To customize the way your folder icons look (for example in windows My Music, My Picture, My Videos, you get the “picture”:

Right click the folder icon you want to change

Select Properties

Double click the icon image in the top left hand corner

A window will open allowing you to navigate to your custom icon image you want to use.

Select the new icon and click Open.

Enjoy your new icon.

When using the desktop cube effect a nice looking skydome can enhance your desktop experience.

Special “wallpapers” are needed to get the right effect, here’s how:

Download a Skydome from here:

http://www.compiz-themes.org/index.p…6ccc5ad2939710

Then navigate: system>preferences>advanced desktop effects settings

In the right hand pane you will see a section called Desktop

Click on Desktop Cube and then the Appearance tab

Find the Skydome subsection and browse for the skydome you wish to use.

You may have to log out for the changes to take affect. ( Ctrl+Alt+Backspace)

If you like the having a windows like feel to your Main Menu then this may be your answer.

Right-click on the panel where you want the Main Menu to appear and select Add to Panel

In the new window, scroll down to Utilities and select Main Menu

Click Add and it will appear in the panel.

Right-click the Ubuntu icon and select Move to move it to wherever you prefer ( I like it to the left corner)

If you haven’t removed the Menu bar (Applications, Places, System) yet right-click and remove

To customized the main menu icon:

1.Open up the terminal (applications>accessories>terminal)

Insert this code In the termainl (applications>accessories>terminal):

gconf-editor

The configuration editor opens, then open these folders in the left pane (apps>panel>objects)

You will see a list of objects in the pane locate the one that says (menu_object) next to object_type in the right pane.

Once this is located scroll down and locate the use custom icon entry and select it.

Scroll back up and double click the custom icon entry, this will open a new window asking for the path to the icon you wish to use. Enter the path in the value field and click OK

( If the icon is in your pictures folder in your home folder the path would look like this:)

/home/USERNAME/pictures/ICON.png

To add a folder to your “Places” menu:

1.Open up Nautilus File Browser ( applications>places>home folder)

In the left pane you will see a list of folders and drives in your Places menu, in the right pane you will see the folders within your home folder.

2.Create a new folder ( shift+ctrl+n) and name it whatever you wish and hit ( enter) If you already have a folder in mind skip the aforementioned and move along to (3)

3.Left click on the folder and drag it into the left pane to the bottom of the list.

Magically it appears, you can click and drag it into any position within the left panel that you like.

To remove it from the left pane, right click the folder and select remove.

Changing the appearance of your desktop is something we all like to do from time to time.

Personally I like to apply the GTK themes available from Gnome-Look.org.

Changing your theme is quite simple, just a few steps away from a tweaked out desktop.

First is to open the file that you downloaded and ensure that a index.theme file is inside (this is a document file with the theme name on it). This is crucial if you would like to apply the theme changes.

When you open a theme folder you will see a few files.The GTK file, sometimes a metacity file and a document with the theme name on it. if this file is missing open up a text editor and insert this information:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=INSERT THEME NAME HERE
Type=X-GNOME-Metatheme
Encoding=UTF-8
[X-GNOME-Metatheme]
GtkTheme=INSERT THEME NAME HERE
MetacityTheme=INSERT THEME NAME HERE
IconTheme= LEAVE BLANK OR INSERT THE NAME OF AN ICON SET YOU ARE USING

Save this file as the theme name you are using and insert in the theme file folder you downloaded alongside the GTK file.

Open your home folder Places>Home folder

Click on view on the toolbar and select show hidden files

All the hidden files will appear

Open the .themes folder and insert the theme folder you downloaded

On the panel click System>Preferences>Appearance

You should see the new theme in the list of available themes

You can also click on the customize button to select them new themes controls or window borders.

(An alternate method, easier if you know all the files required are included)

Download GTK theme from Gnome-Look.org.  and save

Open Appearance Preferences System>Preferences>Appearances

click install and a select theme window will open

Navigate to the downloaded GTK theme tar.gz file you downloaded (dile does not need to be unpacked) and select it

Click open and the theme is installed for you, very nice

Enjoy!

