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Earlier, i have posted about useful windows shortcuts. This time, i have compiled a list of 25 useful Ubuntu shortcuts (not those commonly known Ctrl+C type shortcuts) that make your life easier. These shortcuts will help you do routine tasks more quickly and easily.
Ubuntu
Recently, Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex was released and i must say this version of Ubuntu has improved a lot over earlier versions. If you haven’t tried Ubuntu ever, then this is the time you should give ubuntu a try.
Here goes the shortcuts list.
Window Management
Note: Some shortcuts might require Compiz enabled on your Ubuntu system.
Switch Workspaces in Ubuntu (win + E)
1. Win+E - Shows all workspaces in a nifty way and lets you switch between workspaces easily.
2. Alt+Ctrl+Left/Right Arrow – Move to Workspace on Left/Right
3. Alt+Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right Arrow – Move current window to another workspace
4. Alt + Shift+ Up Arrow – This initiates a cool looking window switcher interface with which you can switch between windows using Arrow keys while holding Alt + Shift
Ubuntu Window Switcher (Alt + Shift+ Up Arrow)
5. Alt+F9/F10 – Minimize/ Maximize current window
6. Alt+F5 – UnMaximizes Current Window
7. Alt+F7 – This shortcut activates the move window option that lets you move current window using arrow keys. You can even move window to other workspace, try moving it to extreme right.
8. Alt+F8 – Resize current window with arrow keys
9. Ctrl + Alt + D – Show Desktop/ Restore open windows if show desktop used earlier
10. Alt+Shift+Tab – Switch Windows in Reverse Direction as done using Alt+Tab
Nautilus
11. Shift+Ctrl+N – Create New Folder, Very useful shortcut
12. Alt + Enter – Show properties of a selected file/folder without requiring to right click on it and select Properties.
13. Ctrl + 1/2 – Change folder view to icon/list.
14. Ctrl + W – close current Nautilus Window
15. Ctrl + Shift + W – close all open Nautilus Windows
16. Ctrl+T – Open a new tab in Nautilus
17. Alt + Up/Down Arrow – Move to Parent Folder/ Selected folder
18. Alt + Left/Right Arrow – Move Back/forward in Nautilus
19. Alt + Home – Move directly to your Home Folder
20. F9 – Toggle display of Nautilus Sidepane
21. Ctrl + H – Toggle Display of hidden files and folders
Miscellaneous
22. Ctrl + Alt + L - Quick shortcut to Lock Screen if you need to be away from your desktop for few moments and don’t want others to see your desktop.
23. Alt + F1 – Open Applications Menu
24. Alt + F2 – Open the Run Application dialog Box
25. Win + Mousewheel – Zoom in / Zoom out Desktop. This one’s pretty useful if you are having a wireless keyboard/mouse.
I hope these shortcuts will make your life easier doing routine repetitive tasks and make you more productive using your Ubuntu System.
If you know of some other useful Ubuntu shortcuts, feel free to share them in comments below.
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Nice site, very clean, lots of content and loved having a look.
Great stuff in here. Quite a few that I was not aware of.
Who’s going to remember stuff like this..
Ctrl + Shift + W? Alt+ Shift+ Tab?
Useless..
@Miles..To a newbie, using keyboard shortcuts might sound useless but keyboard shortcuts are added to OS for some purpose. Routine tasks are done in a snap with keyb’d shortcuts.
Though there may be a few shortcuts that one may not use quite often.
For Compiz users who really want eye-candiez, tap Shift+F9, to enable waterdrops onto your screen…not very useful plugin, but hey, it’s better than Aero, right? cheerz mates
Hi,
Another useful shortcut is the CTRL+ALT+TAB to switch between windows across desktops.
This is one i have found quite useful.
Have a nice day!
One increcidbly useful shortcut I discovered by accident, is in the File Manager (Nautilus). Press Ctrl-S and enter a file name mask (for instance *.doc) and hit Enter. All files matching the mask will be selected.
Saved me a ton of clicking!
“25. Win + Mousewheel – Zoom in / Zoom out Desktop. This one’s pretty useful if you are having a wireless keyboard/mouse.”
I dont get it.
@Jesper: If you have wireless keyboard/mouse you can just sit back and relax away from your monitor and see the screen elements clearly from far using Zoom in/Zoom out shortcut.
Not so useful for laptops though
It’s a very good post!
Thank you very much.
Cláudio Novais.
Nice post. I’ll surely try this!
subscribed 2 ur feed!
@Arun: Thanks for subscribing
Pretty sweet. Any chances that these Ubuntu shortcuts can be put into an one page cheat sheet?
100 years ahead from Windont s. I mean Windows.
I’m after the shortcut to toggle between windows of same application type.
CTRL + TAB (Win), Forgotton the key on OSX. Ubunutu – did compiz rob it from me?
Found a few other good ones here.
I use Super+M, Super+N, Super+F in compiz for color filters and negative display switching, makes reading some pages much easier.
hi>
very gud site.
got to knw abt many things//
No. 25 is wrong.
Either it is wrong or I don’t get it either,
however in Firefox if you want to zoom in and
out then hold control + the Mousewheel
@kenneth you must turn on compiz fusion’s enhanced zoom feature, and if that doesn’t work you need to change the shortcut.
Some of these be inaccurate. By which I mean there are options to change keyboard shortcuts. You may want to reassign keys to combinations you can easily remember or for different tasks. I automatically assign the WIN key to dropping the Application menu. Much more useful but will invalidate some if the above shortcuts.
Also some of the Alt+arrow navigation combos don’t work (for me) in Intrepid.
@Donal, some of these shortcuts require compiz fusion(as mentioned in post above), so they might not work for everyone.
Why not just advice people how to install the CompizConfig Settings Manager? It has these and a bunch of other things in an easy to set up and figure out format, plus it also lets people change their shortcuts to useful ones (like Ctrl + Alt + Tab -> Super + Tab).