Hi Alan,
Well that helps a bit, thanks, though I'm still stuck on a number of these.
On 27/09/12 19:41, Alan Pope wrote:
> On 27/09/12 19:27, Gordon Scott wrote:
>> How can I turn off transparency on the Dash?
>> I hate transparency at the best of times, but the Dash
>> seems particularly hard to read. Much of the time it's
>> hard to tell what's on the Dash and what's on the window behind it.
>
> Install Compiz Config Settings Manager. Run it. Find the Unity plugin
> -> Experimental -> Dash Blur -> None.
I'd found that, but unfortunately it does not turn off the transparency,
it only turns off the blurring of the transparency. If anything that
makes the situation worse, as then you can read one window through the
other, which is pretty hopeless.
>> Dash searches not really working?
>> One of the features I thought might be OK is the search box on the
>> Dash, but so often it just doesn't come up with anything useful,
>> sometimes even when I know it's there!
>> As an example, I _know_ wget is on this machine, but Dash doesn't
>> show it even if I type "wget". If there some feature or option I
>> need
>> to get it to see stuff that exists? wg<tab> in a terminal works
>> OK.
>>
>
> For commands that don't have a desktop file (i.e. command line stuff)
> use ALT+F2, not the Dash.
Oh, OK, bad example.
I thought it searched for 'function related' things. It seems to with
'player', as it finds a number of applications that are players, e.g.,
Timidity++.
It found nothing for 'transparency', nothing for 'glass', nothing for
'jpeg' and nothing for a number of other things for which I searched.
What are the rules by which it works?
I guess one has to use a mix of Dash, apropos and a web search. Ho Hum.
>> How can I get stuff grouped in a context-related way?
>> In the recent past, as an example, I have a menu from the toolbar
>> with top-level headings like "Graphics", "Programming" and so on.
>> Right now I find nothing like that on Unity, but I feel sure there
>> must
>> be a way .. dedicated lens or something?
>>
>
> Nope. There have been suggested designs, but nothing implemented.
>
So I guess I write a bunch of scripts and stick them in a folder
hierarchy somewhere? :-/
>> How to tidy the launcher?
>> I've minimized the of icons on the launcher so I can see a fair
>> percentage of them, but I'd like to remove most of the clutter.
>> It's too full even before I open any applications.
>> That's compounded somewhat, also, by the tooltip hovers vanishing
>> after scanning just a couple of icons, and at present many icons
>> are unfamiliar.
>>
>
> Right click, unlock from launcher.
Erm, yes, or I've heard, drag to the waste bin. That makes them
disappear, which is indeed tidier. I'd rather hoped to manage them more
than that, but I guess your answer to the question before also answers
this one.
>> Can I set up so that I can type in a background window whilst watching
>> the results in a foreground window?
>> I use that a a lot for testing, but can't presently see any way
>> that it's possible
>> with Unity.
>>
>
> "Focus follows mouse" as it's called.
> http://askubuntu.com/questions/64605/how-do-i-set-focus-follows-mouse
OK, that's good. It's tricky getting to the menus with a mouse, but
alt-keys seem work, so hopefully I can get there that way for most
stuff. I also turned off auto_raise, which otherwise brings the window
forward after a delay.
Hm, I wonder does that always work? I have a number of tools with no
declared shortcuts.
Ah .. the cursor goes to the pull-down. That looks promising. I haven't
yet properly investigated how one gets back, but at the moment that also
looks sane. Good. I was quite concerned about that.
Gordon.
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