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Ubuntu Unity Keyboard Shortcuts & Mouse Gestures
By: Taylor Gillespie
Expert Author
2011-04-29
Some of developers have adopted tiling window managers or make use of the Compiz Grid plugin in order to gain more control over the windows in day-to-day graphically programming desktops. While Ubuntu Unity's new, simpler, graphical approach may deter developers from adopting it for their desktops, by coming to grips with Unity's new keyboard and mouse shortcuts, it proves to be a powerful method of organizing and manipulating your workspace.
Ubuntu Unity comes with many new keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures, as outlined in AskUbuntu, that can make your development, and Unity, experience more productive. The keybindings included in Unity allow you control your graphical desktop all without your hands leaving the keyboard. The central aspect of Unity being the Launcher, holding the Super-, or Windows-key will activate it, and pressing a number key will open and bring up the associated application. Shortcuts to open the trash can and launch the indespensible terminal window provide quick access to common tasks. The search functionality cannot be overlooked either. In similar style to Gnome Do, it usually finds the correct application after a few characters and gives you great flexiblity to quickly load those applications which do not have bindings to any shortcuts, yet. The window managment shorcuts as well, help sort through and organize your windows. Using the numberpad with both Crtl and Alt together, windows can be moved and resized to specific areas of the screen, and also centered and maximized and back again. Along with the show desktop shortcut, these shortcuts can free you from having to use the mouse to manually move and resize and fit all the windows.
Although it may be a turnoff for some developers at first glance with it's heavy reliance on 'framing' Ubuntu with gratiduous graphics in order to be more user-friendly and extra graphics being an extra drain and often a hinderence to development, Ubuntu Unity offers such handy keybindings that are just as much developer-friendly and overcome its inital impression. For those times that you do grab for the mouse, read up on the mouse gestures and you will find even more window managment abilities including tiling. Developers can benefit from the human touch, or Apple touch, Ubuntu is trying to put in Linux with Unity, without sacrificing expert controls. The included keybindings and mouse gentures give developers more than would be expected from the simple look of Ubuntu Unity.
About the Author:
Taylor is a Staff Writer for WebProNews
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