An great program to give you that dock similiar to the type found on Mac’s for launching programs is Awn

To get AWN in Gutsy:

1. Run this command in the terminal Applications>Accessories>Terminal

gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Add these to the end of the file that opens:

deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator
deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator

Click Save and exit gedit.

3. Run these in the terminal ( just cut and paste):

wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/reacocard.asc
sudo apt-key add reacocard.asc
rm reacocard.asc
sudo apt-get update
4. Then run this command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr

Awn will be installed activate it by Applications/Accessories/Avant Window Navigator

1. Install Ubuntu Studio theme, this includes the GTK and Metacity theme. With the following command in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme

2. Install Ubuntu Studio icon theme:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-icon-theme

3. Install Ubuntu Studio GDM theme:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-gdm-theme

4. Install Ubuntu Studio wallpapers:

sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-wallpapers

Of course, you can also get meta package ubuntustudio-look, but this will remove ubuntu-sounds package.

Or lastly download the entire bundle using Synaptic Package manager

If you decided to install Photoshop using Wine here is a simple tutorial I found to accomplish this task.
I checked for Photoshop compatibility in the Wine website and found that there were some problems in the CS versions (although this tutorial tempted me into trying it). While I use Photoshop CS, I know that with the tasks that I do, I can get by with just using Photoshop 7.0. The Wine website lists good feedback on using Photoshop 7.

PHOTOSHOP INSTALLER. The Adobe Photoshop 7.0 installer running in Linux using Wine. Click on photo to enlarge.

I copied the Photoshop 7 installer from my backup hardrive to my USB stick and used it for the installation. The installation was pretty straightforward as I had added Wine earlier (version 0.9.33) using the Add Remove applications tool in Ubuntu.

I just attached the USB stick containing the installation folder, right-clicked on setup.exe then chose open with other application and typed wine in the custom command. After that, the familiar Adobe Photoshop installer took over.

I finished the installation and created an application launcher in my bottom panel. But before I added the launcher, I first searched around for a .png icon to be used with the Photoshop launcher. I then saved the icon, using Gnome commander running as root, to /usr/share/pixmaps/.

To add the Photoshop launcher: 1. I right-clicked on the bottom panel, 2. chose custom application launcher, 3. added wine "c:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop 7.0\Photoshop.exe" as command, 4. chose the Photoshop icon. According to this site Save for web will not work if you use forward slashes to point to the Photoshop.exe file.

GDM themes – these go in /usr/share/gdm
these are for the login manager

GTK themes – these go in /usr/share/themes
many Gthemes contain the gtk theme, the metacity theme, and a index.theme file. sometime they may just contain the gtk2 and gtk1 theme. sometime they may contain the gtk2 themes and a metacity theme without an index.theme file. when you go to themes section in the gnome control centre, you will see some themes on the left hand side. these are themes that contain, and are defined by, an index.theme file. and this file contains the name of the theme(eg Clearlooks-DarkOrange), what gtk theme is used, what metacity theme is used, and what icon theme is used. you can easily create your own themes using this file. for example, suppose that you want to create a theme called ‘DarkBlue’, you would creat a directory in /usr/share/themes called DarkBlue. then create an index.theme file (i usually just get hold of another index.them file from another theme and copy it to use as a template). place the index.them file in the DarkBlue directory. suppose also that you want to use Tango icons, Clearlooks-DarkBlue gtk theme and Hierbia metacity theme. this is an example of what the index.theme file would look like:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=DarkBlue
Type=X-GNOME-Metatheme
Comment=My made up dark blue theme
Encoding=UTF-8

[X-GNOME-Metatheme]
GtkTheme=Clearlooks-DarkBlue
MetacityTheme=Hierbia
IconTheme=Tango

notice that if you go to the icon directory, the name of the tango icons are called ‘Tango’. if you put ‘tango’, the icons won’t be found. same for the metacity and gtk themes. note that they are case sensitive.

You can very easily download a theme from gnome-looks.org and unpack the files in your home/username/.themes folder. Make sure that an index.theme file is included for it to show up in your theme control centre.

metacity themes – these go in /usr/share/themes
occassionally, metacity themes sometime come with the metacity theme and an index.theme file.

icon themes – these go in /usr/share/icons