Abiword is a super lightweight word processor that is fast and has plenty of features. One issue I always had with it is that by default it saves files in its own format, .abw, .zabw, or .abw gz. Abiword gives you plenty of options when saving a file, which is great. However, I prefer the [...]]]> Abiword is a super lightweight word processor that is fast and has plenty of features. One issue I always had with it is that by default it saves files in its own format, .abw, .zabw, or .abw gz. Abiword gives you plenty of options when saving a file, which is great. However, I prefer the Open Document (.odt) format, and selecting it requires scrolling way down the list. I wanted to make this the default choice. There isn’t a menu option to change this setting, so here’s how you do it.

You need to edit the system.profile file in the /usr/share/abiword-2.8 directory. You may need to replace “abiword-2.8″ with whatever version number corresponds to your installation of Abiword. I am currently using version 2.8.

1. Hit ALT+F2 to open a Run Application dialog box & enter
   gksudo gedit & enter your password
2. Go to File > Open and navigate to the /usr/share/abiword-2.8 directory
3. Open the file: system.profile
4. Find the section that looks like this:
   <SystemDefaults
/>
5. Make it look like this:
   <SystemDefaults
DefaultSaveFormat=".odt"
/>
6. You can make this file format anything you choose, like .doc for example
7. Save the file and exit

Now Abiword will save your files in the .odt format.

Source for this how to: Abiword wiki.

This weeks wallpaper is pretty neat, although I can’t remember where it came from. I call it… cells.

You can download it here: 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 1440 x 900 1680 x 1050 1920 x 1200

Enjoy!

This one is a 1024 x 768, but hopefully it’ll work for most of you. Another one of my favorites, though my monitor resolution has surpassed this pic’s dimensions. Affecting your machine by breadfan on gnome-look.org.

Download Affecting your machine here.

So, I’m going to start something new, a weekly wallpaper that I think you might like. So, here is our first wallpaper of the week, and its one of my favorites.

Yep, that is the mutant master of magnetism himself. I love Magneto. His character, his power set, and his costume’s design. This is one of [...]]]> So, I’m going to start something new, a weekly wallpaper that I think you might like. So, here is our first wallpaper of the week, and its one of my favorites.

Yep, that is the mutant master of magnetism himself. I love Magneto. His character, his power set, and his costume’s design. This is one of the most unique Magneto designs that I’ve come across. Such a visually striking image, courtesy of Tradd, on Deviant Art.

Download

You can download the image here.

Do you have certain files that you print quite often? Would you prefer to be able to just click on a desktop icon, or a panel icon to print the file? This is so much quicker than opening the file in Open Office, Abiword, or whatever, and then printing it.

This is something that’s been very [...]]]> Do you have certain files that you print quite often? Would you prefer to be able to just click on a desktop icon, or a panel icon to print the file? This is so much quicker than opening the file in Open Office, Abiword, or whatever, and then printing it.

This is something that’s been very helpful to me. I have several files that I print on a somewhat regular basis. Files which only change every six months or so. Opening up the file, and then printing it can take several seconds, and mouse clicks. With this method, your file can be on its way to the printer in less time than it would take you to open it up. Here’s how you do it.

Before proceeding any further, you need to make sure that you have assigned a default printer for CUPS to use when printing with a command. Please see my post about this, here, to set that up. Now, on to the one click printing.

We’re going to use a panel launcher for this example, though these instructions can be modified to put this launcher on your desktop as well.

1. Right-click on the panel you want the launcher to appear & select Add to Panel.
2. Choose Custom Application Launcher, and the Create Launcher box should pop up.
3. Name your launcher, and give it a comment that will pop up when hovered over by the mouse pointer.
4. For the command, you’ll need something like this…

   lp /home/user/pathtofile

5. You can click on the little springboard to the left to give your launcher an icon, or not.
6. Click on OK to finish
7. Now you have an icon on your panel that will print a file for you with one click of your mouse.

