GUnity is a third party application with various options for you to customize the Unity setting. In short, it is the Compiz Config Settings Manager specially for Unity.

1. Download the GUnity .deb file (the deb file is from a non-trusted source. Use with caution).

2. Install (double-click to install) the deb file in your Ubuntu machine.

3. Since GUnity does not add itself to the Applications Menu, the only way to launch it is to press “Alt + F2“, type “gunity” (without the quotes) and press Enter.

4. Once the app launched, you should see three tabs on the sidebar, namely Unity Shell, Grab Handles and Desktop. The Unity Shell tab is where you can configure the various options of Unity, including its animation, the behavior of the launcher (to autohide or to dodge window), the launcher icon size, backlight mode, panel opacity and many more.

5. The grab handle tab is for you to set the handles shortcut key. In case you are not aware, the handles function is a new feature in Unity to help you to resize a window easily. Simply press the hotkey and you can drag the various corner to resize the window.

To configure the shortcut key, you can make use of the syntax <Control>, <Alt>, <Shift>, <Super> to represent the Control, Alt, Shift and Super buttons respectively. You also need to specify a single character key to complete the configuration. For example: <Control><Alt>j means Control + Alt + j button.

Once you have entered your shortcut key combo, remember to press “Enter” to confirm the changes, else your setting will be deleted when you close the app.

6. The desktop tab is where you can configure the number of desktop (virtual workspace) you want. You can specify the columns and rows. The default is 2 columns by 2 rows.

If you are very familiar with the Compiz Config Settings Manager, then this GUnity app is probably useless to you. However, if you just want a simple GUI to adjust all the Unity settings, then this app is the one for you.

2. Once installed, press “Alt + F2″ and type “ccsm“.

3. Scroll down the list until you see the icon “Ubuntu Unity Plugin”. Click on it.

4. Under the “Reveal Mode” section. You should be able to see the option to hide launcher. You can select “Never”, “Autohide”, “Dodge Windows” or “Dodge Active Windows”.

5. The default option is “Dodge Windows”, but you can change it to “Autohide”, or “Never” if you want the launcher to be always there. There is no confirmation button. Once you have made the change, just click the Back button, or close the Compiz app.

That’s it. Your Unity Launcher bar should autohide itself when not in use. To retrieve it, simply move your mouse cursor to the left corner of the screen. It will take about 1 second for the launcher to appear again.

Here are some ways you can use to make resizing the window an easier, and enjoyable task.

1. Alt + Middle click

At anywhere in the window, press “ALT” key and the middle button of the mouse and the cursor instantly become an arrowhead. You can then move in the direction that you want to resize.

2. Press At + F8

The “Alt + F8″ hotkey is a quick keyboard shortcut to activate the resize mode. Once in the resize mode (with a translucent overlay), you can use the arrow key to resize the window horizontally or vertically. Once you are done, hit Enter to return to the window mode.

3. Configure own hotkey via Compiz

If you are using Compiz, it comes with several more options that you can configure.

Open your CompizConfig Settings Manager (System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager).

Scroll down the list to find “Resize Window”.

Click on it to enter its configuration page. From here, you can enable and assign the hotkey for different resize mode. In this example, I have enabled the “Initiate Outline Window Resize” mode and assign the hotkey “Alt + Super + W” to activate it.

That’s it. This should solve your window resizing woes.

There are several ways to manage your keyboard shortcut in Linux. You can do it via Xmodmap (and Xkeycaps), Gnome Keyboard Shortcut or Compiz. In this article, we will focus mainly on Gnome Keyboard Shortcut and Compiz.

Gnome Keyboard Shortcut

The Gnome keyboard shortcut is by far the easiest way to assign/remap a shortcut key in any Gnome-based distro. Go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

From here, you can scroll down the list to find the particular keyboard shortcut you want to change, click on the existing shortcut (and see the entry change to “New Shortcut”), and press the new keyboard shortcut that you want to assign to. For example, the default shortcut to launch the Run Application dialog is “Alt + F2“. If I want to change it, I will click on the Alt + F2 entry, follow by the new key, say “Alt + F12“.

In addition, you can also create your own keyboard shortcut and assign it to run an application, a command or a script. Click the “Add” button. It will prompt you to enter the name and command.

After you have added the command, you will see a new entry with the shortcut field “Disabled”. Click on it.

