My Openbox keybindings

One of Openbox’ great strengths is that you can control every aspect of the window manager with your keyboard, provided you spend some time configuring your keybindings. Since I use my computer extensively to process text, I have configured Openbox such that I only need to use the mouse when I really want to, and don’t have to move away from the keyboard. It speeds things up considerably, once you are used to it!

Below I give all the keybindings I use in Openbox. Some of these keybindings I don’t use very regularly. The ones that I use extensively are those that launch applications (Win+F1-9 to launch applications, or Alt+F1-6 to launch menus or application launchers); those that control the volume (Ctrl-Up/Down) and mpc (Ctrl-Alt + other keys); those to switch windows (Alt-Tab and Win-Tab) or to switch workspace (Ctrl-Alt-Left/Right); those for basic window actions, such as close (Win-A-C), maximize (Win-A-M), iconify (Win-A-I), send to bottom (Win-A-B), etc; those to move windows in the current workspace (Win + some direction key); to move windows to the next workspace (Win-A-N) or previous workspace (Win-A-P); or to follow windows to the next (Win-A-Shift-N) or previous workspace (Win-A-Shift-P).

When I mention “(with osdsh)”, it means that the action that is performed is shown on screen with osdsh. Thus, when I reconfigure Openbox, the message “reconfiguring” on my screen, or when I turn the volume up it says “volume up”. (I know osdsh has a mixer display, but that uses a lot of CPU in Hardy!). When I mention “(with script)” in the launcher section, I launch a script to raise the application if it is already running or to open a new instance if it isn’t. The shutdown and logout keybindings (Win-O-S and Win-O-E) launch a gmessage script that gives me the option to reboot, shutdown, logout, or lock the screen.

As you will see below, I make extensive use of keychains. Keychains are great! They enable me to keep most of my keybindings fairly simple and straightforward: Win-A starts the keychain for window actions (thus ‘Win-A + C’ closes the focused window, and ‘Win-A + N moves it to the next workspace); Win-O governs all the Openbox related actions (Reconfiguring, editing the configuration files, etc.).

I have also posted my current rc.xml file, for those interested. I’m pretty sure there are some additional keybindings in that file (probably duplicate actions) that are not mentioned below; if that is the case they are keybindings I no longer use, but forgot to remove.

        #########################
	## Launchers and Menus ##
	#########################
	Alt F1		root menu
	Alt F2		gmrun
	Alt F3		dmenu
	Alt F5		dmenu for configuration files
	Alt F6		client-combined-list
	
	Win F1		mousepad
	Win F2		notecase
	Win F3		xfce4-terminal (script)
	Win F4		thunar (script)
	Win F5		gmpc
	Win F6		epiphany
	Win F7		ooffice writer
	Win F8		opera (script)
	Win F9		stardict
	Win F10		gedit
	Win F11		gnome-alsamixer
	Win F12		Lock screen (xlock)
		
	Ctrl Alt Del	htop
		
	#########
	## MPD ##
	#########
	Ctrl Alt space	mpc toggle (with osdsh)
	Ctlr Alt Prior	mpc next (with osdsh)
	Ctlr Alt Next	mpc previous (with osdsh)
	
	####################
	## Volume control ##
	####################
	Ctrl Up		Volume up (PMC) (with osdsh)
	Ctrl Down	Volume down (PMC) (with osdsh)
	Ctrl Shift Up	Volume up (Master) (with osdsh)
	Ctrl Shift Down	Volume down (Master) (with osdsh)
	Ctrl Alt End	Volume mute (with osdsh)
	
	####################
	## Window actions ##
	####################
	Win a		Window actions
		m	Toggle maximize full
		v	Toggle maximize vertical
		h	Toggle maximize horizontal
		i	Iconify
		c	Close
		s	Toggle Shade
		t	Toggle always on top
		b	Send to bottom
		Shift b	Toggle always below
		Shift l	Send to normal layer
		Shift d	Toggle omnipresent
		d	Toggle decorations
		l	Lower, focus to bottom, unfocus
		p	Send to previous workspace
		n	Send to next workspace
		Shift p	Follow to previous workspace
		Shift n	Follow to next workspace
		
		g	GrowTo
			Left	GrowToEdgeWest
			Right	GrowToEdgeEast
			Down	GrowToEdgeSouth
			Up	GrowToEdgeNorth
			
		Win space	Show client-menu
		
	#############
	## Openbox ##
	#############
	Win o		Openbox actions
		r	Reconfigure (with osdsh)
		c	Edit rc.xml
		m	Edit menu.xml
		s	Shutdown (gmessage)
		e	Exit/logout (gmessage)
		l	Lock screen (xlock)
	
	###############
	## Worspaces ##
	###############
	Ctrl Alt Left	Go to the workspace on the left
	Ctrl Alt Right	Go to the workspace on the right
	Alt Shift Left	Send window to the workspace on the left
	Alt Shift Right	Send window to the workspace on the right
	
	Win Shift F1	Send window to workspace 1
	Win Shift F2	Send window to workspace 2
	Win Shift F3	Send window to workspace 3
	
	Win d		Show desktop
		
	######################
	## Window switching ##
	######################
	Alt Tab		Next window
	Alt Shift Tab	Previous window
	Win Tab		Next window (all desktops)
	Win Shift Tab	Previous window (all desktops)
	
	##################
	## Move Windows ##
	##################
	Win Left	Move window left
	Win Right	Move window right
	Win Down	Move window down
	Win Up		Move window up
	
	Win Prior	Move window to top right corner
	Win Next	Move window to bottom right corner
	Win Home	Move window to top left corner
	Win End		Move window to bottom left corner
		
	####################
	## Resize Windows ##
	####################
	Alt Left	Increase left edge
	Alt Right	Increase right edge
	Alt Up		Increase top edge
	Alt Down	Increase bottom edge
		
	Alt Shift Left	Decrease right edge
	Alt Shift Right	Decrease left edge
	Alt Shift  Up	Decrease bottom edge
	Alt Shift Down	Decrease top edge
	
	Alt F12		Toggle fullscreen
	
		
	Ctrl Alt d	Toggle autohide dock