This chapter introduces you to the basic skills that you need to work with the GNOME Desktop.

basic skills mouse skills mouse basic skills This section describes what the mouse buttons do, and what the different pointers mean. A mouse is a pointing device that lets you move the mouse pointer on the screen. The mouse pointer is usually a small arrow with which you point to objects on your screen. Pressing a mouse button will perform a particular action on the object over which your mouse pointer is situated, depending on which button you press.

Buttons mouse button conventions The instructions in this manual are for three buttoned, right handed mouse devices, the most common type. If you use another type of mouse or pointing device, you should take care to locate the corresponding buttons on your mouse. If you use a left-handed mouse see the paragraph on setting mouse orientation below. If you set your mouse device to be left handed, you should reverse the mouse button conventions used in this manual. This is normally also implied in most documentation and in many applications. Some mice lack a middle button. If you have a two-button mouse device, then your system may be configured to use chording to allow middle button simulation. If chording is activated, you press the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously, to simulate the the middle mouse button. A middle mouse button is by no means necessary to use GNOME. The mouse button conventions used in this manual are as follows: Left mouse button The button on the left side of a mouse device. This is the main mouse button, used for selecting, activating, pressing buttons etc... When you are told to "click" it is implied that you should click with the left button, unless specifically stated. Middle mouse button The middle button of a mouse device. On many mice with a scroll wheel, the scroll wheel can be pushed down for a middle mouse button click. Right mouse button The button on the right side of a mouse device. Often, this button displays a context menu for the object under the pointer. Use Mouse Preferences to reverse the orientation of your mouse device. You will then need to reverse the mouse button conventions used in this manual and other GNOME documentation. See for more information about setting your mouse preferences.

Actions mouse action conventions mouse action terminology The following conventions are used in this manual to describe actions that you take with the mouse: Action Definition Click Press and release the left mouse button, without moving the mouse. Left-click Same as click. The term 'left-click' is used where there might be confusion with right-click. Middle-click Press and release the middle mouse button, without moving the mouse. Right-click Press and release the right mouse button, without moving the mouse. Double-click Press and release the left mouse button twice in rapid succession without moving the mouse. You can configure the sensitivity to double-clicks by changing the Double-click Timeout setting: see for more information. Drag Press and do not release the left mouse button, and then move the mouse with the button still held down, and finally release the button. Dragging with the mouse is used in many different contexts. This moves an object around the screen with the mouse. The object is dropped at the location where the mouse button is released. This action is also called drag-and-drop. Clicking on an element of the interface to move it is sometimes called a grab. Click and drag For example, you can change the position of a window by dragging on its title bar, or move a file by dragging its icon from one window and dropping it on another. The left mouse buttons is usually used to perform drag actions, although the middle mouse button is sometimes used for an alternate drag action. Click-and-hold Press and do not release the left mouse button. mouse actions You can perform the following actions with the mouse: Left mouse button Select text. Select items. Drag items. Activate items. Middle mouse button Paste text. Move items. Move windows to the back. Right mouse button Use the right mouse button to open a context menu for an item, if a menu applies. For most items, you can also use the ShiftF10 keyboard shortcut to open the context menu once the item has been selected. For example, when viewing files in the file manager, you select a file by clicking with the left mouse button and open a file by double-clicking with the left mouse button. Clicking with the right mouse button will bring up a context menu for that file. In most applications, you can select text with your left mouse button and paste it in another application using the middle mouse button. This is called primary selection paste, and works separately from your normal clipboard operations. To select more than one item, you can hold the Ctrl key to select multiple items, or hold the Shift key to select a contiguous range of items. You can also drag a bounding box to select several items by starting the drag in the empty space around items and dragging out a rectangle.

Pointers mouse pointers pointers mouse pointers As you use the mouse, the appearance of the mouse pointer can change. The appearance of the pointer provides feedback about a particular operation, location, or state. The following mouse pointers are shown as your mouse passes over different elements of the screen: Your mouse pointers will differ from those shown here if you are using a different pointer theme. Your distributor or vendor may have set a different default theme. Normal pointer. Normal pointer This pointer appears during normal use of the mouse. Busy pointer. Busy pointer This pointer appears over a window that is busy performing a task. You cannot use the mouse to give this window any input, but you can move to another window and work with that. Resize pointer. Resize pointer This pointer indicates that you can grab the control to resize parts of the interface. This appears over the borders of windows and over resize handles between panes in a window. The direction of the arrows indicates in which direction you can resize. Hand pointer Hand pointer This pointer appears when you hover over a hypertext link, in a web page for example. This pointer indicates that you can click on the link to load a new document or perform an action. I-beam pointer I-beam pointer This pointer is shown when the mouse is over text that you can select or edit. Click to place the cursor where you want to type text, or drag to select text. The following mouse pointers are shown when dragging an item such as a file, or a piece of text. They indicate the result of releasing the mouse button to drop the object being moved. Move pointer. Move pointer This pointer indicates that when you drop the object, the object is moved from the old location to the new location. Copy pointer. Copy pointer This pointer indicates that when you drop the object, a copy of the object is created where you drop it. Symbolic link pointer. Symbolic link pointer This pointer indicates that when you drop the object, a symbolic link to the object is created where you drop the object. A symbolic link is a special type of file that points to another file or folder. For more on this, see . Ask pointer. Ask pointer This pointer indicates that when you drop the object, you will be given a choice of what to do. A menu will open to allow you to choose which operation you would like to perform. For instance, you may be able to move, copy, or create a symbolic link. Not available pointer. Not available pointer This pointer indicates that you cannot drop the object at the current location. Releasing the mouse button now will have no effect: the dragged object will be returned to its starting location. Move panel object pointer. Move panel object pointer This pointer appears when you drag a panel or a panel object with the middle mouse button. See for more information on panels. Move window pointer. Move window pointer This pointer appears when you drag a window to move it. See for more information on moving windows.