Printing from the command line can let you get things done very quickly. It can also open up a world of one-click printing of files, which we’ll get into with a future post. So, to get started, navigate to http://localhost:631 in your browser. If you have a default Ubuntu installation, you should now be looking [...]]]> Printing from the command line can let you get things done very quickly. It can also open up a world of one-click printing of files, which we’ll get into with a future post. So, to get started, navigate to http://localhost:631 in your browser. If you have a default Ubuntu installation, you should now be looking at your CUPS (formerly Common Unix Printing System) page.

Once there you’ll need to go into the Command-Line Printing and Options page. Its here that we find the instructions we need. Now, printing a file from the command line may be as simple as running one command. Here’s what this page has to say about this process.

CUPS understands many different types of files directly, including text, PostScript, PDF, and image files. This allows you to print from inside your applications or at the command-line, whichever is most convenient! Type either of the following commands to print a file to the default (or only) printer on the system:

lp filename
lpr filename

If you only have one printer on your system, that’s probably all you’ll need. You may however, have to tell CUPS which is your default printer. CUPS tells us how to do this as well. The first thing you need to do is find out the name of your printer. Here’s how you can do this.

lpstat -p -d

Now you have the name of your printer(s). Choose the one you want to primarily use, with this command.

lpoptions -d printername

Now, when you run your lp or lpr command to print a file, CUPS knows which printer to send the job to. There are tons of other options, all laid out on the Command-Line Printing and Options page. Keep in mind that all of this info assumes that you already have the requisite print drivers installed and configured on your system.

I posted about this topic a little while ago, while using Ubuntu 8.04. After my installation of the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, my keyboard shortcut didn’t function the way I wanted it to. It would unmount any USB flash drive I had plugged in. This wouldn’t do, so here’s how I [...]]]> I posted about this topic a little while ago, while using Ubuntu 8.04. After my installation of the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, my keyboard shortcut didn’t function the way I wanted it to. It would unmount any USB flash drive I had plugged in. This wouldn’t do, so here’s how I got it to work again.

1. Go to System > Preferences > Keyboard Shortcuts
2. Click on Add at the bottom of the box. The Custom Shortcut box will open up.
3. Enter whatever you’d like for the Name.
4. Enter eject -T for the Command & click Apply.
5. Click Apply, and close the Keyboard Shortcuts box.
6. You’ll now see your new shortcut at the bottom of the list, in the Custom Shortcuts section.
7. To the right is where you enter the keystroke you want to be the shortcut for this command. It is currently Disabled.
8. Click on the Disabled, and then hit whatever key combination you want. I used the F12 key.
9. That’s it, now every time I hit the F12 key my CD drawer will open or close.

So, let’s say that you have absolutely no use for the little envelope that is residing next to your volume applet since you installed Lucid Lynx. It is a very useful little guy if you use Evolution, or if you install something like gmail notifier to check your web mail. If not, then here’s how [...]]]> So, let’s say that you have absolutely no use for the little envelope that is residing next to your volume applet since you installed Lucid Lynx. It is a very useful little guy if you use Evolution, or if you install something like gmail notifier to check your web mail. If not, then here’s how you can remove it.

Open a terminal and enter this command:

sudo apt-get remove indicator-messages

That’s it, once you restart your machine, the envelope will be gone. You can also restart the panel without restarting your machine.

ALT + F2 to bring up a Run dialog box. Then enter killall gnome-panel. You’ll see all of your panels, or taskbars, disappear, and then reappear in a few seconds.

I’ll be upgrading at some point by doing a fresh install. What are your plans? Are you planning to upgrade? Will you upgrade through [...]]]> Well, Ubuntu 10.04 LTS is almost upon us, due for release at the end of this month. This will be the first Long Term Support release since April of 2008’s Hardy Heron.

I’ll be upgrading at some point by doing a fresh install. What are your plans? Are you planning to upgrade? Will you upgrade through the Update Manager on your system? Will you do a completely fresh install? If so, how will you backup your data? You may be interested in using something like APTonCD to retain some of your applications, or at least as a listing of them.

If you’d like to try out the latest, pre-release version of Lucid Lynx, click here to download.

So, let me know what you plan to do in the comments below.