quick tip

There are situations when, for various reasons, users have to convert a document, action that can easily and successfully be achieved with Calibre (available via Ubuntu Software Center).

An important aspect of the above choice is Calibre's extended document types coverage, consequently, the user has a broad range of conversion choices.

How do we convert documents/books with Calibre?

Ubuntu 12.04's Radiance and Ambiance adopted a new visual approach (as compared to Ubuntu 11.10) in terms of menus, meaning the menus have now a white look if they are generated by a white source and black if they are generated by a dark source.

The user visible consequences are white right-click menus on both Ambiance and Radiance, visuals that are not "digested" by various users, who tend to use, in their daily workflow, GTK+ themes with one-color per menu (right-click menus), finding the viceversa inappropriate.

Having numerous windows opened in the same time on the desktop, makes giving focus an action to be considered for optimizations.

Ubuntu offers, by default, the traditional way of dealing with windows by letting the user to give focus to a window by clicking on it, meaning, users can easily bring a window in an active/focused state via just 1-click.

Workspaces are designed to increase the productivity in Ubuntu, presented as "separate" desktops accessible via keyboard shortcuts (in Ubuntu 11.10, press&hold Ctrl+Alt then navigate between workspaces with the arrow keys, like Up, Down, Left, Right) or by pressing the Workspace Switcher from the Unity launcher.

GNOME Terminal is a powerful tool useful for executing various commands, commands that can vary related to the possessed knowledge level and can be used according to one's amount of informations (versed users can use the terminal for a huge base of actions, yet newcomers can use this command line tool to easily add a PPA via copy & paste).

Compiz is a beautiful tool designed to please numerous users in terms of eyecandy windows, menus, interactions, effects, etc, a true desktop enhancements.

Small but eye-catching effects can easily be selected, especially by users who use dedicated applications, specialized in a particular set of effects.

Ubuntu Tweak brings various sets of configuration settings useful in various Ubuntu parts (like cleaning the "garbage", selecting font, choosing a particular theme, etc), incorporating a Compiz Settings dedicated page, too.

Ubuntu 11.10's System Settings offers a set of configuration options properly organized in categories, from where users can adjust, set, change various options, ranging from the GTK+ theme to sound configurations, printing settings and more.

System Settings brings, especially starting with Ubuntu 11.10, new interesting ways of interaction with various Ubuntu components, allowing users (especially newcomers) to easily change and tweak numerous settings.

By default, Ubuntu displays one's name on the Unity panel in the top-right corner, but, for various reasons, there are persons more conformable with a no name/no face top bar.

Hiding the username is a simple task, which can be easily accomplished via dconf-editor:

• first, install dconf-editor
  

  sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Weeks ago, the new LightDM has landed, bringing in Precise Pangolin shiny new features and an overall polish in the login experience.

One of the new introduced features is its default ability to display, at login, as a background, the user's desktop wallpaper, a fancy features for most of us, but, there are folks who prefer to keep their wallpaper only for them and not displayed prior to the password typing, blocking unwanted eyes (especially on multi-users computers).

Usually, after Ubuntu is installed on a machine, the user adds various programs (via PPA, Ubuntu Software Center, etc), performs the regular updates (via the Update Manager), install/delete then reinstall a particulate application, ending with numerous unneeded packages that can make the system slower, or just waste useful disk space.