How do I "alt-tab" between windows using Gnome 3?

Solution 1:

In GNOME 3, you can permanently change Alt+Tab to switch between windows, instead of switching between applications:

  • Open Settings
  • Select Devices->Keyboard
  • Search for "Switch Windows" and enter Alt+Tab as the new shortcut.
  • A dialog will tell you the shortcut is already being used by "Switch Applications", select Replace to confirm.

Solution 2:

In GNOME Shell, you should be able to switch between multiple windows of the same app by running Alt + the key above tab on your keyboard. For US users, that shortcut is Alt + ` but other keyboard layouts are different.

This is different than Unity in Ubuntu 11.10 which uses Alt + ` for all layouts. (I expect that behavior would improve in Ubuntu 12.04).

Solution 3:

Note: the Alternatetab extension was deprecated as of GNOME 3.30 in favor of the built-in "Switch Windows" keyboard shortcut

GNOME Tweak Tool at Extensions tab has an "Alternatetab" option, that allows to use standard Alt + Tab to switch between windows without grouping them.

GNOME tweak tool could be installed as follows:

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

AlternateTab extension could be found here: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/15/alternatetab/