Set GNOME Workspace Shortcuts with Bare PageUp/PageDown Keys
Iwan Efendi2 min
GNOME Settings rejects bare PageUp/PageDown for workspace shortcuts. Bypass this GUI limitation using gsettings to enable faster navigation.
I was setting up my GNOME workflow and wanted a clean, single-key shortcut to switch workspaces. PageUp and PageDown felt like the natural choice — they're right there, unused during normal typing, and perfectly positioned for thumb access.
But GNOME Settings had other plans. Every time I tried to assign them under Settings → Keyboard → Navigation, the dialog simply refused to save. No error message. Just silence.
The problem: GNOME's GUI keyboard shortcut editor requires at least one modifier key (Super, Ctrl, Alt) for workspace navigation shortcuts. Bare keys are silently rejected. The fix is straightforward — set them via 
One thing to note: GNOME modern workspace layouts are horizontal, so the key names use left/right instead of up/down.
Expected output:
That's it. PageUp and PageDown now switch workspaces immediately — no modifier key required.
I spent a good five minutes clicking around the Settings app thinking I was doing something wrong. Turns out, the GUI keyboard shortcut editor has a hard filter: it won't register any shortcut for workspace navigation unless at least one modifier key is present. This is a deliberate design choice, not a bug — presumably to prevent accidental workspace switches during normal typing.
But
gsettings on the command line.
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Setting the Shortcuts via gsettings
1
Open a Terminal
Any terminal emulator works.2
Assign PageUp and PageDown
Run these two commands:gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-left "['Page_Up']"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-right "['Page_Down']"3
Verify the Assignment
Confirm the shortcuts were stored correctly:gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-left
gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-right['Page_Up']
['Page_Down']
Prefer a Modifier Combination?
If you'd rather use Super+PageUp or similar, adjust the command:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-left "['<Super>Page_Up']"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-to-workspace-right "['<Super>Page_Down']"Why the Terminal Is Necessary
gsettings doesn't enforce that filter. The same bare-key binding that the GUI rejects is perfectly valid at the dconf level. Once I learned that, the fix took about ten seconds.
If you're setting up a fresh Ubuntu install, I'd recommend adding these commands to your post-install script alongside other GNOME customization tweaks. It's a small quality-of-life improvement that makes workspace navigation feel noticeably faster.
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