# Desktop Overview

This chapter introduces you to some of the very basic components of the desktop. These components include Windows, Workspaces, and Applications. Almost all the work (or play) that you do in GNOME will involve these very basic components.

This chapter describes the default configuration of GNOME. Your vendor or system administrator may have configured your desktop to look different than what is described here.

## Introduction

When you start a desktop session for the first time, you should see a default startup screen, with panels, windows, and various icons.

The major components of the GNOME Desktop are as follows:

Desktop

  The desktop itself is behind all of the other components on the desktop. You can place objects on the desktop to access your files and directories quickly, or to start applications that you use often. See for more information.

Panels

  The panels are the two bars that run along the top and bottom of the screen. By default, the top panel shows you the GNOME main menu bar, the date and time, and a set of application launcher icons, and the bottom panel shows you the list of open windows and the workspace switcher.

  Panels can be customized to contain a variety of tools, such as other menus and launchers, and small utility applications, called panel applets. For example, you can configure your panel to display the current weather for your location. For more information on panels, see .

Windows

  Most applications run inside of one or more windows. You can display multiple windows on your desktop at the same time. Windows can be resized and moved around to accommodate your workflow. Each window has a titlebar at the top with buttons which allow you to minimize, maximize, and close the window. For more information on working with windows, see .

Workspaces

  You can subdivide your desktop into separate workspaces. Each workspace can contain several windows, allowing you to group related tasks together. For more information on working with workspaces, see .

File Manager

  The Nautilus file manager provides access to your files, folders, and applications. You can manage the contents of folders in the file manager and open the files in the appropriate applications. See for more information.

Control Center

  You can customize your computer using the Control Center, which can be found in the System menu on the top panel menubar. Each preference tool in the Control Center allows you to change a particular part of the behavior of your computer. See for more information on the Control Center.

Your vendor or system administrator can make configuration changes to suit your needs, so your desktop might not match exactly what is described in this manual. Nevertheless, this manual provides a useful introduction to using the various components of your desktop.

GNOME Desktop components, introducing

## The Desktop

The desktop lies behind all other components on your screen. When no windows are visible, the desktop is that part of the screen between the top and bottom panels. You can place files and folders on the desktop that you want to have easy access to.

The desktop also has several special objects on it:

- The Computer icon gives you access to CDs, removable media such as floppy disks, and also the entire filesystem (also known as the root filesystem). By default, you do not have the security permissions to read other users' files or edit system files, but you may need to do so something such as configure a web server on the computer.

- Your Home Folder, labelled username's Home, where all of your personal files are kept. You can also open this folder from the Places menu.

- The Trash is a special folder in which to place files and folders you no longer need. For more on this, see .

- When you insert a CD, a flash drive, or other removable media, or a device containing files such as a music player or a digital camera, an icon representing this device will appear on the desktop.

As you work with your computer, the desktop becomes obscured by the windows you are working with. To quickly reveal the desktop by minimizing all windows, you can do one of the following:

- Click on the Show Desktop button at the far left of the bottom panel.

- Press Ctrl Alt D.

Either action will also restore your windows to their previous state. Alternatively, you can switch to another workspace to see the desktop.

You can change the colour of the desktop background or the image displayed there. For more on this, see .

The files and folders you put on the desktop are stored in a special folder within your Home Folder, called `Desktop`. Like any other folder, you can put files and other folders directly into it. The only difference is that anything placed into the Desktop folder will then show up on desktop itself.

## Windows

A window is a rectangular area of the screen, usually with a border all around and a title bar at the top. You can think of a window as a screen within the screen. Each window displays an application, allowing you to have more than one application visible, and work on more than one task at a time. You can also think of windows as pieces of paper on your desktop: they can overlap, or be side by side, for example.

You can control a window's position of the screen, as well as its size. You can control which windows overlap other windows, so the one you want to work with is completely visible. For more about moving and resizing windows, see .

Each window is not necessarily a different application. An application usually has one main window, and may open additional windows at the request of the user.

The rest of this section describes the different types of windows and how you can interact with them.

### Types of Windows

There are two main types of window:

Application windows

  Application windows allow all the minimize, maximize and close operations through the buttons on the titlebar. When opening an application you will usually see a window of this type appear.

Dialog windows

  Dialog windows appear at the request of an application window. A dialog window may alert you to a problem, ask for confirmation of an action, or request input from you.

  For example, if you tell an application to save a document, a dialog will ask you where you want to save the new file. If you tell an application to quit while it is still busy, it may ask you to confirm that you want it to abandon work in progress.

  Some dialogs do not allow you to interact with the main application window until you have closed them: these are called modal dialogs. Others can be left open while you work with the main application window: these are called transient dialogs.

  You can select the text in a dialog with the mouse. This allows you to copy it to the clipboard (by right-clicking the text and selecting Copy), and paste it into another application. This is useful if you wish to quote the text you see in a dialog when requesting support on the Internet.

