152 CHAPTER 10 PERSONALIZING UBUNTU: GETTING EVERYTHING (Multiple domain web hosting)
152 CHAPTER 10 PERSONALIZING UBUNTU: GETTING EVERYTHING JUST RIGHT Adding and Removing Desktop Items Virtually the entire Ubuntu desktop can be redesigned and restructured. You can move the Applications menu from the top of the screen to the bottom to be more like Windows, for example, or you can add numerous desktop shortcuts to popular applications and/or files. Adding a Shortcut Ubuntu s nearest equivalent to a Windows-style desktop shortcut is a launcher. An important difference, however, is that launchers are designed to run a certain command. Therefore, they can only point at programs (although you could create a launcher that contained a command chain required to run a particular program and file; to use The GIMP to open a picture, you might create a launcher that ran gimppicture.jpg, for example). If you want to make a shortcut to a data file, such as a picture, you need to create a link. This is just as easy as creating a launcher. Creating a Launcher You can create a launcher two ways. One way is to simply click and drag an icon from one of the main menus to the desktop. This effectively copies the menu s launcher to the desktop, rather than creating a new launcher, but the effect is the same. Note Not all menu items can be dragged and dropped to create launchers. In particular, most items on the System menu cannot be dragged and dropped. The other way to create a launcher is to right-click the desktop and select Create Launcher. In the Create Launcher dialog box, you need to fill in only the Name and Command field; the others fields can be left blank. The Command field must contain a Linux executable program, command, or script. If you use a command-line program or script, you must check the Run in Terminal box. This will open a GNOME Terminal window automatically and run the command or script within it. The terminal window will disappear as soon as the command has finished. To choose an icon for your launcher, click the Icon button in the Create Launcher dialog box. If you don t choose an icon, the stock GNOME one is used (the same icon as is used for unidentified and/or system files). You can select from several predefined icons or choose your own picture by clicking the Browse button, as shown in Figure 10-8.