KALI LINUX: A JOURNEY TO THE PROFESSIONAL(PART 2)

This is the second tutorial on LINUX JOURNEY

Navigating with the keyboard

If you prefer to keep your hands on the keyboard, you can work with the GNOME 3 desktop directly from the keyboard in a number of ways, including the following:

■ Windows key—Press the Windows key on the keyboard. On most PC keyboards, this is the key with the Microsoft Windows logo on it next to the Alt key. This toggles the mini-window (Overview) and active-window (current workspace) views. Many people use this key a lot.

■ Select different views—From the Windows or Applications view, hold

Ctrl+Alt+Tab to see a menu of the different views. Still holding

the Ctrl+Alt keys, press Tab again to highlight one of the following icons from

the menu and release to select it:

■ Top Bar—Keeps the current view.

■ Dash—Highlights the first application in the application bar on the left. Use arrow keys to move up and down that menu and press Enter to open the highlighted application.

■ Windows—Selects the Windows view.

■ Applications—Selects the Applications view.

■ Search—Highlights the search box. Type a few letters to show only icons for

applications that contain the letters you type. When you have typed enough

letters to uniquely identify the application you want, press Enter to launch the

application.

■ Select an active window—Return to any of your workspaces (press the Windows key if you are not already on an active workspace). Press Alt+Tab to see a list of all active windows. Continue to hold the Alt key as you press the Tab key (or right or left arrow keys) to highlight the application you want from the list of active desktop application windows. If an application has multiple windows open, press Alt+` (backtick, located above the Tab key) to choose among those sub-windows. Release the Alt key to select it.

■ Launch a command or application—From any active workspace, you can launch

a Linux command or a graphical application.

■ Applications—From the Overview screen, press Ctrl+Alt+Tab, and then

continue to press Tab until the gears (Applications) icon is highlighted; then

release Ctrl+Alt. The Applications view appears, with the fi rst icon highlighted.

Use the Tab key or arrow keys (up, down, right, and left) to highlight

the application icon you want, and press Enter.

■ Command box—If you know the name of a command you want to run, press

Alt+F2 to display a command box. Type the name of the command you want

to run into the box (try system-config-date to adjust the date and time, for

example).

■ Search box—From the Overview screen, press Ctrl+Alt+Tab, and then continue

to press Tab until the magnifying glass (Search) icon is highlighted;

then release Ctrl+Alt. In the search box now highlighted, type a few letters

in an application’s name or description (type scr to see what you get). Keep

typing until the application you want is highlighted (in this case, Screenshot)

and press Enter to launch it.

■ Dash—From the Overview screen, press Ctrl+Alt+Tab, and then continue to

press Tab until the star (Dash) icon is highlighted; then release Ctrl+Alt. From

the Dash, move the up and down arrows to highlight an application you want

to launch and press Enter.

■ Escape—When you are stuck in an action you don’t want to complete, try pressing

the Esc key. For example, after pressing Alt+F2 (to enter a command),

opening an icon from the top bar, or going to an overview page, pressing Esc

returns you to the active window on the active desktop.

I hope you now feel comfortable navigating the GNOME 3 desktop. Next, you can try

running some useful and fun desktop applications from GNOME 3.