Hello,

I am using manjaro (KDE).

I have created four virtual desktops but would like to customise each desktop.

For example, run certain applications on each desktop, and have different backgrounds.

When I click on 'Activities' I see an empty box.

How can I use 'Activities' to achieve my aim?

Thanks

You will need to create each Activity separately. There should be buttons in the Activity Switcher (Meta+Q to bring it up and keep it up) for creating new ones.

airdrik wrote:You will need to create each Activity separately. There should be buttons in the Activity Switcher (Meta+Q to bring it up and keep it up) for creating new ones.

I have created an activity for one of my virtual desktops. I selected a background and this now appears on all four virtual desktops. How can I obtain different backgrounds for each virtual desktop, and separate icons

Note, I am using manjaro (KDE) for this exercise.

Thanks

You're thinking it a little bit back to front. Activities aren't within Virtual desktops, it is the other way round. You can set separate wallpapers for each activity but you can't set separate wallpapers for each virtual desktop within an activity.

In other words, instead of 1 Activity with 4 Virtual Desktops, you should have 4 Activities with 1 Virtual Desktop, and treat Activities as you would have Virtual Desktops.
(you can have multiple VDs, but treat them more like additional screen space for things in each Activity, while Activities provide the primary separation of things pertaining to a given task including the ability to have different wallpapers and widgets)

airdrik wrote:You will need to create each Activity separately. There should be buttons in the Activity Switcher (Meta+Q to bring it up and keep it up) for creating new ones.

What is Meta?

Meta is one of a couple of non-MS-centric names for the Windows key (alternatively Super or Hyper, or just Win) (not sure what the counterpart is on Mac-based layouts)

airdrik wrote:In other words, instead of 1 Activity with 4 Virtual Desktops, you should have 4 Activities with 1 Virtual Desktop, and treat Activities as you would have Virtual Desktops.
(you can have multiple VDs, but treat them more like additional screen space for things in each Activity, while Activities provide the primary separation of things pertaining to a given task including the ability to have different wallpapers and widgets)

I don't know what activities are. Can you give a couple of examples?

I gave a short explanation in the Activities vs. Virtual Desktops thread.

airdrik wrote:I gave a short explanation in the Activities vs. Virtual Desktops thread.

I am still stuck,

I have created four activities in one of my virtual desktops, but can't see how to use these in the virtaul desktop

I have made an image of the desktop, but can't see how to upload it, and it will not paste

The image is on my pc

Thanks

anonprivate wrote:

airdrik wrote:I gave a short explanation in the Activities vs. Virtual Desktops thread.

I am still stuck,

I have created four activities in one of my virtual desktops, but can't see how to use these in the virtual desktop

Thanks

As previously advised you mis-understand the priority - each Activity has access to and individual control of all available virtual desktops.

jmacleod wrote:

anonprivate wrote:

airdrik wrote:I gave a short explanation in the Activities vs. Virtual Desktops thread.

I am still stuck,

I have created four activities in one of my virtual desktops, but can't see how to use these in the virtual desktop

Thanks

As previously advised you mis-understand the priority - each Activity has access to and individual control of all available virtual desktops.

When I created the four virtual desktops, I had a little graphic in the bottom left corner of the screen, and this graphic appeared on all four desktops. Now, it only appears on one. Can anyone tell me how to make it appear on all four. I have tried looking at the virtual desktops in System Settings, Desktop Behaviour, Virtual Desktops. In switching - Desktop Switch On-Screen Dispay is on.

Thanks

I have to say that I do not understand virtual desktops and activities - despite my efforts

For posting images, you have to upload them to a 3rd party hosting service
such as pastebin or imgur and then link them here.

Your description of a graphic in the corner suggests to me you may be
referring to the Pager widget which shows what windows are open on what
desktops. This widget disappears when there's only one Virtual Desktop.
There's a separate Activity Pager widget which you can add which will do the same thing but for Activities.

airdrik wrote:For posting images, you have to upload them to a 3rd party hosting service
such as pastebin or imgur and then link them here.

Your description of a graphic in the corner suggests to me you may be
referring to the Pager widget which shows what windows are open on what
desktops. This widget disappears when there's only one Virtual Desktop.
There's a separate Activity Pager widget which you can add which will do the same thing but for Activities.

Thank you.

That pager only appears on the first virtual desktop and not on the other three.

If I start a programme on the other desktop it appears in the pager, but only on the first virtual desktop. The other virtual desktops have no pager icon

If you are trying to use both, you have to consider that Virtual Desktops are subordinate to Activities: the (normal/VD) Pager widget will only show windows on desktops in the current Activity. I'm not familiar enough with the Activity Pager to say for sure how it handles multiple Virtual Desktops - if it shows all windows on all VDs on the other Activities, only shows for the current VD on the other Activities or only shows for the last VD used on each of the other VDs.

However, you could switch to using many Activities and only one Virtual Desktop, and just use the Activity Pager. In such a case you should get behavior similar to using Virtual Desktops, but the different widgets and wallpapers and other behaviors from using Activities.