Ubuntu Manpage: Notion - an X11 window manager

NAME

       Notion - an X11 window manager

SYNOPSIS

       notion [options]

DESCRIPTION

       Notion is a tiling tabbed window manager designed with keyboard users in mind.

OPTIONS

       -display host:display.screen
              X display to manage

       -conffile configfile
              Configuration file to use instead of default

       -searchdir dir
              Directory to search for configuration files and other scripts

       -oneroot
              On  X servers with multiple (traditional non-Xinerama) screens, manage only default
              screen (root window), not all, as given by the -display option or  in  the  DISPLAY
              environment variable.

       -session session_name
              Set  session name. This option affects where workspace and other save files are put
              (~/.notion/session_name if option set).

       -help  Show help on command line options

       -version
              Show version

       -about Show about text (version, author, license)

BASIC CONCEPTS

This section is an overview of the types objects that appear on an X display managed by
Notion and their relationships in a standard setup. This information is necessary to
understand the operations and availability of the different key bindings explained below.
For a more detailed explanation, needed for writing custom bindings configuration files,
see the additional documentation available from the Notion Web page.

The top-level objects that matter in the case at hand are screens. They correspond to
physical screens. Screens contain workspaces (which are a kind of group), and client
windows put into full screen mode. These objects are multiplexed in the sense that only
one can be displayed at a time.

Workspaces themselves may contain tilings and detached/floating frames. A workspace
containing no tilings and only detached/floating windows is also called a floating
workspace. Tilings themselves contain frames tiled to fill the screen, and possibly a
statusbar or dock. Akin to screens, frames multiplex other objects, but in this case
mostly client window groups. Most of the time, frames are the only trace of Notion you see
on the screen. Frames may have border decorations, and they have a tab for each
multiplexed object.

Queries are boxes that appear at the bottoms of frames or screens to ask you for textual
input to execute an action that depends on it. Most queries support tab-completion.

BINDINGS

These are the default key and pointer bindings. Below, Mod4 refers to the modifier used by
Notion. Mod4 is the default, but this can be configured by setting META in the
configuration. The particular key that is interpreted as Mod4 depends on your system. On
Xorg-based systems it is usually bound to the windows key. The xmodmap(1x) tool can be
used to get/set which key codes correspond to which modifiers, and the xev(1x) tool can be
used to see what codes are generated by particular keys.

The string in square brackets after a binding group heading below indicates the module
that whose configuration file defines these bindings.

Globally available bindings
Mod4+1 Switch to object 0 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+2 Switch to object 1 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+3 Switch to object 2 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+4 Switch to object 3 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+5 Switch to object 4 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+6 Switch to object 5 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+7 Switch to object 6 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+8 Switch to object 7 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+9 Switch to object 8 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+0 Switch to object 9 (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+grave
Switch to next object (workspace, full screen client window) within current screen.

Mod4+Shift+asciitilde
Switch to previous object (workspace, full screen client window) within current
screen.

Mod4+O O
Open first region demanding attention or previously active one.

Mod4+Shift+1, Mod4+F1
Go to screen 0 on multihead setup.

Mod4+Shift+2, Mod4+F2
Go to screen 1 on multihead setup.

Mod4+Shift+3, Mod4+F3
Go to screen 2 on multihead setup.

Mod4+Shift+4
Go to screen 3 on multihead setup.

Mod4+Shift+Escape
Go to previous screen on multihead setup.

Mod4+Escape
Go to next screen on multihead setup.

Mod4+F9
Create a new workspace of chosen default type.

F12, Mod4+F12, Button3 press
Display the main menu.

Button2 press
Display the window list menu.

Mod4+Tab
Forward-circulate focus.

Mod4+Shift+Tab
Backward-circulate focus.

Mod4+Shift+R
Raise focused object, if possible.

Bindings operating on all frames and screens
Mod4+C Close current object.

Mod4+Shift+D
Detach (float) or reattach an object to its previous location.

Bindings operating on all frames
Mod4+H Maximize the frame horizontally.

Mod4+V Maximize the frame vertically.

Button3 press
Display context menu.

Mod4+R Begin move/resize mode.

Button1 click at tab, Button2 click at tab
Switch the frame to display the object indicated by the tab.

Button1 drag at border, Mod4+Button3 drag
Resize the frame.

Mod4+Button1 drag
Move the frame.

Button1 drag at tab, Button2 drag at tab
Move objects between frames by dragging and dropping the tab.

Mod4+Caps_Lock, Mod4+Button4 click
Switch to next object within the frame.

Mod4+Shift+Caps_Lock, Mod4+Button5 click
Switch to previous object within the frame.

Bindings operating on top-level (non-transient) frames and screens
Mod4+T Toggle tag of current object.

Mod4+Shift+T
Clear all tags.

Mod4+L Lock screen

Mod4+Return, F2
Run a terminal emulator.