Press the keyboard buttons that you want to assign to launch this command. That’s it.

You can also use the above method to overwrite a default shortcut key. For example, the default behavior of the “Delete” button in your keyboard is to move your file to the trash. You can, however, create a new shortcut and map the “Delete” button to shred the file beyond recovery. It will overwrite the default behavior.

Note: If you want to remove the overwrite, you can remove the shortcut entry and restart your current session (logout and login again). The default behavior will restore.

Compiz

Compiz is slightly more complicated than Gnome Keyboard Shortcut, but it is more versatile and give you more option.

Before we start, make sure you have Compiz Config Setting Manager installed, either from Ubuntu Software Center or from the terminal:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Launch Compiz Config Settings Manager (System -> Preferences -> CompizConfig Settings Manager)

Click the “Commands” option.

Enter the command in the command field. It can be an application, a command or even a path to script.

Next, go to the Key Bindings tab. Click the “Disabled” button for the command line that you have entered just now.

Check the “Enabled” checkbox and click the “Grab key combination” button. Press the keyboard shortcut and add any modifier key (Ctrl, Shift or Alt) if necessary. Click OK.

That’s it. What other ways do you use to assign/remap keyboard shortcuts in your distro?

Image credit: Mike Traboe

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

All examples are done using multiple workspaces – 3 wide and 3 tall.

Desktop Wall

This plugin arranges your workspaces into a table, and allows you to switch between them with the keyboard. The default key binding is to hold Ctrl+Alt and use the arrow keys to move around the table.

The wall is semi-transparent so you will be able to see the screens below it as you move between sections, however it does not include “live previews” of the contents of each workspace. Because of this, you cannot tell from the wall alone whether any given workspace is empty, or otherwise what the contents may be. This makes it faster, though possibly less useful, than our next plugin, Expo.

Expo

It is this author’s opinion that Expo may be the single most useful plugin in all of Compiz. Much like the desktop wall noted above, Expo will treat your workspaces as a table and allow you to move between them, however it also offers quite a bit more. For starters, Expo does not use a visual overlay to represent your workspace, it IS your workspace, and all the others.

When you activate Expo, you “zoom out” of your desktop to the point where you can see all workspaces at once – live and active. The video clip in the screenshot above keeps on playing in its shrunken state, no matter what workspace you’re on or what Expo is doing.

Individual windows, such as the video clip above, can be dragged from one workspace to another, or left sitting in the space in between. Expo is an extremely handy plugin, and expect to see a video post in the near future containing a few Expo tricks.

App Switcher/Static App switcher

The previous two plugins both dealt with workspace management – the idea being that you could have individual applications residing on their own workspace. Some people don’t like multiple workspaces, and those who do sometimes have multiple windows on one workspace. Whatever the reason, it can get ugly when you’ve got a dozen windows on one workspace to sort through. The standard solution is an application switcher that will let you tab through those windows, and Compiz comes with two tools to perform that basic task – Application Switcher and Static Application Switcher.

Both are nearly identical, the main difference being that App Switcher will fade out background windows while switching, whereas Static will remove them entirely and only show the selected window. The screenshot above is using Static.

Scale

As an alternative to the plain application switchers above, Compiz also includes the Scale plugin. Instead of displaying a selection box, Scale temporarily shrinks the windows themselves and arranges them into a grid for your choosing.

This lets you see all open windows on that workspace and choose the right one directly instead of tabbing through a list.

Ring Switcher

The final approach Compiz can take toward window management is the Ring Switcher. It’s a combination of the two previous takes. When you activate it, all windows on the current workspace will be thumbnailed and arranged in a ring. You tab between them much like the App Switcher, but you’ve got full live previews like Scale.

Conclusion

All plugins listed here, while occasionally flashy, are meant for real world productivity. The usefulness of plugins like Expo and Scale demonstrate that Compiz isn’t just a bunch of eye candy – it’s a genuinely effective window manager with some quality features. These Compiz plugins, when combined with other desktop tools like Gnome Do, Specto and Conky can be invaluable to a Linux user who really wants a slick and productive system.

The good thing about FoxTab is that it is cross platform compatible (works in Windows, Linux and Mac) and it doesn’t require a high end computer to run. I got it to work in my netbook and it runs without any lag.

Download FoxTab here. You will need to give permission to Firefox to install the extension.

