Using Gnome desktop shortcuts and tips

Archives and burning
We all deal with archives now and then, particularly with ZIP files when exchanging files with Windows users. Managing archives in Ubuntu couldn’t be much easier. There is nothing to install or configure.

To access files from an archive just double-click on its icon. In the window that opens you can drag files out to extract them, or drag other files in to add them to the archive. You can even edit files inside the archive directly without extracting anything (the utility will prompt you about updating the archive afterwards).

If you want to extract all the contents of an archive quickly, right-click on its icon and select ‘Extract here’; extracting from the archive utility itself allows for more control and lets you decide where to extract the files.

To create a new archive, select the folders or files you want and right-click for ‘Create archive’. The type of archive you want (zip, tar.gz, etc) can be chosen in the pop-up window, together with a password or encryption options for any archive types that support them.

Bear in mind that you do not have to select every file you need in the archive beforehand; once the archive is created you can easily add the rest by dragging them into the window.

Install the rar and unrar utilities, and these archive formats will automatically be supported, though bear in mind that the rar utility is shareware and not free software.

If you wish to create a CD or DVD with data files, insert a blank disc and in the pop-up window select the option ‘Open CD/DVD Creator’.

To access this window later, just click on the blank disc’s name in the file browser, or double-click its desktop icon. Now drag any files or folders into the window in Nautilus and when you’re finished and ready click the ‘write to disc’ button. Note that although you drag files into this window, they are not physically copied or duplicated; the window is essentially a virtual folder for writing out a CD or DVD.

When you want to write out a CD or DVD image (a file with the .iso extension) you can right-click on the icon and select ‘Write to disc’. You should not try to write the image file as a regular file, or the result will be a standard data disc with a single large file. Rather helpfully, however, if you do try to do this, the desktop will guess your mistake and offer to write out the image correctly.

For much more control over disc burning, or to create audio CDs, use the Brasero application from the Sound and Video menu instead. This tool has a simple interface for creating and copying CDs and DVDs.