Mod4+J Query for command line to execute.

Mod4+Shift+J
Query for Lua code to execute.

Mod4+F4
Query for host to connect to with SSH.

Mod4+F5
Query for file to edit.

Mod4+F6
Query for file to view.

Mod4+F7
Query for keybinding.

Mod4+Shift+F9
Query for workspace to go to or create a new one.

Mod4+G Query for a client window to go to.

Mod4+M Display context menu.

Mod4+Shift+M
Query for context menu.

Mod4+slash
Show Notion 'live docs'.

Mod4+Shift+slash
Query for manual page to be displayed.

Bindings operating on top-level (non-transient) frames
Mod4+N Attach tagged objects to this frame.

Mod4+Shift+N
Query for a client window to attach ('nick').

Mod4+A Switch to tab 0 in this frame.

Mod4+S Switch to tab 1 in this frame.

Mod4+D Switch to tab 2 in this frame.

Mod4+F Switch to tab 3 in this frame.

Mod4+comma
Move current tab to the right within the frame.

Mod4+period
Move current tab to the left within the frame.

Mod4+H, Mod4+V
Maximize the frame horizontally/vertically.

Bindings for floating/detached frames
Button1 double click at tab
Toggle shade mode

Button1 press at tab, Button1 press at border, Mod4+Button1 click
Raise the frame.

Mod4+Button3 click
Lower the frame.

Button1 drag at tab
Move the frame.

Mod4+Shift+B
Tile frame, if no tiling exists on the workspace

Bindings for tilings and tiled frames [mod_tiling]
Mod4+I Split current into columns.

Mod4+Shift+I
Split current into rows.

Mod4+X Destroy current frame.

Mod4+W Go to frame below current frame.

Mod4+Shift+W, Mod4+Shift+Button4 click, Mod4+Shift+Button5 click
Go to frame above current frame.

Bindings for client windows
Mod4+Shift+L
Nudge the client window. This might help with some programs' resizing problems.

Mod4+Shift+C
Kill client owning the client window.

Mod4+Shift+Q
Send next key press to the client window. Some programs may not allow this by
default.

Mod4+Q Toggle client window group full-screen mode

Move/resize mode bindings
Escape Cancel the resize mode.

Return End the resize mode.

Left, Right, Up, Down, F, B, P, N
Grow in specified direction.

Shift+Left, Shift+Right, Shift+Up, Shift+Down, Shift+F, Shift+B, Shift+P, Shift+N
Shrink in specified direction.

Mod4+Left, Mod4+Right, Mod4+Up, Mod4+Down, Mod4+F, Mod4+B, Mod4+P, Mod4+N
Move in specified direction.

Bindings for message boxes and queries [mod_query]
Escape, Control+G, Control+C
Close the query/message box, not executing bound actions.

Control+U, Control+V, Page_Up, Page_Down
Scroll the message or completions up/down.

Bindings for editing in queries [mod_query]
These bindings are similar to those of the joe(1) text editor. Cut, copy and paste works
in a more conventional manner, though, but the keys are equivalent.

Control+F, Control+B, Right, Left
Move one character forward/backward.

Control+E, Control+A, End, Home
Go to end/beginning.

Control+X, Control+Z
Skip one word forward/backward.

Control+D, Delete
Delete next character.

BackSpace, Control+H
Delete previous character.

Control+W, Control+O
Delete one word forward/backward.

Control+J
Delete to end of line.

Control+Y
Delete the whole line.

Control+T
Transpose characters.

Control+P, Control+N, Up, Down, Control+Up, Control+Down
Select next/previous (matching) history entry.

Button2 click, Control+K C
Paste from the clipboard.

Control+K B
Set mark/begin selection.

Control+K Y
Cut selection.

Control+K K
Copy selection.

Control+K G
Clear mark/cancel selection.

Tab, Shift+Tab, Control+Tab
Try to complete the entered text or cycle through completions.

Control+R, Control+S
Complete from history

Control+M, Return, KP_Enter
Close the query and execute bound action.

Bindings for menus [mod_menu]
Escape, Control+G, Control+C, Left
Close the menu.

Return, KP_Enter, Control+M, Right
Activate current menu entry.

Control+N, Control+P, Up, Down
Select next/previous menu entry.

BackSpace
Clear the menu's typeahead find buffer.

FILES AND DIRECTORIES

       /etc/X11/notion/cfg_notion.lua
              System default main configuration files

       /etc/X11/notion/cfg_*.lua
              Other configuration files.

       /etc/X11/notion/look_*.lua
              Colour scheme configuration files

       ~/.notion/
              User configuration files

       ~/.notion/cfg_notion.lua
              User default main configuration file (overrides system default)

AUTHOR

       Notion  was  written  by the Notion team, based on Ion which was written by Tuomo Valkonen
       <tuomov at iki.fi>.

                                                                                        NOTION(1)