered workspaces, do your work, and rename the workspaces afterwards to +reflect whatâs actually on them.
Syntax:
rename workspace <old_name> to <new_name>+
Examples:
i3-msg 'rename workspace 5 to 6' +i3-msg 'rename workspace 1 to "1: www"' +i3-msg 'rename workspace "1: www" to "10: www"'+
If you want to resize containers/windows using your keyboard, you can use the resize command:
Syntax:
resize <grow|shrink> <direction> [<px> px] [or <ppt> ppt]
Direction can be one of up, down, left or right. The optional pixel -argument specifies by how many pixels a floating container should be grown or -shrinked (the default is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points -and specifies by how many percentage points a tiling container should be -grown or shrinked (the default is 10 percentage points).
Direction can either be one of up, down, left or right. Or you can be +less specific and use width or height, in which case i3 will take/give +space from all the other containers. The optional pixel argument specifies by +how many pixels a floating container should be grown or shrunk (the default +is 10 pixels). The ppt argument means percentage points and specifies by how +many percentage points a tiling container should be grown or shrunk (the +default is 10 percentage points).
I recommend using the resize command inside a so called mode:
mode "resize" {
# These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
- # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
- # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
- # more space on its left
+ # Pressing left will shrink the windowâs width.
+ # Pressing right will grow the windowâs width.
+ # Pressing up will shrink the windowâs height.
+ # Pressing down will grow the windowâs height.
+ bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
+ bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
+ bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
+ bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
- bindsym j resize shrink left
- bindsym Shift+j resize grow left
-
- bindsym k resize grow down
- bindsym Shift+k resize shrink down
-
- bindsym l resize shrink up
- bindsym Shift+l resize grow up
-
- bindsym semicolon resize grow right
- bindsym Shift+semicolon resize shrink right
+ # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
+ bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
+ bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
+ bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
+ bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt
# back to normal: Enter or Escape
bindsym Return mode "default"
@@ -1066,7 +1608,7 @@ bindsym mod+r mode "resize"
Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to jump to your mail client to email your boss that youâve achieved some @@ -1087,7 +1629,7 @@ bindsym mod+a [class="urxvt" title="VIM"] focus
This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with @@ -1112,7 +1654,7 @@ $ i3-msg '[con_mark="irssi"] focus'
To change the border of the current client, you can use border normal to use the normal border (including window title), border 1pixel to use a 1-pixel border (no window title) and border none to make the client borderless.
You can make i3 reload its configuration file with reload. You can also restart i3 inplace with the restart command to get it out of some weird state (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart @@ -1140,10 +1682,43 @@ bindsym mod+Shift+w reload bindsym mod+Shift+e exit
There are two commands to use any existing window as scratchpad window. move +scratchpad will move a window to the scratchpad workspace. This will make it +invisible until you show it again. There is no way to open that workspace. +Instead, when using scratchpad show, the window will be shown again, as a +floating window, centered on your current workspace (using scratchpad show on +a visible scratchpad window will make it hidden again, so you can have a +keybinding to toggle).
As the name indicates, this is useful for having a window with your favorite +editor always at hand. However, you can also use this for other permanently +running applications which you donât want to see all the time: Your music +player, alsamixer, maybe even your mail clientâ¦?
Syntax:
move scratchpad + +scratchpad show+
Examples:
# Make the currently focused window a scratchpad +bindsym mod+Shift+minus move scratchpad + +# Show the first scratchpad window +bindsym mod+minus scratchpad show + +# Show the sup-mail scratchpad window, if any. +bindsym mod4+s [title="^Sup ::"] scratchpad show+
As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to @@ -1166,7 +1741,7 @@ create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration. @@ -1229,7 +1804,7 @@ only what you can see in xrandr.
See also [presentations] for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you have more than one monitor:
A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
Regardless of which application you use to display the status line, you want to make sure that it registers as a dock window using EWMH hints. i3 will position the window either at the top or at the bottom of the screen, depending -on which hint the application sets. With i3bar, you can use -d or -dbottom -for positioning it at the bottom and -dtop to position it at the top of the -screen.
When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the slides.
This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector, turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it: