Chapter 6 Using Your Desktop Background

This chapter describes how to use the desktop background to start applications, and open your files and folders. The chapter also describes how to use the Desktop Background menu, and how to customize the desktop background.

Introduction to the Desktop Background

The desktop background lies behind all of the other components on your visible desktop. The desktop background is an active component of the user interface. You can perform the following tasks from your desktop background:

• Start your applications, and open your files and folders.

  You can add desktop objects for convenient access to files, folders, and applications that you use frequently. For example, you can add an application launcher to the desktop background. You can create a symbolic link to a file that you use often, then add this link to your desktop background. You can also store files and folders on the desktop background.

• Open the Desktop Background menu.

  Right-click on the desktop background to open the Desktop Background menu. You can use the Desktop Background menu to perform actions on the desktop background.

• Work with Trash.

  You can move objects to Trash and empty your Trash.

• Customize your desktop background.

  You can customize the pattern or color of the desktop background.

Desktop Background Objects

A desktop background object is an icon on your desktop background that you can use to open your files, folders, and applications. You can also add objects to your desktop background to provide convenient access to files, folders, applications, and URIs that you use frequently. For example, you can add a launcher to your desktop background to enable you to open a particular application that you use often.

Table 6–1 describes the types of object that you can add to your desktop background.

Table 6–1 Types of Desktop Background Objects

Object Type	Description
Symbolic link	A symbolic link is an object that points to another file or folder. When you choose a symbolic link from the desktop background, the file or folder that the symbolic link points to is opened. You can move or copy a symbolic link to the desktop background.  You can identify symbolic links by the default arrow emblem that appears on all symbolic links.
Launcher	You can add the following types of launcher to the desktop background:  Application: Starts a particular application. Link: Links to a particular file, folder, or URI.
File	You can add files to your desktop background. Files on your desktop background reside in your Desktop directory.
Folder	You can move folders to your desktop background, and you can create folders on your desktop background. Folders on your desktop background reside in your Desktop directory.

The following sections describe how to work with objects on the desktop background.

To Select an Object

To select an object on the desktop background, click on the object. To select multiple objects, press-and-hold Ctrl, then click on the objects that you want to select.

You can also select an area on the desktop background to select all objects within that area. Click-and-hold on the desktop background, then drag over the area that contains the objects that you want to select. When you click-and-hold then drag, a rectangle appears to mark the area that you select.

To select multiple areas, press-and-hold Ctrl, then drag over the areas that you want to select.

To Open an Object

To open an object from the desktop background, double-click on the object. Alternatively, right-click on the object, then choose Open. When you open an object, the default action for the object executes. For example, if the object is a text file, the text file opens in a file manager window. The default actions for file types are specified in the File Associations preference tool.

To execute an action other than the default action for an object, right-click on the object, then choose Open With. Choose an action from the Open With submenu.

The items in the Open With submenu correspond to the contents of the following parts of the File Associations preference tool:

• Default action drop-down list in the Edit file type dialog

• Viewer Component drop-down list in the Edit file type dialog

You can set your preferences in a file manager window so that you click once on a file to execute the default action.

To Add a Launcher

A desktop background launcher can start an application or link to a particular file, folder, FTP site, or URI location.

To add a launcher to your desktop background, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on the desktop background, then choose Create Launcher.

2. Type the required information in the Create Launcher dialog. The command that you enter for the launcher is the command that is executed when you use the desktop background object.

To Add a Symbolic Link

You can create symbolic links on your desktop background to perform the following actions:

• Open a particular file in a particular application.

• Open a particular folder in a file manager window.

• Run a binary file or a script.

To create a symbolic link on the desktop background, perform the following steps:

1. Display the file or folder for which you want to create a symbolic link in a file manager window.

2. Create a symbolic link to the file or folder. To create a symbolic link to a file or folder, select the file or folder to which you want to create a link. Choose Edit -> Make Link. A link to the file or folder is added to the current folder. You can identify symbolic links by the default arrow emblem that appears on all symbolic links. The following figure shows a symbolic link to a file:

   

3. Drag the symbolic link to the desktop background. The icon for the object is moved to the desktop background.

Adding a File or Folder

The following sections describe how you can add file objects and folder objects to the desktop background.

To Move a File or Folder

You can move a file or folder from the file manager to the desktop background. To move a file or folder to the desktop background, perform the following steps:

1. Open a file manager window.

2. Display the file or folder that you want to move.

3. Drag the file or folder to the desktop background. The icon for the file or folder is moved to the desktop background. The file or folder is moved to your Desktop directory.

   Alternatively, select the file or folder, then choose Edit -> Cut Files. Right-click on any desktop background object, then choose Paste Files.

To Copy a File or Folder

You can copy a file or folder from the file manager to the desktop background. To copy a file or folder to the desktop background, perform the following steps:

1. Open a file manager window.

2. Display the file or folder that you want to move.

3. Press-and-hold Ctrl, then drag the file or folder to the desktop background. An icon for the file or folder is added to the desktop background. The file or folder is copied to your Desktop directory.

   Alternatively, select the file or folder, then choose Edit -> Copy Files. Right-click on any desktop background object, then choose Paste Files.

To Create a Folder

To create a folder object, right-click on the desktop background to open the Desktop menu. Choose Create Folder. An untitled folder is added to the desktop background. Type the name of the new folder, then press Return. The folder is displayed with the new name. The new folder resides in your Desktop directory.

To Rename an Object

To rename a desktop background object, right-click on the object, then choose Rename. The name of the desktop background object is highlighted. Type the new name for the object, then press Return.

To Remove an Object

To remove an object from the desktop background, right-click on the object, then choose Move to Trash. Alternatively, drag the object to Trash.

