6 Ways To Open A Ubuntu Application

The Ubuntu Launcher is on the left side of the screen and contains icons for the most commonly used applications.

You can open one of these applications simply by clicking on it 

Right clicking on an icon often provides other options such as opening a new browser window or opening a new spreadsheet.

If the application doesn't appear in the launcher the second quickest way to find an application is to use the Ubuntu Dash and to be more specific the search tool.

To open the dash either click the icon at the top of the launcher or press the super key (signified by the Windows icon on most computers).

When the Dash opens you can simply search for an application by typing the name of it into the search bar.

As you start typing the relevant icons that match your search text will appear.

To open an application click on the icon.

If you just want to see which applications are on your computer or you know the type of application but not its name you can simply browse the Dash.

To browse the Dash click the top icon on the launcher or press the super key.

When the Dash appears click on the little "A" symbol at the bottom of the screen.

You will be presented with a list of recently used applications, installed applications and dash plugins.

To see more items for any of these click on the "see more results" next to each item.

If you click to see more installed applications you can use the filter on the top right which lets you narrow the choice down to a single or multiple categories.

If you know the name of the application you can open it quite quickly in the following way,

Press ALT and F2 at the same time to bring up the run command window.

Enter the name of the application. If you enter the name of a correct application then an icon will appear.

You can run the application either by clicking on the icon or by pressing return on the keyboard

 You can open an application by using the Linux terminal.

To open a terminal press CTRL, ALT and T or follow this guide for more suggestions.

If you know the program's name you can simply type it into the terminal window.

For example:

firefox

Whilst this is ok you might find it better to open applications in background mode. To do this run the command as follows:

firefox &

Of course some applications aren't graphical in nature. One example of this is apt-get which is a command line package manager. 

When you get used to using apt-get you won't want to use the graphical software manager any more.

You can set up keyboard shortcuts to open applications with Ubuntu.

To do so press the super key to bring up the Dash and type "Keyboard".

Click on the "Keyboard" icon when it appear.

A screen will appear with 2 tabs:

• Typing
• Shortcuts

Click on the shortcuts tab.

By default you can set shortcuts for the following applications:

• help browser
• calculator
• email client
• terminal
• web browser
• file manager (home folder)
• search
• HUD

You can set a shortcut simply by selecting one of the options and then choosing the keyboard shortcut you wish to use.

You can add custom launchers by clicking the plus symbol at the bottom of the screen.

To create the custom launcher enter the name of the application and a command.

When the launcher has been created you can set the keyboard shortcut in the same way as the other launchers.