Restart your Firefox after the installation.

Cycling through tabs in 3D

If you have more than one opened tabs in your Firefox, you can press “Ctrl + Tab” to start cycling through the tabs in 3D mode. Alternatively, you can use the mouse hotkey (right mouse click + scroll up/down) to navigate between the tabs.

Multiple Graphical effects

If you go to its setting page at the backend, you will be surprised at the number of options available for you to choose. You can choose how the tabs are arranged, either in Carousal, Row, Grid, Wall, Page Flow, or Stack view.

You can also change the perspective of the tabs (how the tabs are angled to the front).

Lastly, you can change the color scheme to your liking.

Top Sites (aka Speed Dial)

One feature of FoxTab that I like the most is the Top Sites, or commonly known as the Speed Dial feature. It allows you to quickly add a site to your Top Sites and you can easily and quickly access to it. To add to Top Sites, you just have to right click the mouse on any page and select “Add to Top Sites“. Like any other speed dial extensions, you can customize your dial sites in the order you prefer. Similarly, you can set the Top Sites as your startup page.

Other features

Other features of FoxTab include viewing (and opening) your recently closed tabs in 3D mode. This is useful and save your time from going to your History to look for your closed tabs.

FoxTab also comes with various options for you to customize your hotkeys and appearance.

Conclusion

I am impressed by FoxTab. Not only does it provides you with the eye-candy, it also comes with plenty of customization options and useful features. Personally, I am not into eye-candy stuffs, so I don’t foresee myself keeping it for a long time. But for those who are, this is definitely a great extension that you can use to spice up your Firefox.

Download FoxTab

Installation

It’s important to note right away that Gnome Shell is still in fairly early development. There is no stable release or package, we’ll be downloading and installing from source code using an auto build script. While I had no trouble at all with the installation, things could change at any moment so there’s certainly no guarantees that it will build, let alone run. That said, Gnome Shell has so far given me no trouble at all.

First, we’ll need jhbuild, a tool that’ll help with the installation. It’s probably in your distro’s repositories. Debian/Ubuntu users an fetch it with:

sudo apt-get install jhbuild

Next we download and run the installation script:

wget http://git.gnome.org/cgit/gnome-shell/plain/tools/build/gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
bash gnome-shell-build-setup.sh
jhbuild build

This will take a little while. It ran for about 10 minutes on my Core 2 Duo test machine. Fortunately, there were no errors during any part of it during my installation.

Running

BEFORE RUNNING GNOME SHELL, make sure to disable Compiz if you’ve got it running. Ubuntu users can do this by opening your normal Gnome panel to System -> Preferences -> Appearance and turning off desktop effects. Once you’re sure any desktop effects have been disabled, save any work you’re not willing to risk, and enter the following in your terminal:

~/gnome-shell/source/gnome-shell/src/gnome-shell --replace

If you find yourself liking Gnome Shell and running it often, I’d suggest making an alias in your .bashrc file for the command above.

Launching Applications

The main difference in working with the Gnome Shell desktop is that your panel on the top is not your normal panel, Once you click Activities, you’ll see a completely different interface from what you’re used to.

You can also open the Activities screen by hitting the Super (aka Windows) key on your keyboard. On the left, you’ve got the equivalent of the old menu system. The top of that panel is the Find box, which operates like many of the desktop finder tools out there. You can type in the name of a program (like “firefox”) to run it, or you can specify a word in the program’s description, like below.

The other method of launching programs is to click the Browse button under Applications, if you prefer using menus.

Multiple Desktops

No Linux desktop environment would be complete if it wouldn’t run multiple desktop screens to manage all your apps. Gnome Shell is no different, and provides an interesting take on these often-used workspaces.

With the Activities screen up, you’ll see a small round “+” icon in the bottom right corner of your screen. Click that to add new workspaces to your desktop.

Even though Gnome Shell is still in pretty early stages, they’ve already included some great usability features. For example, with the Activities up, you can click an application icon to launch in your current workspace, or drag the launch icon onto the appropriate workspace. So in the screenshot above, for example, I could drag the Firefox icon onto the third desktop to make it open there directly. Once a window is open, you can easily drag it from one workspace to the next. This video demonstrates exactly what I mean.