### Manipulating Windows

You can change the size and position of windows on the screen. This allows you to see more than one application and do different tasks at the same time. For example, you might want to read text on a web page while writing with a word processor, or to change to another application to do a different task or check its progress.

You can minimize a window if you are not currently interested in seeing it. This hides it from view. You can maximise a window to fill the whole screen so you can give it your full attention.

Most of these actions are carried out by using the mouse on different parts of the the window's frame (see for a recap of using the mouse). The top edge of the window frame, called the titlebar because it also displays the title of the window, contains several buttons that change the way the window is displayed.

shows the titlebar for a typical application window. From left to right, this contains the Window Menu button, the window title, the minimize button, the maximize button, and the close button.

Titlebar for a Typical Application Window

Titlebar of application window frame.

All actions can also be carried out from the Window Menu. To open this, click on the Window Menu button at the left-hand edge of the titlebar. Common actions can also be carried out with keyboard shortcuts: see for a simple list of these. The following lists the actions you can carry out on a window, with the mouse or the keyboard:

Move the window

  Drag the titlebar to move the window. You can click on any part of the titlebar except the buttons at either end to begin the drag action. The window will move on the screen as you drag the mouse. On less powerful computers, the movement of the window may be represented by moving an outline of its frame.

  You can also choose Move from the Window Menu, or press Alt F7, and then either move the mouse or press the keyboard arrow keys to move the window.

  You can also press-and-hold Alt and drag any part of the window.

  As you move the window, some parts of the screen will give slight resistance to movement. This is to help you align windows more easily to the edges of the desktop, the panels, and the edges of other windows.

  You can also press-and-hold Shift while you move the window to cause it to only move between the corners of the desktop and other windows.

  If the Num Lock key is off, you can use the arrows on the numeric keypad, as well as the 7, 9, 1, and 3 keys to move diagonally.

Resize the window

  Drag one of the borders to expand or contract the window on that side. Drag a corner to change two sides at once. The resize pointer appears when your mouse is in the correct position to begin the drag action.

  You can also choose Resize from the Window Menu, or press Alt F8. The resize pointer appears. Move the mouse in the direction of the edge you want to resize, or press one of the keyboard arrows keys. The pointer changes to indicate the chosen edge. Now you can use the mouse or the arrow keys to move this edge of the window. Click the mouse or press Return to accept the change. Press Escape to cancel the resize action and return the window to its original size and shape.

Minimize the window

  Click on the Minimize button in the titlebar, the leftmost of the group of three on the right. This removes the window from view. The window can be restored to its previous position and size on the screen from the window list on the bottom edge panel or the window selector in the top panel.

  You can also choose Minimize from the Window Menu, or press Alt F9 .

  A minimized window is shown in the window list and the window selector with [ ] around its title.

Maximize the window

  Click on the Maximize button in the titlebar, the middle of the group of three on the right. This expands the window so it fills the screen (the panels remain visible).

  You can also choose Maximize from the Window Menu, or press Alt F10, or double-click any part of the titlebar except the buttons at either end.

  If you prefer, you can assign the double-click action to roll up the window: see .

Unmaximize the window

  When a window is maximized, click again on the Maximize button to restore it to its previous position and size on the screen.

  You can also choose Unmaximize from the Window Menu, press Alt F5, or double-click any part of the titlebar except the buttons at either end.

Close the window

  Click the Close button, the rightmost of the group of three on the right. Closing the window may also close the application itself. The application will ask you to confirm closing a window that contains unsaved work.

Workspaces commands or a link to them still to go in this section, perhaps

### Giving Focus to a Window

To work with an application, you need to give the focus to its window. When a window has focus, any actions such as mouse clicks, typing text, or keyboard shortcuts, are directed to the application in that window. Only one window can have focus at a time. The window that has focus will appear on top of other windows, so nothing covers any part of it. It may also have a different appearance from other windows, depending on your choice of theme.

You can give the focus to a window in any of the following ways:

- With the mouse, click on any part of the window, if the window is visible.

- On the bottom panel, click on the window list button that represents the window in the Window List.

- On the top panel, click the window list icon and choose the window you want to switch to from the list. The window list icon is at the extreme right of the panel, and its icon matches that of the current window's Window Menu button.

  If the window you choose is on a different workspace, you will be switched to that workspace. For more on workspaces, see .

- With the keyboard, hold the Alt key and press the Tab key. A pop-up window appears with a list of icons representing each window. While still holding Alt, press Tab to move the selection along the list: a black rectangle frames the selected icon and the position of the window it corresponds to is highlighted with a black border. When the window you want to see is selected, release the Alt key. Using Shift Tab instead of just Tab cycles through the icons in reverse order.

