Xfce4-terminal has the functionality to have 1 drop-down window. This mode is inspired from consoles in computer games such as Quake which slide down from the top of the screen when a key is pressed, and slide back up when the key is pressed again.

You can start the drop-down mode by running xfce4-terminal --drop-down. Since the application as no keybinding code, it is advised to Application Shortcuts for this.

The first time xfce4-terminal --drop-down is passed to the application, it will create a drop-down window and show it on top of the active ¹⁾ monitor. Each other time the command is executed, the drop-down window will toggle its visibility.

When you start the drop-down window for the first time, the application opens a window on top of other windows at the top of the screen without window borders.

Drop-down window with 3 tabs

You can open the drop-down preferences by clicking the small button are the bottom-right corner of the tabs. The dialog can also be opened by right-clicking the tray icon – if enabled.

Drop-down window Preferences

? Keep window open when it loses focus ! This setting is applied during startup only and controls the initial state of the down toggle-button shown in the tab bar. If enabled the window will not close when it loses focus (not the active window anymore). ? Always keep window on top ! If enabled it asks the window manger to not be overlapped by other windows. ? Use shortcut to focus visible window ! ? Show status icon in notification area !

? Width ! ? Height ! ? Opacity ! ? Duration ! ? Always show tabs !

? Position ! ? Move to monitor with pointer !