Sidebar

This is a nice little feature that’s not much right now but my guess is that it could evolve into a great little tool. If you click your username in the top right corner of the screen, you can choose to enable the Sidebar. If enabled, it sits at the left edge of the screen and can be collapsed to a thin bar or expanded into a small box by clicking the arrows at the top.

Eye Candy

The most obvious comparison for a composited window manger like Gnome Shell would be to Compiz. They’ve both got window animation effects for things like minimizing and opening windows, as well as transparencies and everything else you’d expect from a composited setup. The difference, so far at least, seems to me to be the purpose of those effects. Compiz puts much more emphasis on pure decoration like rain drops and wobbly windows whereas the Gnome Shell effects are generally more practical. That’s not to say Compiz doesn’t have some handy features, and this could all change as Gnome Shell development goes on.

Conclusion

My overall impression of Gnome Shell is most certainly positive. There’s clearly been a lot of thought put into its design, and some equally impressive coding behind the implementation. The visual effects are pleasing but not overwhelming, and the interface is very intuitive and takes almost no effort to understand.

That said, there’s still plenty of room for development. So far I’ve found essentially no configuration options of any kind, so at the moment it seems you’re stuck with having the shell exactly the way it was installed, like it or not. Fortunately for me, I like it. I’m sure configuration options will improve as development continues and more tools and features are added, so that’s not so much a complaint as a suggestion to be patient. It looks like it’ll be worth the wait.

On the other hand, I also have a passion for clean desktop. I have a huge collection of beautiful wallpapers and I love to set my desktop to rotate the wallpaper every 30 minutes. It is my source of inspiration and seeing the beautiful wallpaper allows me to relax whenever I am too stress out from my work.

Apparently, having a lot of desktop shortcuts and a clean beautiful desktop together is not quite possible. I need a solution, a method that allows me to clean up my Desktop, yet allows me to access to my shortcut icons and files quickly.

1st Method: Toying with the gconf-editor

Nautilus is the app that is in charge of rendering the desktop icons. By configuring the relevant entry in gconf-editor, you can get Nautilus to show/hide the desktop icons. (I will not go into the detail here)

Ivy.fr has come up with a script that allows you to toggle on/off the desktop icons. Here is the modified version.

Open a text editor and paste the following code into it:

#!/bin/bash
if ( `gconftool --get /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop` == "true" ) then
gconftool --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop \
--type boolean false
else
gconftool --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop \
--type boolean true
fi
# EOF

Save the file as ToggleDesktop.sh and place it in your Home folder.

On your file manager, right click on the ToggleDesktop.sh file and select Properties. Select to the Permissions tab and make the file executable.

Now, whenever you click on the script, it will hide/show the desktop icons.

You can also drag and drop the script to the panel for easy access.

The limitation

While this method seems like a good way to show/hide your desktop icons, it comes with some limitations:

1) Once you have toggled the desktop icons off, you’ll have totally no control over the desktop. You won’t be able to access the context menu (via right-click) and you won’t be able to change the wallpaper. If you are using a wallpaper changing app (such as Drapes), it will no longer work.

2) This is not stable and it could cause the Nautilus to crash occasionally. The problem is, when Nautilus crashed, it does not show any error message. You will have completely no knowledge that it has crashed.

3) Hiding your desktop icon is fast, but getting them to display again will have a time lag (of about 1 second).

2nd Method: Using Compiz and a lightweight file manager

The second method is an idea that I have come up on my own that allows me to maintain a clean desktop and at the same time have quick access to my data. It makes use of Compiz widget layer and a lightweight File Manager.

Unlike the above method, the idea here is not to hide your desktop icons, but to create a folder to store all your Desktop icons/files and make it into a widget where you can access it easily.

The lightweight file manager that I use is Thunar. It will work too if you use Rox-Filer or PCManFM. I avoided using Nautilus as it is the default file manager in Gnome and I don’t want it to mess up my system.

Instructions

1) Create a folder in your Home directory and name it Desktop_Folder.

2) Move all your desktop shortcuts and files to this folder. In the future, this will be the folder where you place all your shortcuts and files that you want to have quick access to.

3) Install Thunar and CompizConfig Settings Manager

sudo apt-get install thunar compizconfig-settings-manager

4) Open up Compiz Config Manager (System-> Preferences->CompizConfig Settings Manager)

5) Go to the Widget Layer section. Click on the Behavior tab.

