Download SliderDock from this link: http://sliderdock.wikidot.com/start

SliderDock features animation quality and high resolution icons. You can customize the backgrounds for the icons, alter their size, and change the size and location of the ring easily. Install from the following link and read the instructions carefully before installing. One thing that is very important if you are running a 64-bit system is that you do not install SliderDock in the default location of Program Files(x86). Instead, you will need to change the destination folder to Program Files during installation as seen in the
image below. For a 32-bit system, you can use the default location.

After you initially install SliderDock, there will be only a few icons in the ring. To add application icons, drag and drop the icons to the SliderDock icon which looks like this:

This icon is rather important, as it is the point from which you access the right-click context menu and the settings. Select “Dock settings” from the context menu that pops up when you right-click the icon.

The Dock settings allow you to customize General settings, Appearance, Controls, Shortcut Keys, and Shading effects. Click the tabs one by one from top to bottom and read the options on each page. It is all self-explanatory for the average user. If you play with the different appearance settings for awhile, you will find the right look that you are going for with your particular personalized desktop.

With the Appearance tab, you can choose different background images for your icons. The ones that will look the best depend on your desktop background. If you use rotating backgrounds from a slideshow, perhaps the “white square” icon backgrounds will be the most appropriate. If you use a solid color background, just about any of the choices look good. Here are four examples of the icon backgrounds available.

There is also a SliderDock tutorial icon in the ring by default that links to a site describing everything you need to know about using SliderDock. There is far more to the subject than can be described in this article. This just gives you a quick look at some of the features and appearances. If you do choose to try it out and you want to use the tutorial, click the icon that looks like this:

It looks like an Internet Explorer icon, but the “e” is a darker blue and the ring around it is a rainbow ring rather than a solid color. Additional customizations described in the tutorial provide instructions on how you can change icon images to make icons like this easier to find. Have fun customizing!

Docky is a little bit different. Docky is really nothing more than a front-end for Gnome Do (for more information on GNOME Do, check out my article “Don’t search, do – with GNOME Do“) that also serves as a really solid doc bar for the launching of applications in a very OS X like fashion.

In this article I will show you how to install and use Docky.

Installation

Because this is a front-end for GNOME Do, I highly recommend you install GNOME Do as well. What is really cool about this, however, is that you do not have to install GNOME Do. You can opt to only install Docky and use it as a simple Doc bar. Of course if you install GNOME Do, you will most likely want to work with Docky via the GNOME Do interface. It seems a bit convoluted, so let’s install both and you will see what I mean.

We’ll install Docky in Ubuntu. You can see how to install Docky in other distributions from the Docky Wiki. In order to install Docky in Ubuntu, follow these steps:

1. Add the correct repository with the command sudo add-apt-repository ppa:docky-core/ppa
2. Update your sources with sudo apt-get update.
3. Install with the command sudo apt-get install docky.

That’s it. If Docky doesn’t start right away you can then hit <Alt>F2 and enter the command docky to start the application.

Using Docky

Figure 1

When Docky starts you might find it overlapping your bottom GNOME panel and it will be in Panel Mode (it will stretch all the way across the bottom of your screen). To move Docky click and drag it to one side or the other. Or, if you like it at the bottom, you opt to delete the bottom GNOME panel instead.) Once you have Docky where you want it, you might want to switch it out of Panel mode. To do this click the Docky icon (the anchor) on Docky to open up the settings window (see Figure 1).

Figure 2

If Panel Mode is checked, uncheck it and Docky will switch from Panel mode to to Dock mode (see Figure 2).

Adding launchers

By default Docky will only contain a few launchers. As far as most of the documentation goes, it would seem all you need to do is open up a GNOME menu, select and item, and drag it to Docky. That doesn’t really work. Instead, here’s how you add launchers to Docky.

1. From the GNOME menu, launch the application you want to add.
2. An icon for the launched application will appear on Docky.
3. Right click the new icon on Docky.
4. Select “Pin to Dock” from the new menu.

Removing launchers

Removing a launcher is simple. Click on the launcher you want to remove and drag it off of Docky. That’s it. You can also organize your launchers by dragging and dropping them where you want them.

Docklets and Helpers

From the Docky settings window you can also add Docklets and Helpers. Docklets are similar to applications you will find in the GNOME notification area (monitors, clocks, etc). Helpers are more along the lines of application controls (Banshee, Pidgen, etc).

Final thoughts

Docky is an easy way to extend the functionality and look of your GNOME desktop. But don’t forget that Docky does function with GNOME Do. In later articles I will show you how to take advantage of this feature.

In the period since my first article about Avant I have become quite fond of this dock. Not only is it a handy means to launch applications (or have various applets reside), it is also quite aesthetically pleasing. And for those of us who demand more from the look and feel of their desktop, this little tool is a real gift. But out of the box it is fairly pedestrian. Of course we do not want pedestrian, we want something that will make others say “I want that desktop!” And with that in mind, let’s get to the goods.

Theming Avant

The first step in customizing Avant is to install and assign a good theme. But where to get those themes. There are a couple of locations for themes:

AWN Wiki

QV AWN Theme pack

Hopefully more theme sites will pop up for AWN. Until then, the above themes should tied you over.

Now how do you install these themes? Simple. What you will most likely download is a tarball file in tgz format. You do not need to unpack that file UNLESS you download the entire theme pack. If you download the pack you will have to unpack the main tarball which will result in a newly created directory, themes. Within that new directory you will see approximately sixteen files all ending in .tgz. These are also tarball files, but you do not want to unpack them. These files will be what you install for a new theme.

Figure 1

In order to install a new theme open up AWN Manager click the icon that is shown second from the left side in Figure 1.  When you click on that icon the AWN Manager will open. To add themes click on the Theme “tab” to see where your themes are located (see Figure 2). Most likely your default installation will only have the Default theme included.

Figure 2

To install a new theme click on the Add button, navigate to where you have your theme files, select your theme, and click Open. This will install your them, but not apply the theme.  In order use your theme select the newly installed theme from the list and click Apply. Your theme will now automatically apply to your desktop.

If you look back up at Figure 1 you will see the Glass 3D theme is, in effect, a 3D-like theme. When you first apply this theme you might very well find the bar to not be 3D, but instead be a flat appearance. To change this you need to go back to the AWN

Figure 3

Manager General “tab” and click the “Bar Appearance” tab. In this tab (see Figure 3) you can change the appearance of the bar from Flat Bar to 3D by selecting 3D from the Look drop down list.

From this same tab you can change a few other appearance configurations that can further customize your AWN dock.

Fonts

Figure 4

Fonts can also make a big difference in the way your AWN looks. Although text usually only appears. Take a look at Figure 4. This image shows the default look of the mouse-over font for AWN icons.

As you can see there is a black rectangle behind the font which, for some (like myself) blows the overall look and feel of the desktop. I want to change this, and to do so I go to the AWN Manager, click on the Task Appearance tab under the General heading. In this tab I can

Figure 5

change the font use as well as make the background color transparent. To get rid of the background color click on the Background color selector and then drag the opacity bar all the way to the left. The final results are shown in Figure 5. The look is much cleaner now.

Final thoughts

Some people do not look at the computer desktop as a functioning work of art. Others, like myself, see the desktop in exactly this way. My desktop is constantly being tweaked and changed. Some of these tweaks are very minor but have a bit impact. With the help of the Avant Window Navigator I can keep tweaking that overall look and feel to perfection.