Ubuntu: Up and Running

Preferences

This is an important part of the Nautilus file browser if you intend to customize it to your own liking. You already have seen how one of its options lets you change the default clicking action from double-clicking to single-clicking. Here, you’ll find a lot of other things you can change. Figure 6-16 shows the Edit → Preferences window, with six tabs of configurable options.

Figure 6-16. The File Management Preferences Views tab

Edit → Preferences → Views

This tab contains the following options:

Default View

With this section of the Views tab, you can set up defaults for a number of things, such as whether folders should be viewed in an icon view, list view, or compact view. You can also decide whether items should be arranged by name, size, type, modification date, or emblems. Both of these options are available from drop-down menus. Underneath, you can check a box if you want folders to always appear before files, and another if you want to view hidden and backup files.

Icon View Defaults

This section allows you to specify which zoom level to use when opening folders, to select a compact layout, and whether to view text beside icons instead of underneath them.

Compact View Defaults

In this section, you can choose the zoom level from a drop-down box, and also restrain all columns to the same width to keep the display looking clean.

List View Defaults

This drop-down input allows ...