mattyv

Having used Ubuntu exclusively for about two years now, I have learned many handy little tricks that I probably use regularly without even thinking. However, I am still quite amazed at the number of simple desktop tricks I am discovering all the time, increasing my ability to work (or play) quickly and efficiently.

The following is a small collection of features that are really useful, easy to remember and (I believe) not too widely known. They were compiled from various forum discussions I have read or been involved in. Hope you find something useful to you.

Trick #1

This one is for those of us who still use Metacity, I have not found a similar thing in Compiz-Fusion at this stage.

When you drag a file from a window in the background, it will come to the foreground, potentially obscuring the window you want to drop into. To prevent this, you can hold a modifier key (ctrl, shift or super) when starting to drag the file, keeping the background window in the background and the foreground window clear to drop into. Make sure you release the modifier key before finishing the drop, otherwise you might accidentally move a file you meant to copy (or complete some other unintended action).

I think this is a Gnome feature by virtue of being built into Metacity, but having not used other Desktop Environments much I can’t be sure.

Trick #2

This one is not as easy to use due to space confines, but it might come in handy from time to time.

You can drag windows/programs to different virtual desktops using the pager on the bottom right. You know, the little boxes used to change between workspaces (virtual desktops). Doing it this way keep you on the same workspace, so you don’t have to move back and forth to shift multiple windows. I have used this before as a quick way to group a few windows and applications together on another workspace, when I already had them open on my current workspace. It’s probably possible to get the same effect with keyboard shortcuts, but I’m already trying to remember lots of those.

Trick #3

In addition to being able to drag a window around the desktop by left-clicking on the titlebar, did you know that if you hold the alt key you can click on any part of the window to drag it around. I know, awesome! Okay maybe not, but still useful. If you’re still reading, I’ve saved my favourite ones for last…

Trick #4

This one is so simple to remember, but is so useful and I use it all the time.

Highlight some text in any window, say this sentence in your browser, then go to the text editor of your choice and middle-click your mouse (click the scroll wheel) –> the highlighted text will be pasted in the window you clicked on. Cool huh? Don’t have a 3 button mouse? Never fear, clicking the left and right mouse buttons at the same time will give you the same trick.

Trick #5

Another copy and paste one for you to finish up.

Highlight some text in any window once again. This time drag that text to the desktop. The result is a file containing that text, sitting ready for you to give it a name. This trick works for a file browser too, so try the highlight and drag into Nautilus. Can’t see the desktop because you have a fullscreen window? No problem, when you’re dragging, drag to the “Show Desktop” button (bottom left of screen on Ubuntu) and hold there, the desktop will show up and you can release the mouse button to create a file.

I believe these last two tricks are a feature of X itself, so the functionality should be available regardless of Desktop Environment. If you can shed more light on that or you have a handy hint of your own, please comment. You might also like to experiment with combining some of those features for even better efficiency. Hint, #1 and #5 are useful together…