basic skills keyboard skills keyboard basic skills For almost every task that you can perform with the mouse, you can use the keyboard to perform the same task. Shortcut keys are keys that provide you with a quick way to perform a task. You can use shortcut keys to perform general GNOME Desktop tasks and to work with interface items such as panels and windows. You can also use shortcut keys in applications. To customize your shortcut keys, use the Keyboard Shortcuts preference tool. See for more information about configuring keyboard shortcuts. Many PC keyboards come with two special keys for the Windows operating system: a key with a Microsoft Windows™ logo and a key for accessing context menus. In GNOME, the Windows key is often configured to act as an additional modifier key, called the Super key. The context menu key can be used to access the context menu of the selected item, just as the ShiftF10 keyboard shortcut can. You can also modify the GNOME Desktop preferences to use keyboard accessibility features. See for more information about the keyboard accessibility features. The following sections describe the shortcut keys that you can use throughout the desktop and applications.

shortcut keys global Global shortcut keys enable you to use the keyboard to perform tasks related to your desktop, rather than tasks on the currently selected window or application. The following table lists some global shortcut keys: Shortcut Key Function AltF1 Open the Applications Menu. AltF2 Display the Run Application dialog. See for more information. Print Screen Take a screenshot of the entire desktop. See for more information. AltPrint Screen Take a screenshot of the currently focused window. CtrlAlt Arrow keys Switch to the workspace to the specified direction of the current workspace. See for more information on working with multiple workspaces. CtrlAlt D Minimize all windows and give focus to the desktop. AltTab Switch between windows. A list of windows that you can select is displayed. Release the keys to select a window. You can press the Shift key to cycle through the windows in reverse order. CtrlAlt Tab Switch the focus between the panels and the desktop. A list of items that you can select is displayed. Release the keys to select an item. You can press the Shift key to cycle through the items in reverse order.

shortcut keys window Window shortcut keys allow you to use the keyboard to perform tasks on the currently focused window. The following table lists some window shortcut keys: Shortcut Key Function AltTab Switch between windows. A list of windows that you can select is displayed. Release the keys to select a window. You can press the Shift key to cycle through the windows in reverse order. AltF4 Close the currently focused window. AltF5 Unmaximize the current window, if it is maximized. AltF7 Move the currently focused window. After pressing this shortcut, you can move the window using either the mouse or the arrow keys. To finish the move, click the mouse or press any key on the keyboard. AltF8 Resize the currently focused window. After pressing this shortcut, you can resize the window using either the mouse or the arrow keys. To finish the resize, click the mouse or press any key on the keyboard. AltF9 Minimize the current window. AltF10 Maximize the current window. Altspacebar Open the window menu for the currently selected window. The window menu allows you to perform actions on the window, such as minimizing, moving between workspaces, and closing. ShiftCtrlAlt Arrow keys Move the current window to another workspace in the specified direction. See for more information on working with multiple workspaces.

shortcut keys application Application shortcut keys enable you to perform application tasks. You can use shortcut keys to perform application tasks more quickly than if you use a mouse. The following table lists some common application shortcut keys: Shortcut Key Action CtrlN Create a new document or window. CtrlX Cut the selected text or region and place it on the clipboard. CtrlC Copy the selected text or region onto the clipboard. CtrlV Paste the contents of the clipboard. CtrlZ Undo the last action. CtrlS Save the current document to disk. F1 Load the online help document for the application. In addition to these shortcut keys, all applications support a set of keys to navigate and work with the user interface. These keys allow you to perform operations that you might normally perform with a mouse. The following table describes some interface control keys: Keys Action Arrow keys or Tab Move between controls in the interface or items in a list. Enter or spacebar Activate or choose the selected item. F10 Activate the left-most menu of the application window. ShiftF10 Activate the context menu for the selected item. Esc Close a menu without selecting a menu item, or cancel a drag operation.

access keys A menubar is a bar at the top of a window that contains the menus for the application. An access key is an underlined letter in a menubar, menu, or dialog that you can use to perform an action. On a menubar, the access key for each menu is underlined. To open a menu, hold the Alt key, then press the access key. In the menu, the access key for each menu item is underlined. To choose a menu item when a menu is displayed, you can simply press the access key for the menu item. For example, to open a new window in the Help application, press AltF to open the File menu, then press N to activate the New Window menu item. You can also use access keys to access elements in a dialog. In a dialog, one letter in most dialog elements is underlined. To access a particular dialog element, hold Alt, then press the access key.