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Note –

When you move a file or folder from a removable media to Trash, the file or folder is stored in a Trash location on the removable media. To remove the file or folder permanently from the removable media, you must empty Trash.

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To Delete an Object

When you delete an object from the desktop background, the object is not moved to Trash, but is immediately deleted from the desktop background. The Delete menu item is only available if you select the Include a Delete command that bypasses Trash option in the file manager File Management Preferences dialog.

To delete an object from the desktop background, right-click on the object, then choose Delete.

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Note –

You cannot delete the This Computer or Trash desktop background objects.

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To View Properties

To view the properties of a desktop background object, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on the object whose properties you want to view, then choose Properties.

2. Use the properties dialog to view the properties of the desktop background object.

3. Click Close to close the properties dialog.

To Change Permissions

To change the permissions of a desktop background object, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on the object whose permissions you want to change, then choose Properties.

2. Click on the Permissions tab in the properties dialog.

3. In the Permissions tabbed section, use the drop-down lists and check boxes to change the permissions for the file or folder. For more information on the dialog elements in the Permissions tabbed section, see Using Your File Manager.

4. Click Close to close the properties dialog.

To Add an Emblem

To add an emblem to a desktop background object, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on the object to which you want to add an emblem, then choose Properties.

2. Click on the Emblems tab in the Emblems tabbed section.

3. Select the emblem to add to the item.

4. Click Close to close the properties dialog.

To Add a Note

To add a note to a desktop background object, perform the following steps:

1. Select the object to which you want to add a note.

2. Choose File -> Properties.

3. Click on the Notes tab in Notes tabbed section. Type the note.

4. Click Close to close the properties dialog. A note emblem is added to the desktop background object.

To delete a note, delete the note text from the Notes tabbed section.

To Change an Icon

To change the icon for a desktop background object, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on the object whose icon you want to change, then choose Properties.

2. On the Basic tabbed section, click on the Select Custom Icon button.

3. Use the Select an icon dialog to choose the icon to represent the file or folder.

4. Click Close to close the properties dialog.

To restore an icon from a custom icon to the default icon, click on the Remove Custom Icon button on the Properties dialog.

To Resize an Icon

You can change the size of the icon that represents a desktop background object. To change the size of an icon on the desktop background, perform the following steps:

1. Right-click on the desktop background object whose icon you want to resize, then choose Stretch Icon. A rectangle appears around the icon, with a handle at each corner.

2. Grab one of the handles, then drag the icon to the size that you want.

   To return the icon to the original size, right-click on the icon, then choose Restore Icon's Original Size.

Using Trash

You can move the following items to Trash:

• Files

• Folders

• Desktop background objects

If you need to retrieve a file from Trash, you can view Trash and move the file out of Trash. When you empty Trash, you delete the items in Trash permanently.

To Display Trash

You can display the contents of Trash in the following ways:

• From the desktop background

  Double-click on the Trash object on the desktop background. The contents of Trash are displayed in a file manager window.

• From a file browser window

  Choose Go -> Trash. The contents of Trash are displayed in the file browser window.

To Empty Trash

You can empty the contents of Trash in the following ways:

• From the desktop background

  Right-click on the Trash object, then choose Empty Trash.

• From a file manager window

  Choose File -> Empty Trash.

Using the Desktop Background Menu

To open the Desktop Background menu, right-click on a vacant space on the desktop background. You can use the Desktop menu to perform actions on the desktop background.

Table 6–2 describes the items in the Desktop Background menu.

Table 6–2 Items on the Desktop Background Menu

Menu Item	Function
Open Terminal	Starts a Terminal application.
Create Folder	Creates a new folder object.
Create Launcher	Creates a launcher on your desktop background. For more information, see To Add a Launcher.
Create Document	Creates a document. You can create templates from documents that you frequently create. For example, if you often create invoices, you can create an empty invoice document and save the document as invoice.doc in the $HOME/Templates folder.
Clean Up By Name	Arranges the objects on the desktop background alphabetically by name.
Keep Aligned	Ensures that the left edges of the objects on the desktop background are aligned with one another.
Paste Files	Puts file or files into a selected folder or the desktop background.
Use Default Background	Resets the desktop background to the last pattern that you chose from the Backgrounds and Emblems dialog. You can access the Backgrounds and Emblems dialog from Nautilus windows.
Change Desktop Background	Starts the Desktop Background preference tool.
Change Desktop Resolution	Starts the Screen Resolution preference tool.

Changing the Pattern or Color of the Desktop Background

You can change the pattern or color of the desktop background to suit your preferences. The file manager includes background patterns and colors that you can use to change the look-and-feel of the desktop background.

You can change the pattern or color of the desktop background in any of the following ways:

• Drag a pattern or color from another window or dialog to the desktop background.

  If your desktop background is a color, you can create a gradient effect from a color into the desktop background color. A gradient effect is a visual effect where one color blends gradually into another color. To create a gradient effect on your desktop background, drag a color to one of the edges of the screen. The color blends from the edge to which you drag the color, to the opposite edge of the screen.

  Before you drag a color to a screen edge, check if there is an edge panel on the screen edge. If there is an edge panel on the screen edge, you must hide the panel before you drag the color.

• Use the Desktop Background preference tool.

• Choose a pattern or color for the background from the Backgrounds and Emblems dialog. To change the pattern or color of the desktop background, perform the following steps:

  1. Open a file manager window.

  2. Choose Edit -> Backgrounds and Emblems.

  3. To display a list of patterns that you can use, click on the Patterns button in the Backgrounds and Emblems dialog. To display a list of the colors that you can use, click on the Colors button.

  4. To change the desktop background to a pattern, drag the pattern to the desktop background. To change the desktop background to a color, drag the color to the desktop background.

  5. Click Close.