Xfce Forum

oyvinds

Member

Registered: 2015-01-04

Posts: 11

Website

Make windows half-transparent

It used to be possible to roll the mousewheel on the window border or something to make windows partly transparent. Now I can't figure out how.

I asked on #xfce and they told me to use the "vertical mousewheel". My mouse does not have one and I am not about to buy a new one just to have half-transparent windows.

Is there any other way to do this?

If not, where in the code would one look to assign something like ctrl+mousewheel (the horizontal one which I do have) or something else to do this?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,712

Re: Make windows half-transparent

Which distro are you using and which version of Xfce? For me, Alt+"Horizontal Mouse Scroll" affects window transparency (I'm running Xfce from git). Alt+"Vertical Mouse Scroll" zooms.

You could use something like transset-df to map a window transparency function to Ctrl+mousewheel. There is an example on that web page on how to do it.

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MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: Make windows half-transparent

It used to be possible to roll the mousewheel on the window border or something to make windows partly transparent. Now I can't figure out how.

I ran into that issue when the powers-that-be (XFCE developers) decided to change things in such a way that Alt-{mousewheel} did some kind of weird zooming of the entire screen instead of its previous function. There is a thread on this web-forum that discusses it. I believe at least one solution/workaround was offered (IIRC).

I asked on #xfce and they told me to use the "vertical mousewheel". My mouse does not have one and I am not about to buy a new one just to have half-transparent windows.

Odd... Every mouse I have ever seen that was new enough to have a scroll-wheel had a "vertical one." IOW, when used to scroll the contents of a window (such as this thread, viewed in Firefox), it causes said contents to scroll vertically. In fact, the only "mouse-like" device I've seen which offered horizontal scrolling was the "mousepad" on a laptop (or whatever the device that takes the place of a mouse on a laptop is actually called - AfaIK, an actual mousepad is the rectangular device that one places a pre-optical mouse on so that the little ball will have traction, lol, but...).

Is there any other way to do this?

If not, where in the code would one look to assign something like ctrl+mousewheel (the horizontal one which I do have) or something else to do this?

I'm guessing that your mouse is of the standard type, in which case it has a vertical (not horizontal) one. Be that as it may, however, my suggestion would be to do a search for the thread I mentioned above (assuming that you aren't using a laptop, in which case you probably have what you need and just need to enable the horizontal scrolling option).

Which distro are you using and which version of Xfce? For me, Alt+"Horizontal Mouse Scroll" affects window transparency (I'm running Xfce from git). Alt+"Vertical Mouse Scroll" zooms.

Hey, you're right! I'm using a laptop and hadn't bothered to enable horizontal scrolling (in Menu / Settings / Mouse and Touchpad) because most of the documents/etc. I work with do not require the function; but I recalled seeing the setting, so - upon reading your statement - I just enabled it, tried Alt-{horizontal scroll} and it works! I bet I can watch Netflix with a translucent native Firefox above it now. Thanks (yet again), ToZ - your knowledge continues to impress me, lol.

Regards,
MDM

Last edited by MountainDewManiac (2015-01-31 21:54:35)

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