One of the nice things about Ubuntu is that it is easy to setup keyboard shortcuts.This saves time as you don't have to go to the system menus or remember where to find things to get an action performed.
Keyboard Shortcuts Under Ubuntu
Go to System | Preferences | Keyboard Shortcuts to bring up the application. Notice that keyboard shortcuts are grouped into Action/Shortcut columns. There are four actions that can be taken:
- Sound
- Desktop
- Accessibility
- Window Management
If you want to change the current keyboard sequence for an action/shortcut pair, simply select the row with the mouse and then type in your new key sequence. Don't like CTRL+ALT+T to launch the TTY terminal? Then type in another keyboard shortcut pair (like ALT+F1). I like to hardwire my most frequently used applications to the ALT+F1 to ALT+F12 keys.
Creating A Custom Keyboard Shortcut
Lets create a new custom shortcut. Suppose I want to launch the GEdit Text Editor application instead of having to go to the Applications menu all the time. Click on Add and then the following:
Name: Launch GEdit Text Editor
Shortcut: gedit
After we do this, type in ALT+F1 and then click on the Close button. Now type that keyboard shortcut and GEdit should be launched.
Standard Ubuntu Keyboard Shortcuts
It should be noted that there are standard keyboard shortcuts set out of the box. So you shouldn't just go and type in keyboard sequences without knowing if one is already taken.
For example, suppose you are in Firefox and had previously hardwired the launching of GEdit to trigger on the keyboard shortcut CTRL+C. Well, if you wanted to copy some text and hit CTRL+C, GEdit will launch instead.
So choose your keyboard short cuts carefully.
About Kerry Kobashi
Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.
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