Desktops : Gnome - Activities

A long time ago, well the 15th August 1997, the Gnome Project was started by Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena, its aim... to develop a Desktop Environment and Applications for Linux . (Read more at Wikipedia.org)

Initially it had a traditional desktop design with the usual icons and shortcuts you expect, this continued with Gnome 2 but when Gnome 3 was release in 2011 its design completely changed .

Gnome 3 wants the User to focus on The Applications rather than the Desktop so no distractions, no icons or shortcuts to click on, just a nice background graphic with a Black Bar on top that in the centre shows Date and Time.

You manage your tasks and virtual desktops by going to the Activities Overview, to get there....

By Gnome Jim, it's a Desktop but not as we know it!!
  • Click on Activities Button on the Top Bar.
  • or Mouse Over to the Top Left Hand Corner.
  • or Press the Windows Key.
behold the Super Key

Gnome really works that Windows Key calling it the Super Key, you will find it between Ctrl and Alt on your Keyboard.

The Activities Overview is a screen divided into three panels.

The left panel called Dash displays a list of Favourite Applications and Current Running Applications (they have a white dot underneath its icon), which you Click to Start or go Back To.

The middle panel contains Thumbnails of Open Windows on the current workspace, it's blank if none are open.

The Right Panel indicates what is happening at different workspaces, there are four shown below, if one workspace gets too crowded with stuff, you move to an other, mess that up, not to worry you have two more workspaces before you have to start and tidy up.

Copying Ctrl + C and Pasting Ctrl + v

Workspace One: Copying text from Firefox and Pasting this into LibreOffice's Writer while listening to a Podcast on Rhythmbox.

Workspace Four: Using Gimp a Graphics Application, to create that perfect screenshot explaining Gnome and File a File Manager to organise my finished Pics.

Above is the Activities Overview of Workspace One there is a Blue Border around the top rectangle in the Right Panel to indicate this. To move to another workspace Click Once on its rectangle to go to its Activities Overview or Double Click its rectangle to go to the Applications there.

To return back to the applications on a selected workspace hit Super Key or Click on its Thumbnail, I returned to Firefox and Writer, which are splitting the screen perfectly, revealing my inner neat freak, (Rhythmbox box is bopping away in the background).

Paste Special

When Pasting Text into Writer try Paste Special and Choose Unformatted Text, just get the text you want..

Gnome is very similar to Windows 10 in how it manages open Windows:

Alternately hold down the Super Key and press the:

Having more than one Workspace may seem confusing at first, but it aids your workflow especially if you have multiple applications running. For instance, I need to close Rhythmbox, it may mess up my perfectly placed windows, or I could put it on a separate Workspace.

Give Workspaces a Chance.

To move an Application to another Workspace - Click either Thumbnail and drag it to another Workspace.

To Close an Application - mouse over its Thumbnail and Click on the X.

You can move an Application to another Workspace while you are using it by Right Clicking its Title Bar and choose to Move to Workspace Up or Workspace Down.

Change while you use.

If you are back at an Application and you want to go to another Workspace, hit the Super Key to get back to Activities Overview and Click that Workspace Rectangle or better still skip going to the Activities View by hold down the Super Key and..

Using Alt and Tab will cycle through all Running Applications regardless of which Workspace they are on.

Try Alt + Shift + Tab to go from Right to Left