Panel power in Ubuntu

Share This March 2nd, 2010 Antowan Nothling

Add to panel

This is not a feature unique to the Ubuntu interface even though the bundled objects and applets may be. It is however a nifty feature you might not be familiar with in the Gnome interface which is probably the interface you have on your desktop and most likely you are using Ubuntu. Super generalizations apply here so if it is not to be found in your neck of the Linux woods you probably already know why and what your alternatives are.

In your application panel to the top of your screen (if you haven’t moved it from its default position in Ubuntu, RIGHT CLICK it and choose ADD TO PANEL… You will find a drop down with a ton of features to choose from ranging from little beady eyes that track your every mouse move, a trading tracker, weather info display, quick notes and beyond. What I immediately found useful was the Character Palette. If you have grown used to the Windows ALT+NUM PAD combo trick to get special characters into text then this will be a handy addition to your desktop once you go open source and specifically Linux and even more specifically, Ubuntu.

You will also find the handy hide all and reveal desktop feature you might have appreciated in Windows. There are enough goodies in this feature alone to keep you quite busy and entertained for quite some time. After this excursion into the realm of desktop modification you will also find your productivity enhanced, so enjoy it!

Entry Filed under: General,Software