  You can customize the shortcut used to perform this action with the Keyboard Shortcuts preference tool.

windows overview

## Workspaces

Workspaces allow you to manage which windows are on your screen. You can imagine workspaces as being virtual screens, which you can switch between at any time. Every workspace contains the same desktop, the same panels, and the same menus. However, you can run different applications, and open different windows in each workspace. The applications in each workspace will remain there when you switch to other workspaces.

By default, four workspaces are available. You can switch between them with the Workspace Switcher applet at the right of the bottom panel. This shows a representation of your workspaces, by default a row of four rectangles. Click on one to switch to that workspace. In , Workspace Switcher contains four workspaces. The first three workspaces contain open windows. The last workspace does not contain currently open windows. The currently active workspace is highlighted.

Workspaces Displayed in Workspace Switcher

Workspace Switcher. The context describes the graphic.

Each workspace can have any number of applications open in it. The number of workspaces can be customized: see .

Workspaces enable you to organize the GNOME Desktop when you run many applications at the same time. One way to use workspaces is to allocate a specific function to each workspace: one for email, one for web browsing, one for graphic design, etc. However, everyone has their own preference and you are in no way restricted to only using workspaces like this.

### Switching Between Workspaces

You can switch between workspaces in any of the following ways:

- In the Workspace Switcher applet in the bottom panel, click on the workspace where you want to work.

- Move the mouse pointer over the Workspace Switcher applet in the bottom panel, and scroll the mouse wheel.

- Press Ctrl Alt right arrow to switch to the workspace on the right of the current workspace.

- Press Ctrl Alt left arrow to switch to the workspace on the left of the current workspace.

The arrow shortcut keys work according to how your workspaces are set out in the Workspace Switcher applet. If you change your panel so workspaces are displayed vertically instead of horizontally, use Ctrl Alt up arrow and Ctrl Alt down arrow to switch workspaces.

workspaces switching between

### Adding Workspaces

To add workspaces to the GNOME Desktop, right-click on the Workspace Switcher applet, then choose Preferences. The Workspace Switcher Preferences dialog is displayed. Use the Number of workspaces spin box to specify the number of workspaces that you require.

workspaces specifying number of
workspaces overview

## Applications

An application is a type of computer program that allows you to perform a particular task. You might use applications to create text documents such as letters or reports; to work with spreadsheets; to listen to your favorite music; to navigate the Internet; or to create, edit, or view images and videos. For each of these tasks, you would use a different application.

To launch an application, open the Applications menu and choose the application you want from the submenus. For more on this, see .

The applications that are part of GNOME include the following:

- Gedit Text Editor can read, create, or modify any kind of simple text without any formatting.

- Dictionary allows you to look up definitions of a word.

- Image Viewer can display single image files, as well as large image collections.

- Calculator performs basic, financial, and scientific calculations.

- Character Map lets you choose letters and symbols from the Unicode character set and paste them into any application. If you are writing in several languages, not all of the characters you need will be on your keyboard.

- Nautilus File Manager displays your folders and their contents. Use this to copy, move and classify your files, and to access CDs, USB flash drives, and any other removable media. When you choose an item from the Places menu, a Nautilus File Manager window opens showing that location.

- Terminal gives you access to the system command line.

Further standard GNOME applications include games, music and video players, a web browser, software accessibility tools, and utilities to manage your system. Your distributor or vendor may have added other applications, such as a word processor and a graphics editor. They may also provide you with a way to install further applications.

All GNOME applications have many features in common, which makes it easier to learn how to work with a new GNOME application. The rest of this section describes some of these features.

### Common Features

The applications that are provided with the GNOME Desktop share many common features, such as similar open and save dialogs and similar-looking icons. This is because they have all been developed using the GNOME development platform. An application developed using this platform is called a GNOME-compliant application. For example, Nautilus and the gedit text editor are GNOME-compliant applications.

Some of the features of GNOME-compliant applications are as follows:

- Consistent look-and-feel

  GNOME-compliant applications have a consistent look-and-feel. You can use the Appearance preference tool to change the look-and-feel of your GNOME-compliant applications.

- Menubars, toolbars, and statusbars

  Most GNOME-compliant applications have a menubar, a toolbar, and a statusbar. The menubars usually have a similar structure; for example, the Help menu always contains an About menu item.

  A toolbar is a bar that appears under the menubar. A toolbar contains buttons for the most commonly-used commands. A statusbar is a bar at the bottom of a window that provides information about the current state of what you are viewing in the window. Applications might also contains other bars. For example, Nautilus contains a location bar.

- Default shortcut keys

  GNOME-compliant applications use the same shortcut keys to perform the same actions. See for a list of common shortcut keys.

- Drag-and-drop

  When you drag-and-drop something into a GNOME-compliant application, it will recognize the format of the items that you dragged and will handle them in an appropriate manner. For example, when you drag a HTML file from a Nautilus window to a web browser, the file is displayed in HTML format in the browser. However, when you drag the HTML file to a text editor, the file is displayed in plain text format in the text editor.

