Chapter 3. Applications Menu

Table of Contents

Accessories
Archive Manager
Calculator
Character Map
Dictionary
Emacs 21 (X11)
Text Editor
Games
AisleRiot Solitaire
Ataxx
Black Jack
Five or More
Four-in-a-row
FreeCell Solitaire
Gnometris
Iagno
Klotski
Mahjongg
Mines
Nibbles
Robots
Same Gnome
Stones
Tali
Tetravex
Graphics
GIMP
gThumb Image Viewer
Image Viewer
PostScript Viewer
XSane Image Scanning Program
Internet
Evolution Mail
Gaim Internet Messenger
GNOME BitTorrent
GnomeMeeting
Mozilla Firefox
Terminal Server
XChat
Office
Evolution
OpenOffice.org
Sound and Video
CD Player
Music Player
Recording level monitor
Sound Juicer CD Ripper
Sound Recorder
Totem Movie Player
Volume Control
Volume Monitor
System Tools
Add Remove Programs
Bug Report Tool
Configuration Editor
File Browser
Floppy Formatter
Network Tools
New Login
Root Terminal
Run as different user
System Log
System Monitor
Terminal
Run Application

The Applications menu is located on the top panel. It contains programs which are grouped into sub-menus by type. The categories are:

At the bottom of the Applications menu, Run Application allows you run any program by typing its name, or by selecting it from a list.

Accessories

Ubuntu installs a number of useful accessory programs which can be found under Applications->Accessories .

Archive Manager

Archive Manager Main Window

The Archive Manager opens, extracts and creates file archives. It relies on having the right programs installed in order to create, modify and extract some archive file formats.

Calculator

 gcalctool window.

The calculator looks and works like a normal electronic calculator.

Using the calculator is easy, you press the keys with the mouse just as you would press them in a normal calculator, and read the results in the big display at the top.

[Tip]
  • All the keys in the calculator have a corresponding equivalent on the computer keyboard which allows you to perform calculations much faster. Most of the buttons correspond to the key on the number keypad with the same symbol. For example, the multiplication operation is the asterisk (*) key. Buttons that may not correspond to an obvious key are:

    Bksp

    Backspace

    CE

    Ctrl-Backspace

    Clr

    Delete

    +/-

    c

  • The Enter key is a shortcut for the Equals button.

  • If you need more functions, you can switch to a more complex interface by selecting View->Advanced. A financial calculator and a scientific calculator are also available within the same menu.

You can learn more about the calculator using the Help->Contents menu item or the F1 key.

Character Map

Character Map Main Window

Character map allows you to access all the characters available on the system. It is used to explore fonts and preview characters, which can be copied and then pasted into other applications.

The Character Map window is divided into four parts:

  • a top toolbar to select the font you want to explore;

  • a list of scripts to which characters belong;

  • the set of characters for the script that is currently selected, which can be switched to show detailed information about a single character;

  • a bottom selection bar.

If you double click on a character, it is entered in the selection bar where it can be copied and pasted to other applications.

[Tip]
  • Since Hoary uses Unicode, which aims at representing every possible sign used by mankind, a look at the Character Map can be an interesting learning experience.

  • Did you notice that if you double click on Arabic or Hebrew characters, they are typed from right to the left? Try mixing Arabic or Hebrew and Latin to get some bi-directional text. Can you work out how selection works with bi-directional text?

  • Select View->By Unicode Block to see even more groups of characters. Some of them can be very useful, such as "Currency Symbols," "Letter-like Symbols," "Arrows," "Geometric Shapes," "Miscellaneous Symbols," and "Dingbats."

    You can input them in most places by holding down Ctrl-Shift, then typing their corresponding Unicode number that you see in the very bottom of the Character Map window. For example, Ctrl-Shift-2-6-6-1 gives you a white heart.

If you want to know more about Unicode, you can find a technical introduction at the Unicode Web site.

Dictionary

Dictionary Main Window

Dictionary is a dictionary lookup tool: you enter a word and it searches for it. Since the data it can access is very complete, many people are using Dictionary as an essential tool in their everyday work to check meanings or to just verify the spelling of a word.

[Tip]
  • Some online documentation mentions about the "window manager" and you've never heard of it? Some friend online wrote you AFAICT and you are ashamed of asking what it means? Dictionary does not only show answers from a normal English dictionary, but automatically searches other sources of free online information. For example, the Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms and the Free Online Dictionary of Computing.

  • Go to Edit->Preferences, then select Web Sites to include more dictionary Web sites for your dictionary lookup.

  • If you want to be able to access all the dictionaries while offline, you can install the various dict-* packages from Universe.

  • If you're not satisfied by a dictionary and you want a full and free encyclopedia, check out wikipedia. This resource is larger than the Encyclopedia Britannica and you can even contribute to it!

For more information see dict.org for a web interface to the Dictionary vocabulary.

Emacs 21 (X11)

Emacs 21 (X11) Main Window

Emacs is a popular text editor. It is commonly found on UNIX and GNU/Linux systems. Emacs is much loved as it is an extensible, customizable, real-time display editor. In short this means that emacs is a powerful text editor and everything else, including the kitchen sink.

Emacs provides an interactive tutorial to help you learn how to use it. The tutorial can be started by selecting Help->Emacs Tutorial.

Text Editor

Text Editor Main Window

The Text Editor is a lightweight but powerful text editing application that supports plugin extensions to edit various types of files, such as HTML.