Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal has been a revelation of sorts in terms of UI improvements it brought to the table. One of the highlights of the new Unity UI is the launcher that sits on the left side of Ubuntu 11.04 Unity desktop. Now I can access my most favorite apps much more faster and my desktop will remain clean at the same time. But I didn't noticed the limitations of Unity launcher until I implemented the following quicklists which further enhanced the Ubuntu Unity launcher functionality. I am pretty darn sure that you are also going to love these awesome Unity launcher improvements as I did.
Add Your Favorite Places as Quicklists for Home Icon in Unity
Add Your Favorite Places as Quicklists for Home Icon in Unity
- Copy 'Home Folder' launcher file to your home directory. For that, you need to open Terminal(Unity Shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + T) and copy-paste the following commands.
cp /usr/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
- Open the file in your favorite text editor. I am using Gedit here.
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop
- Now replace the content of the file with the following text.
[Desktop Entry] Name=Home Folder Comment=Open your personal folder TryExec=nautilus Exec=nautilus --no-desktop Icon=user-home Terminal=false StartupNotify=true Type=Application Categories=GNOME;GTK;Core; OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity; X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=nautilus X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=general X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=nautilus X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Videos;Documents;Music;Pictures;Downloads [Videos Shortcut Group] Name=Videos Exec=nautilus Videos TargetEnvironment=Unity [Documents Shortcut Group] Name=Documents Exec=nautilus Documents TargetEnvironment=Unity [Music Shortcut Group] Name=Music Exec=nautilus Music TargetEnvironment=Unity [Pictures Shortcut Group] Name=Pictures Exec=nautilus Pictures TargetEnvironment=Unity [Downloads Shortcut Group] Name=Downloads Exec=nautilus Downloads TargetEnvironment=Unity
- And restart Unity. Hit Alt + F2 and run the following command to restart Unity.
unity --replace
- Done. If that doesn't work, you might need to log out and log back in to restart Unity. Theme I was using in the screenshot - Equinox GTK Theme + Faenza icon theme.
- As before, copy Ubuntu Software Center launcher file to your home directory. Open Terminal and copy-paste the following commands.
cp /usr/share/applications/ubuntu-software-center.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
- Open and edit the file using Gedit.
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/ubuntu-software-center.desktop
- And simply copy-paste the following lines towards the bottom of the file(after the line X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=software-center to be precise).
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=SoftwareProperties;SoftwareSources; [SoftwareProperties Shortcut Group] Name=Update Manager Exec=update-manager -c %u TargetEnvironment=Unity [SoftwareSources Shortcut Group] Name=Add/Edit PPAs Exec=gksu software-properties-gtk TargetEnvironment=Unity
- And restart Unity. Hit Alt + F2 and run the following command to restart Unity.
unity --replace
- Done. If that doesn't work, you might need to log out and log back in to restart Unity.
- Copy Banshee launcher file to your home directory.
cp /usr/share/applications/banshee.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
- Open and edit the file using Gedit.
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/banshee.desktop
- And simply copy-paste the following lines towards the bottom of the file.
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Play;Pause;Stop;Previous;Next;Preferences [Play Shortcut Group] Name=Play Exec=banshee --play TargetEnvironment=Unity [Pause Shortcut Group] Name=Pause Exec=banshee --pause TargetEnvironment=Unity [Stop Shortcut Group] Name=Stop Exec=banshee --stop TargetEnvironment=Unity [Previous Shortcut Group] Name=Previous Exec=banshee --previous TargetEnvironment=Unity [Next Shortcut Group] Name=Next Exec=banshee --next TargetEnvironment=Unity [Preferences Shortcut Group] Name=Preferences Exec=banshee --show-preferences TargetEnviroment=Unity
- And restart Unity. Hit Alt + F2 and run the following command to restart Unity.
unity --replace
- Done. If that doesn't work, you might need to log out and log back in to restart Unity.
- Copy Chromium Browser launcher file to your home directory.
cp /usr/share/applications/chromium-browser.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
- Open and edit the file using Gedit.
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/chromium-browser.desktop
- And simply copy-paste the following lines towards the bottom of the file.
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow;Incognito; [NewWindow Shortcut Group] Name=New Window Exec=chromium-browser TargetEnvironment=Unity [Incognito Shortcut Group] Name=New incognito window Exec=chromium-browser --incognito TargetEnvironment=Unity
- And restart Unity. Hit Alt + F2 and run the following command to restart Unity.
unity --replace
- Done. If that doesn't work, you might need to log out and log back in to restart Unity. Though it worked fine, "New Incongnito Window" option was not visible for me. Don't know the reason, a browser restart might do the trick.
Another Useful Quicklist for Terminal
- Copy GNOME-Terminal launcher file to your home directory.
cp /usr/share/applications/gnome-terminal.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
- Open and edit the file using Gedit.
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/gnome-terminal.desktop
- Find(Ctrl + f) the following line from the file.
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;
- Replace it with the following line.
OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;
- Now, simply copy-paste the following lines towards the bottom of the file.
X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow;NewTab;Top;Root; [NewWindow Shortcut Group] Name=New Window Exec=gnome-terminal --window TargetEnvironment=Unity [NewTab Shortcut Group] Name=New Tab Exec=gnome-terminal --tab TargetEnvironment=Unity [Root Shortcut Group] Name=Root Terminal Exec=gksudo gnome-terminal TargetEnvironment=Unity [Top Shortcut Group] Name=Top Exec=gnome-terminal --command top TargetEnvironment=Unity
- Close all Terminal windows, right-click on Terminal launcher icon and untick 'Keep In Launcher' option.
- Finally, browse to the ~/.local/share/applications/ from Nautilus file browser and simply drag and drop the new Terminal launcher(file name: gnome-terminal.desktop) onto the Unity Launcher. Done.
- Copy LibreOffice launcher file to your home directory.
cp /usr/share/applications/libreoffice-startcenter.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
- Open and edit the file using Gedit.
gedit ~/.local/share/applications/libreoffice-startcenter.desktop
- And simply copy-paste the following lines towards the bottom of the file.
##Start of shortcut menu ##List of shortcuts X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Writer;Impress;Calc;Math;Draw ##Define Shortcuts [Writer Shortcut Group] Name=Writer Exec=libreoffice -writer %U TargetEnvironment=Unity [Impress Shortcut Group] Name=Impress Exec=libreoffice -impress %U TargetEnvironment=Unity [Calc Shortcut Group] Name=Calc Exec=libreoffice -calc %U TargetEnvironment=Unity [Math Shortcut Group] Name=Math Exec=libreoffice -math %U TargetEnvironment=Unity [Draw Shortcut Group] Name=Draw Exec=libreoffice -draw %U TargetEnvironment=Unity ##End of shortcut menu
- As with the case of Terminal launcher, navigate to ~/.local/share/applications from Nautilus and drag and drop the LibreOffice desktop file(libreoffice-startcenter.desktop) into the launcher.
You can find more such quicklists for a range of applications such as Firefox, DeadBeef, Google Docs, Google Chrome etc. at askubuntu, which is also the source of this article. I think, at least some of them, like the "Home Icon" quicklist, should come as default in future Ubuntu releases. They are proving to be a real time saver for me. Meanwhile, you might also want to check out our collection of things to do after installing Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and top 10 Ubuntu 11.04 powered Laptops and Netbooks as well.