My Thoughts !

These are small items, which do not belong to a separate blog entry. I'll be adding more to this entry whenever I see one. If you have any such items, feel free to add in the comments.

Activating Windows Key:

This was an annoying thing to me. I work both in Windows and Linux everyday. Whenever I need to go to the menu, I need to remember which OS I'm working on and press the Windows ke/Alt F1 accordingly. Until I found a way to map the Windows key in Linux!

Open Keyboard Configuration (which is under System->Preferences)

In the table, you can find 'Show the panel menu' action under 'Desktop'. Select the shortcut and assign Windows key. Now you can access the menu with Windows key, no matter which OS you are using :-)

There are times when you want your application to be run in Full Screen mode. Firefox/Image Viewer by default support it. But not all applications, such as Text Editor/Eclipse. If you want to execute them in Full Screen here is the trick.

Open Keyboard Configuration (which is under System->Preferences)

In the table, you can find 'Toggle fullscreen mode' action under 'Window Management'. Select the shortcut and assign your fav key (I've assigned F11). Press 'Close'. Now no matter which application you are using you can press F11 and make it Full Screen. As you rightly guessed, pressing F11 again will bring it back to the normal mode. Now try Full Screen mode for Calculator and see the results :-P

Having a My Computer icon in the desktop is really useful for a guy like me. If you are used to drag and drop your files in the Desktopto delete them, you would surely miss the Recycle Bin errrr Trash Can also. So here is how you can bring them to your Ubuntu Desktop.

Open Configuration Editor (which is under Applications->System Tools) In the tree, navigate to /apps/nautilus/desktop. Int the right hand side, you can see some check boxes with user-friendly (!!!) text like 'computer_name_visible' and 'trash_icon_visible'. Check whichever items you would need in your Desktop. If you really want the same text as windows like 'My Computer' and 'Recycle Bin', you can change it there ('computer_icon_name' and 'trash_icon_name'). You need to change the type from Integer to String before you type in the new name. Remember, you can give Remember, unlike Windows, you can neither right click 'My Computer' and click 'Properties' to get the properties of your computer nor right click 'My Computer' and do 'Manage'.