Thursday, December 18, 2008

HOW TO: Add keyboard short-cuts

Problem:
You want to assign short-cuts to your function (F1-F12) keys.

Solution:
The basic shortcuts:

1. Browse to System>Preferences>Keyboard Shortcuts


The more advanced shortcuts:

1. Open a terminal and enter:
$sudo apt-get install gconf-editor
2. Click "ALT+F2"
3. Type in "gconf-editor"
4. Browse to apps/metacity/global_keybindings
5. Here you can change the values for each "run_command". As is shown in the example (above).

4. Now browse to "keybinding_commands"
5. Here change the corresponding command (e.g. if you set run_command_10 to F10, then here you will have to change command_10). It is difficult for me to suggest any particularly useful command, however, any command that you run in the terminal can be run from here. As an example my commands do the following:

F1 - opens a terminal

F2 - opens gedit (text editor)
F3 - opens nautilus
F4 - opens nautilus as root
Ctrl-Alt-Del - opens up the gnome system monitor

If you would like suggestions please comment.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks.

    If you have changed sth. from gnome-keybinding-properties (for example disabled a keyboard shortcut, e.g. ALT+F1 -that shows the main menu of the panel-) but the changes don't work (and F5 or CTRL+R on the desktop don’t solve it) this command can solve the problem:
    metacity --replace (you can run it from the dialog that appears holding the ALT key and pressing the F2 key)

    This (re)starts the Metacity window manager.

    You can also start Metacity running (but not restart it; only works to start Metacity if another window manager is in use before):
    gnome-appearance-properties (also possible from ALT+F2) and setting "Visual Effects" to None

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