Enter the following in the Widget Windows field

title=Desktop_Folder – File Manager & class=Thunar

6) Click on the General tab, on the third row of “Toggle Widget Display”, configure the screen corner to activate the widget. For me, I chose the bottom right corner.

(Check out this article for more detail on setting any applications to be a widget in Ubuntu)

7) Close Compiz Settings Manager. Go to System->Preferences-> Sessions (or Startup Applications if you are using Jaunty). Create a new entry and enter the following:

Name: Thunar
Command: thunar /home/your_username/Desktop_Folder

That’s it. Whenever you startup your computer, Thunar will load up with the Desktop_Folder directory and hide itself behind the screen (in the widget layer). Whenever you need to access your files, simply point your mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen to display Thunar. There you will find all your shortcuts and files.

Let me know if these two methods work for you. If you have any other ways to keep a clean desktop without affecting your efficiency, do let me know in the comments.

Image credit: indra-wahyudi

Elive is a Debian-based Linux distro, customized with Enlightenment e17 desktop manager. It is designed with the aim of providing a stable, fully functional and beautiful operating system that can run with minimal hardware requirement.

The current stable version is based on Debian-etch while the version that is under development is based on the recently released Lenny. Knowing the stability and versatility of Debian and the elegant and simplicity of Enlightenment, there are little things that Elive can go wrong.

Testing it out

As the same as any other distros, Elive comes with a live CD that you can use to boot up (and test) in your computer. When you first boot up the Live CD, it automatically detects your hardware and auto-configures it for optimum setting.

If you are using hardware that requires the restricted driver, such as broadcom wireless card and nVidia graphics card, Elive will also prompt you to install the necessary drivers so you can use your hardware straight away. I was happy that it is able to configure my Broadcom wireless card correctly during the boot up. This is one of the few distros that I can boot it up and connect to the Internet straight away, without any configuration or driver installation.

In addition, if you are dualbooting with a Windows partition, or are testing out Elive on your Windows-only computer, Elive will ask if you want to mount the NTFS partition on boot up.

The Frontend

Once you reach the desktop, you will be greeted with the familiar Enlightenment desktop environment (or unfamiliar if you are used to Gnome or KDE). The first thing that you will find missing is the panel (aka as menu or application bar). In case you don’t know, there is no application bar in Enlightenment. You simply click your mouse anywhere on the desktop to access the menu and applications. In my opinion, this is a much cleaner and faster way to manage your applications.

The layout of the desktop is well designed, with clever use of the various corners.

At the bottom of the screen is the e17 iconbar (also known as IBar) that serves as a dock for your frequently used applications.

The left bottom corner is the Xpad where you can quickly fire up to input a short note or access your todo list.

The right bottom is where all the gadgets reside. You are free to add/remove any of the gadgets from the shelf. I particularly like the Internet Configurator that cleverly detect my wireless network without much configuration.

The top right corner is where you can access any of the 12 virtual desktops in Elive. Note that you can easily move an active window to any of the virtual desktop by dragging it to the edges, including the corner. The transition from a desktop to another is seamless. You don’t even notice the differences. Also, one of the best thing that I find it difficult to implement in Gnome is that you can set a different wallpaper for each virtual desktop.

Accessing minimized windows

As mentioned above, there is no menu bar in Enlightenment. When you minimize a window, it will turn into an icon on the desktop instead. To retrieve the window, simply click on the icon and it will maxmize back to its original size.

The following screenshot shows the iconify windows, Xpad todo list, active windows in different virtual desktop and accessing the menu by mouse-clicking on the desktop.

On the application side, some of you (especially me) might be disappointed by the exclusion of OpenOffice. Abiword is used as the default office suite instead. Luckily this distro is Debian-based, so installing OpenOffice on it is just a breeze. The file manager used is Thundar, which is a great replacement for the commonly used Nautilus. Other applications include:

• XMMS
• Mplayer
• Iceweasal (a Debian rebrand of Firefox)
• GIMP
• aMSN
• Skype
• Transmission torrent client
• Avidemux
• Acidrip
• xine
• poedit
• scite text editor
• and many more

On the gaming side, I am surprise to find a collection of several good and interesting games. The Torus Trooper and Tuxpack are two great games that I have wasted countless hours playing. Yes, if you are missing your old console games, the ZSNES Nintendo Emulator, ScummVm and Dosbox emulator are also included.

