Gnome 2.14 and beyond - Deskbar trick
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.14/
Guess who's back ... back again ? As I stopped contributing to the aMSN project (creating a multi-platform MSN Messenger client with loads of features), I might find some time to blog again over here. The last time I was here I was talking about goodness we could expect for the Gnome 2.12 release; well, now most of us are already using 2.14 and the 2.16 release is coming close. In other words: I've been off for some time but I'm back in business, willing to serve you some news, insights and tips 'n tricks about gnome from a user's point of view.
For those who are not yet using 2.14, or just those who want to know what's new and hot in 2.14, you can check Davyd Madeley's list of new features, or visit the official Gnome 2.14 homepage. As I'm a Ubuntu 'edgy' (developement releases) user, I'm already using a Gnome 2.15 release (the developement version that will become 2.16 once stable); and I must say there's already some great 2.16 stuff on my desktop.
One of the greatest new things in Gnome 2.14 is the Deskbar applet. With the beagle backend enabled, this swiss-army-knife applet can be seen as a mix between apple's Spotlight, an application starter like Quicksilver, Google Desktop Search etc. When you place it on your panel you can choose to have it shown as an input-field or a button, which when pressed, shows the input field. Once you start typing something, all kinds of actions and search results will be thrown at you.
Now, here's a nice trick you can do with one of the latest the Deskbar-versions; In the preferences screen, check the option to have Deskbar search for your current selection when you press the chosen hotkey (the default is Alt-F3). Now, imaging you have to e-mail someone and you just found her or his e-mail address online. Just select the address, press the hotkey and choose the "Send Email to name@domain.com" and the Evolution "New mail" window will be opened for you with the address already filled in. Have fun !
For those who are not yet using 2.14, or just those who want to know what's new and hot in 2.14, you can check Davyd Madeley's list of new features, or visit the official Gnome 2.14 homepage. As I'm a Ubuntu 'edgy' (developement releases) user, I'm already using a Gnome 2.15 release (the developement version that will become 2.16 once stable); and I must say there's already some great 2.16 stuff on my desktop.
One of the greatest new things in Gnome 2.14 is the Deskbar applet. With the beagle backend enabled, this swiss-army-knife applet can be seen as a mix between apple's Spotlight, an application starter like Quicksilver, Google Desktop Search etc. When you place it on your panel you can choose to have it shown as an input-field or a button, which when pressed, shows the input field. Once you start typing something, all kinds of actions and search results will be thrown at you.
Now, here's a nice trick you can do with one of the latest the Deskbar-versions; In the preferences screen, check the option to have Deskbar search for your current selection when you press the chosen hotkey (the default is Alt-F3). Now, imaging you have to e-mail someone and you just found her or his e-mail address online. Just select the address, press the hotkey and choose the "Send Email to name@domain.com" and the Evolution "New mail" window will be opened for you with the address already filled in. Have fun !
