Re: Thin Mate window edges

[Siard <shiems146@kpnplanet.nl>]

Russell Gadd wrote:
> I have just installed Jessie with the Mate desktop. [...] I find
> grabbing the edges or corner of a window with the mouse pointer in
> order to extend it is very fiddly. Is this due to the border being
> very thin?

Yes, obviously.

> Are there any options to make this easier, such as choosing a window
> style with thicker borders?

In Mate, you can change window borders as follows:
- Top menu: System > Control Centre > Look and Feel > Appearance
- Under tab 'Theme', choose a theme or keep 'Custom' theme
- Click 'Customize' button
- Under tab 'Window Border', select Spidey (this theme has the widest
  window borders)
- Under tab 'Colors' next to 'Selected items', adjust the window
  border color to your liking.

After restarting Mate, you will see that windows have wider borders,
so that's an improvement at least.
But they can be made even wider if desired.
As root, edit usr/share/themes/Spidey/metacity-1/metacity-theme-1.xml.
You will see these lines near the beginning:

<frame_geometry name="normal" rounded_top_left="true" rounded_top_right="true">
  <distance name="left_width" value="3"/>
  <distance name="right_width" value="3"/>
  <distance name="bottom_height" value="3"/>

Changing '3' to a higher number, most important for right_width and
bottom_height, will widen those borders.