Getting Back To The Ubuntu Menu.

Not getting used to the new Ubuntu Launcher ? Welcome! to the club .
The new launcher may hold shortcuts to your favorite programs , files and folders , but it is also a security concern. The 'Files and Folders' launcher includes your recently viewed files but there's no 'Clear recent Documents' option. The launcher may add some glamor to your system but it obviously includes a processing overhead.

Getting back to the classic Ubuntu menu is easier than you would probably think. Just choose 'ubuntu classic ( no effects )' as your session the next time you reach the log in window. ( Now,how do I capture a screen shot before logging in ? Let me know if you know a way out).



But this would obviously work if your system asks for a password at startup and you do not get to log in automatically.You won't have to do this every time you log in. Just whenever you feel like making a switch.

To set a default session , go to 'System' -> 'Administration' -> 'Login Screen' and select the session you want.

Florence Virtual Keyboard

Woke up in the morning just to find out that the navigation keys of your keyboard are not working ? Things can't get worse than this. No social networking ? no Google or other downloads ? Probably your keyboard had its fare share of coffee yesterday.
Well, your world should not really stop. It may get 'virtual' though.


Get the 'Florence Virtual Keyboard' from the 'Ubuntu Software Center'. Install it even if your keyboard is working fine. It might come in handy someday.




With a pretty smooth and intuitive interface, 'Florence' provides a great typing and navigational experience. Use your mouse to click on the keys and type on the currently active window. It comes loaded with a number of features which let you configure the looks and extend your keyboard. The key with the 'tools' logo lets you configure this keyboard. You can add additional keys , change the colors and opacity of the keyboard.

Florence provides very interesting 'Behaviour' patterns. Check out the 'Timer' and 'Ramble' patterns. Though it may take time getting used to these patterns.
But there are certain things even 'Florence' can't sort out for you. What if you have to switch to the Windows OS at the Grub startup. You can use the 'End' and 'Home' keys to find your way out of this predicament. Hope these two work , at least.

Understanding the 'swap'.

While installing Ubuntu 10.10 Ubuntu 10.10 - the Maverick Meerkat , you surely would have had to reserve some area of the disk for 'swap' . But what is this 'swap' ? Here it goes: Swap is that area of the disk which the operating system ( kernel ) uses to store active processes before calling them again for running. This is actually a part of the switching process that happens in a multiprocessing environment. Check the status of your system's swap by typing ' free -m ' at the terminal.

Getting Wi-Fi up and running in Ubuntu!

If you've been facing problems getting your wi-fi connection up and running in Ubuntu 10.10, look no furthur.
Resolving such issues is a matter of installing and activating third party proprietary drivers.

Go to System >> Administration >> Additional Drivers.



What you get here is a listing of available wireless drivers. If not activated, activate them by clicking on the 'Activate' button at the bottom right of the window.



Installing and activating these drivers would resolve Wi-Fi issues immediately.The 'NetworkManagerApplet' would notify in no time.

Repair a messed up Ubuntu menu.

After installing KDE in ubuntu , the main menu of Ubuntu gets messed up with the KDE applications finding place among GNOME applications. Cleaning up the menu by bringing all KDE applications under one menu entry could be a tedious process if done manually.
Download the Gnome-menu-extended application by clicking here and install it.It's done!.Check the menu again.There would be a separate KDE menu entry for all KDE applications.This works for Open-Office applications as well. The other menus would be restored to the original form themselves.

Tracking various time-zones.

The Gnome notification area can serve as a world-clock as well.The clock that displays time and date of your location can display time and temperature of other locations as well.To configure these time zones,right click on the clock and choose 'Preferences'.Under the 'Locations' tab click on the 'ADD' button to add new locations.In the 'Location Name' field box,just start typing the name of the desired location and you'll probably get it.


Choose the units of temperature and wind speed under the 'Weather' tab.Now whenever your system gets online,click on the clock to view current time and weather situation of your locations.Br>

Analog clocks are also presented along with the information and the configured locations are marked on a map.A 'Home' icon is displayed with your original location and this can be changed by clicking on the 'set' button.

Scan Documents In PDF

To save a scanned document as a PDF file you can use 'gscan2pdf'.It provides an easy to use GUI to aid the process of converting a scanned document to PDF.
This package is available in the 'universe' repository of ubuntu.Install it from the 'Synaptic Package Manager'.
Launch 'gscan2pdf' from the 'Graphics' menu.Click on the 'scan document' button on the toolbar.A window allowing you to configure your scanner appears.Under the 'Scan Options' tab you can set the paper size,choose the compression format and set the resolution.Under the 'Page Options' keep the '# Pages' to 1 and check the '#' radio button otherwise the same document would be scanned again and again.


To scan a document click on the 'Scan' button at the bottom.Once the document is scanned save it in the PDF or an image format from the 'File' menu.You can even email the document in PDF.
Use the buttons provided on the toolbar to zoom in/out of the document and rotate it by 90 or 180 degrees.
Copyright 2006--2008 Jeffrey Ratcliffe
Home Page:http://gscan2pdf.sf.net

Keep your software repositories updated.

Keeping your repositories updated is important to get notified on crucial security updated.This is essential to remove errors from your system.This is also important to keep track of various third party packages available for installation in the Synaptic Package Manager.
The "Software Sources" section under the Administration menu allows to enable or disable software repositories.Under the Ubuntu Software tab,enable the main,universe,restricted and multiverse repositories.If you are not a developer then you may like to stay away from the source code.
Under the Third-Party Software tab,you can add apt URLs provided by software providers to install their software packages from within the Synaptic package Manager.Google also provide these Apt URLs for the image editor Picasa for Linux.