The backend

On the configuration side, Elive has created beautiful and user-friendly GUI for its user to configure and change any of the system setting. It might take some exploration to find out where all the configuration options are, but once you got that sorted out, everything is just a simple click and select.

On the IBar, there is the Elive Panel where you can access and configure most of the system stuffs. The configuration options are categoried into three main areas:

• Look and feel setting – the place where you customize the desktop theme and overall look and feel.
• Personal settings – the place to personalize your settings, like which applications to load on startup.
• Systems settings – This is where you configure the system setting.

All the configuration options are nicely laid out and there are little chance that you need to hit the terminal to fix things up.

Installation

There are three mode of installation that you can select from: Novice, Normal and Advanced. I must admit that even the Novice mode is not as straight forward as Ubuntu. There are several things that Elive do before installing: partition your hard disk, download the installer file, verifying the system, verifying the installer source. At times, it will prompt you to enter information such as the security code, your username, password etc, which can be quite a hassle.

Various version of Elive

There are currently two version of Elive that are under development: standard Elive and Elive Ecomorph.

The Ecomorph version is a special version that is coupled with Compiz. If you think that Debian + e17 is great, then Debian + e17 + Compiz is even better.

Here is a video on Ecomorph:

Both the development versions are free to download, but are not stable enough for daily usage.

For the existing stable version of Elive, it is more of a donation-ware rather than a freeware. You have to donate (any amount) before you can download the LiveCD.

Invite

Alternatively, you can get invitation codes from your friends who used Elive. For MakeTechEasier readers, on courtesy of EliveTeam, we have 5 invites ready to be given away. If you are interested to try out and install Elive (stable), be among the first to leave your comment below. Remember to include your name and email address.

Conclusion

Elive is a great distro that gives you functionality, stability and beauty. While there are a few other distros that are based on the Enlightenement desktop manager, this is so far the most elegant distro that I have ever encountered. I am pretty impressed by it and I guess it will remain on my computer for a much longer time than any other OS.

For those who want to try out Elive, here are the links:

Elive (stable)

standard Elive (development)

Elive Ecomorph (Compiz)

In addition, with some simple configuration, you can also turn any windows/applications into widgets so that they can run in the background (such as playing music) without messing up your desktop. This can also be very useful if you are frequently watching/reading porn confidential stuffs. When someone (such as your boss) walks in, you can quickly hide it without them seeing it.

Installing CompizConfig Setting Manager

Make sure that you have installed the CompizConfig Setting Manager.

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-setting-manager

Go to System->Preferences->CompizConfig Setting Manager (some may see it as ‘Advanced Desktop effect Settings‘). On the left search box, type in ‘widget‘. You will see the Widget Layer option on the right.

Place a check on the box to activate it.

Next, click on the Widget Layer to go into its configuration page.

Go to the Behavior tab, you will see a Widget Windows input field. Beside that is a ‘+‘ button.

Before you click on the ‘+‘ button, open the window/application that you want to set as widget.

Now click on the ‘+’ button on the Widget config page. You will see a window as shown below.

Under the ‘Type‘ dropdown option, select Window Class. In the next row, press the ‘Grab‘ button. The mouse cursor will now change to a ‘+’. Click the cursor on the window/application that you want to change to widget. It will return a value to the ‘Value‘ input field. Click Add to insert the entry. An entry such as “class=YourApplicationName” will be added to the Widget Windows Input field. You will also notice that the application that you have just clicked on has disappeared from your desktop. Press F9 and you will see it appear as a widget.

Isolating a single application

If you have several applications that are using the same Window Class (such as the prism-gmail, prism-google-analytics, prism-twitter are all under the Prism class), you might want to add an additional matching rule to isolate the application from the rest of its class. For example, if you want to add prism-gmail as a widget, but not the rest of the prism applications, all you need to do is to add another entry “title=Gmail” to the Widget Window field. In this way, only Prism application with the window title containing ‘Gmail‘ will become a widget.

Adding two or more applications

For more than two applications, you have to change the ‘Relation‘ field to ‘OR‘ (or simply add a ‘|’ in between the entry). For example, if I want the Rhythmbox and GIMP to load as widget, I will add the entry as shown below:

While the above tutorial is for Ubuntu, it should work for any Linux systems with Compiz installed.