Appearance
Gnome 3
Super L or Super R (often a 'windows' key) will usually bring up launcher for launching tasks
Open Settings application to make many of these changes.
Resetting
Sometimes the Gnome window manager will consume a lot of memory. When running with X11 (not Wayland), it's possible to restart the window manager without restarting all the applications.
Quickest:
Alt-F2
type r in the window that pops up
Dock Settings
Settings -> Appearance -> Auto-hide the Dock
Auto-hide the Dock (Settings->Appearance->Dock)
Update Blank Screen Preferences (Settings->Power->Blank Screen)
Desktop Icons
Settings -> Appearance -> Desktop Icons -> Toggle "Show Personal folder"
Dark Mode
Good for testing if web pages respond to the operating system dark mode preference:
Settings -> Appearance -> Dark Mode
https://itsfoss.com/dark-mode-ubuntu/
How to Enable Full Dark Mode in Ubuntu 20.04
Alert Sounds
Disable alert sounds like screenshot photo sound:
dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/sound/event-sounds "false"dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/sound/event-sounds "false"If the dconf method does not work, a manual work around is to make all of the sound files silent.
AKA create silent versions of them all.
Open Audacity. Generate 1 second silent audio.
System alert sounds are stored here:
cd /usr/share/sounds/Yaru/stereocd /usr/share/sounds/Yaru/stereoBring in the silence .ogg file
sudo cp /path/to/silence-1sec.ogg .
sudo chmod 644 silence-1sec.ogg
sudo cp silence.ogg audio-volume-change.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg battery-low.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg bell.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg complete.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg desktop-login.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg desktop-logoff.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg device-added.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg device-removed.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg dialog-error.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg dialog-question.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg dialog-warning.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg message-new-email.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg message-new-instant.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg message.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg power-plug.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg power-unplug.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg system-ready.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg trash-empty.ogasudo cp /path/to/silence-1sec.ogg .
sudo chmod 644 silence-1sec.ogg
sudo cp silence.ogg audio-volume-change.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg battery-low.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg bell.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg complete.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg desktop-login.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg desktop-logoff.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg device-added.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg device-removed.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg dialog-error.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg dialog-question.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg dialog-warning.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg message-new-email.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg message-new-instant.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg message.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg power-plug.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg power-unplug.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg system-ready.oga
sudo cp silence.ogg trash-empty.ogaI needed to restart for this change to take effect. Eventually they were replaced / reinstalled automatically.
The move approach for the sound files were ultimately re-added by the system.
cd /usr/share/sounds/Yaru/stereo
sudo mkdir originals
sudo mv * originals/cd /usr/share/sounds/Yaru/stereo
sudo mkdir originals
sudo mv * originals/Gnome Tweaks
Some configurations are not exposed via Settings.
For those there is the Tweaks application. This is where you can find the Themes setting
For everything else, there is dconf-editor.
sudo apt-get install gnome-tweakssudo apt-get install gnome-tweaksTitlebar Buttons
Adjust window button placement
Use Tweaks application to move close, minimize, and maximize to the left of the Window Titlebars.
Tweaks -> Window Titlebars -> Placement -> left
Desktop Background
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///home/account/public/template.svg
To change the background color, it may be necessary to use:
dconf-editor
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background primary-color '#DDDDDD'
It is possible to set by right clicking on the desktop but so far I have had difficulty setting it to an image other than those provided by default.
It is possible to do this via the CLI:
[2019.10.25 18:47:05] gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///home/account/public/16x10.png gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri file:///home/account/public/16x10.svg
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/116541/how-to-refresh-the-desktop-background-in-various-desktop-environments/116806#116806 How to refresh the desktop background in various desktop environments? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=gnome+3+svg+desktop+background&t=ffhp&ia=web gnome 3 svg desktop background at DuckDuckGo https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/101613/cant-set-background-wallpaper-in-gnome-3 gnome3 - Can't set background wallpaper in Gnome 3 - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
Laptop specific
Automatic Brightness
Disable this under:
Settings -> Power -> Automatic Screen Brightness
It's annoying to have the screen dim if you get in front of the camera
Show Battery Percentage
Settings -> Power -> Show Battery Percentage
Disable Middle Click
For laptops with a touch pad, I prefer the following settings:
Open gnome-tweaks and go to the "Keyboard and Mouse" tab and disable "Middle-click-Paste".
Also set the "Mouse Click Emulation" to be "Fingers"
https://www.google.com/search?client=ubuntu&channel=fs&q=gnome3+disable+mouse+buttons&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 gnome3 disable mouse buttons - Google Search https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/24330/how-can-i-turn-off-middle-mouse-button-paste-functionality-in-all-programs xorg - How can I turn off "middle mouse button paste" functionality in all programs? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange
Login Screen
A bit tricky to find login screen customizations.
dconf-editor
Navigate to:
/org/gnome/login-screen/
Restarting
Restart GNOME by pressing Alt+F2 and running the command r (X.org) or log out and back in (Wayland). Do this whenever you want to apply and test a change of the code.
This restores functionality without a full system restart! This fixes when gnome-shell starts running full resources
https://github.com/mzur/gnome-shell-wsmatrix
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=gnome+restart+gnome-shell&ia=web
gnome restart gnome-shell at DuckDuckGo
https://www.linuxuprising.com/2020/07/how-to-restart-gnome-shell-from-command.html
How To Restart GNOME Shell From Command Line Without Closing Any Applications (X11 Only) - Linux Uprising Blog