Make sure to enable the Important Security Updates section under the Updates tab.
To update you software database click on the Reload button in the Synaptic Package Manager.This notifies you about the latest updates available and also adds new packages.

Group Your Favorite Applications.

Create a menu item of your favorite applications in the menu items for an easy and quick access to them.Simply right click on the main menu to edit the menu items.Now click on "New Menu" to create a new directory under the Applications menu.
Now highlight the new menu item created under the Applications section and add applications to it. Drag your favorite applications in this new item created.

Include a Delete command that bypasses Trash

To delete files from your system without sending them to the Trash,right click on the main menu and click on "Edit Menu".Now tick mark the "File Management"box.Now come to the "Preferences" and open "File Management".Under the "Behavior" tab enable the option to include a delete command that bypasses Trash.
Now can you delete files directly,without sending them to the Trash bin.'

keep a track of your investments with the Invest applet

Add the Invest applet on a panel.Right click on the "Invest" applet and configure preferences.Click on "ADD" to add a stock symbol.The default stock added in that of Google.Double click on the GOO symbol to edit it and write another stock symbol of your choice.You can get stock symbols online.Also edit the "Price","Amount" and "Commission" columns according to your choice.The source of the quotes is Yahoo and they are refreshed every 15 minutes.
To view the status of your stocks,just left click on the "Invest" applet.


Get more information about your stocks by clicking on a particular stock symbol.
"Invest" also shows you investment charts.

Check the weather in your city with ubuntu 8.04.

The digital clock that runs in the top panel of the GNOME Desktop Environment can display the weather of a city of your choice.Just right click on the clock and select "Preferences".Now select the "Locations" tab and add the location of your choice.You can find locations under their respective continents and countries.Choose the units of temperature and wind speed under the "Weather" tab.

Edit Main Menu

Get the main menu of the Gnome Desktop Environment to display more categories and applications.
With a new ubuntu installation,all applications and menus are not displayed in the main menu.To display a complete list of applications and menus,go to Preferences and then Main Menu.To display a category,tick mark the radio button corresponding to it.If you do not want a particular entry ,then remove it from the menu by removing the tick mark from the radio button.
Click on a particular menu to edit the list of applications displayed.As an example,consider the System Tools menu.Mark the entries in this menu to display the applications you want.You can get the Root Terminal and the Floppy Formatter from this menu.Get the Bug Report Tool under the Programming menu.There are some unchecked sections in the Preferences menu also.

Even customized new menus and items can be created using the buttons provided.
View the screenshot for more.

Nautilus Extensions

Get some nautilus extensions for your desktop from the synaptic package manager.
Go to synaptic and search for "nautilus".Install the nautilus-wallpaper.This package provides an entry into the context menu of image files to set them as wallpaper witout having to go through the image viewer and the Appearance section.
Install nautilus-image converter to get an entry into the context menu of image files for rotating and resizing them.

Install the nautilus-open-terminal to open a terminal at any location.Jist right click in a folder or on the desktop and open a terminal window right there.
You can also try the nautilus-script-manager to easily use scripts and link them to a private scripts directory.

Googlizer-Instant Google Search!

Get instant Google Search for your ubuntu desktop with Googlizer.
While reading some text or browsing a web page you may come across a term or a word that you do not know much about.Now,instead of searching for such words by typing in the Google search bar,you can just highlight the word and click on the Googlizer icon.Googlizer does a Google search of the highlighted part.
You can even search for more than one word by pressing the CTRL key while highlighting the words.

Install Goolizer from the Synaptic Package Manager.You can access it from the Internet menu.For the best use of Goolizer place it on a panel.
So just highlight the keyword and click the Goolizer icon on the panel.This would open a firefox window with the relevant Google search entries.

Mark Packages by Task in Synaptic.

Marking packages by task is a feature available in the Synaptic Package manager ,which makes installing complete desktop environments and other packages very simple in ubuntu.Suppose you want to install KDE or Xubuntu in you Gnome Desktop Environment.Then,instead of searching for individual packages and marking them separately,you can use the Mark Packages By Task option.It gives you some predefined options such as installing different desktop environments,servers and even 2d/3d editing suites.Simply mark a task and apply.Synaptic would itself mark the individual packages and install them.This is very handy feature that saves a lot of time.
Use this feature to install the KDE 4 package.

Decrease the Ubuntu Startup Time!

Decrease the startup time of your Ubuntu system by editing the list of additional startup programs.Go to Preference >> Sessions.Under the Startup Programs tab,uncheck the programs that you donot use.Just keep the Network Manager,Power Manager,Pulse Audio Session Managemant and Volume Manager programs checked.Use the other programs in the list if you require them at startup.
This would improve the startup time of your system.

Additional Templates

Get the option of creating documents of various types using Ubuntu Tweak 0.3.Open Ubuntu Tweak (System Tools) and go to the Personal tab and then Templates.Bring all the templates that you want from the Disabled section to the Enabled section (simply drag and drop).Close Ubuntu Tweak and right click on your desktop and come to Create Document to get new formats.

Force Quit

Do your applications hang while multitasking in the GNOME desktop environment.
It might become very frustrating at times.In such cases instead of rebooting you can use the FORCE QUIT button from your GNOME Panel.
Right click on a panel,then on Add To Panel and select Force Quit.
To close a frozen application click on the force quit button and then on the window to be closed or press escape to cancel.
Have this button permanently on your Gnome panel;it would prove to be very useful in those freezing cases.