### Working With Files

The work you do with an application is stored in files. These may be on your computer's hard drive, or on a removable device such as a USB flash drive. You open a file to examine it or work on it, and you save a file to store your work. When you are done working with a file, you close it.

All GNOME applications use the same dialogs for opening and saving files, presenting you with a consistent interface. The following sections cover the open and the save dialog in detail.

### Choosing a File to Open

The Open File dialog allows you to choose a file to open in an application.

The right-hand pane of the dialog lists files and folders in the current location. You can use the mouse or the arrow keys on your keyboard to select a file.

Once a file is selected in the list, perform one of the following actions to open it:

- Click Open.

- Press Return.

- Press Spacebar.

- Double-click the file.

If you open a folder or a location instead of a file, the Open File dialog updates to show the contents of that folder or location.

To change the location shown in the right-hand pane, do one of the following:

- Open a folder that is listed in the current location.

- Open an item in the left-hand pane. This pane lists places such as your Documents folder, your Home Folder, media such as CDs and flash drives, places on your network, and your bookmarks.

- Click one of the buttons in the path bar above the file listing pane. This shows the hierarchy of folders that contain your current location. Use the arrow buttons to either side of the button bar if the list of folders is too long to fit.

The lower part of the Open File dialog may contain further options specific to the current application.

#### Filtering the File List

You can restrict the file list to show only files of certain types. To do this, choose a file type from the drop-down list beneath the file list pane. The list of file types depends on the application you are currently using. For example, a graphics application will list different image file formats, and a text editor will list different types of text file.

#### Find-as-you-type

If you know the name of the file you want to open, begin typing it: the file list will jump to show you files whose names begin with the characters you type. Arrow keys will now select from only these files. The characters you have typed appear in a pop-up window at the base of the file list.

To cancel find-as-you-type, press Esc.

#### Choosing a folder

You might sometimes need to choose a folder to work with rather than open a file. For example, if you use Archive Manager to extract files from an archive, you need to choose a folder to place the files into. In this case, the files in the current location are greyed out, and pressing Open when a folder is selected will choose that folder.

#### Open Location

You can type a full or relative path to the file you want to open. Press Ctrl L or click the button at the top left of the window to show (or hide) the Location field. Alternatively, begin typing a full path starting with `/` to show the Location field.

Type a path from the current location, or an absolute path beginning with `/` or `~/`. The Location field has the following features to simplify the typing of a full filename:

- A drop-down of possible file and folder names is displayed once you begin typing. Use down arrow and up arrow and Return to choose from the list.

- If the part of the name typed uniquely identifies a file or folder, the name is auto-completed. Press Tab to accept the suggested text. For example, if you type "Do", and the only object in the folder beginning with "Do" is `Documents`, then the entire name appears in the field.

#### Opening Remote Locations

You can open files in remote locations by choosing the location from the left panel, or by typing a path to a remote location into the Location field.

If you require a password to access the remote location, you will be asked for it when you open it.

#### Adding and Removing Bookmarks

To add the current location to the bookmarks list, press Add, or right-click a folder in the file list and choose Add to Bookmarks. You can add any folder that is listed in the current location by dragging it to the bookmarks list.

To remove a bookmark from the list, select it and press Remove.

Changes you make to the bookmarks list also affect the Places menu. For more on bookmarks, see .

#### Showing hidden files

To show hidden files in the file list, right-click in the file list and choose Show Hidden Files. For more on hidden files, see .

### Saving a File

The first time you save your work in an application, the Save As dialog will ask you for a location and name for the new file. When you save the file on subsequent occasions it will be updated immediately and you will not be asked to re-enter a location or name for the file. To save to a new file, choose File Save As.

You can enter a filename and choose a location to save in from the drop-down list of bookmarks and commonly-used locations.

#### Saving in another location

To save the file in a location not listed in the drop-down list, click the Browse for other folders expansion label. This shows a file browser similar to the one in the Open File dialog.

The expanded Save File dialog has the same features as the Open File dialog, such as filtering, find-as-you-type, and adding and removing bookmarks.

#### Replacing an existing file

If you type in the name of an existing file, you will be asked whether you wish to replace the existing file with your current work. You can also do this by choosing the file you want to overwrite in the browser.

#### Typing a Path

To specify a path to save a file, type it into the Name field. A drop-down of possible file and folder names is displayed once you begin typing. Use down arrow and up arrow and Return to choose from the list. If only one file or folder matches the partial name you have typed, press Tab to complete the name.

#### Creating a New Folder

If you would like to create a new folder to save your file in, press the Create Folder button. Type a name for the new folder and press Return. You can then choose to save your file in the new folder, as you would with any other folder.

applications overview