If you install and customize themes as much as I do, you've probably noticed that window button locations are annoyingly inconsistent from theme to theme. In other words, on some themes the close, maximize, and minimize buttons are on the left side of the titlebar and on others the right. No matter your preference, I think most of us can agree that we'd prefer those buttons to stay put at all times. Otherwise simple tasks like "x-ing out" of a window or program suddenly become unintuitive and, as a result, frustrating.
Most of us Ubuntu tweakers know that this problem can be fixed on a case-by-case basis using the fantastic Ubuntu Tweak application.
Just go to "Window Manager Settings" and toggle between left and right. Viola!
But what about a more permanent solution that keeps you from having to go through those steps every time you change themes?
Well, ask and you shall receive:
1. Hit Alt+F2 to bring up your run dialog and type in gconf-editor to open up your Configuration Editor.
2. Browse to apps > metacity > general
3. Select the line "button_layout" and double-click in the "Value" column on the right. Depending on where your window buttons are currently located, your values may look different than mine:
So let's break this down. As I'm sure you've guessed, close, maximize, and minimize all refer to their corresponding buttons in the titlebar layout. The order in which you enter them here is the order in which they will show up on your titlebar.
Pay close attention to the placement of the colon, because it's the key to this whole mess. The colon is what tells the system on which side of the title bar those buttons will appear. In my example - close,minimize,maximize:menu - the close, minimize, and maximize buttons are on the left side of the titlebar and the menu button is on the right. So, if I typed menu:maximize,minimize,close then my maximize, minimize, and close buttons would be on the right side of the titlebar and my menu button on the left. Got it?
Note: Incidentally, the menu button is just a personal aesthetic preference. It's hardly necessary as you get the same exact options from right clicking on the title bar.
4. Go ahead and arrange those values to your satisfaction. Make sure you don't use any spaces or it won't work correctly.
5. Now, right click on that value and choose the option "set as default" and enter your admin password when prompted.
We're almost done, but this next step is huge and not to be taken lightly. Make sure you have it setup correctly andthat you want to keep these settings forever before taking this next step. Otherwise, abort!
6. Right click on the value again and choose "set as mandatory" and enter your admin password.Once you've done this, it's locked down and can be extremely difficult to undo.
7. Now you're all set. Just log out and log back in and those buttons will stay put no matter which theme you choose. Sweet!
Note: If you need to undo these changes for whatever reason, all you need to do is open up a terminal and type in "gksudo gconf-editor" and go to File > New Mandatory Window. Browse to apps > metacity > general and change the key back, then log out and log back in and you're all set. Thanks to the helpful community over at Ubuntu Forums for this tip.
Most of us Ubuntu tweakers know that this problem can be fixed on a case-by-case basis using the fantastic Ubuntu Tweak application.
Just go to "Window Manager Settings" and toggle between left and right. Viola!
But what about a more permanent solution that keeps you from having to go through those steps every time you change themes?
Well, ask and you shall receive:
1. Hit Alt+F2 to bring up your run dialog and type in gconf-editor to open up your Configuration Editor.
2. Browse to apps > metacity > general
3. Select the line "button_layout" and double-click in the "Value" column on the right. Depending on where your window buttons are currently located, your values may look different than mine:
So let's break this down. As I'm sure you've guessed, close, maximize, and minimize all refer to their corresponding buttons in the titlebar layout. The order in which you enter them here is the order in which they will show up on your titlebar.
Pay close attention to the placement of the colon, because it's the key to this whole mess. The colon is what tells the system on which side of the title bar those buttons will appear. In my example - close,minimize,maximize:menu - the close, minimize, and maximize buttons are on the left side of the titlebar and the menu button is on the right. So, if I typed menu:maximize,minimize,close then my maximize, minimize, and close buttons would be on the right side of the titlebar and my menu button on the left. Got it?
Note: Incidentally, the menu button is just a personal aesthetic preference. It's hardly necessary as you get the same exact options from right clicking on the title bar.
4. Go ahead and arrange those values to your satisfaction. Make sure you don't use any spaces or it won't work correctly.
5. Now, right click on that value and choose the option "set as default" and enter your admin password when prompted.
We're almost done, but this next step is huge and not to be taken lightly. Make sure you have it setup correctly and
6. Right click on the value again and choose "set as mandatory" and enter your admin password.
7. Now you're all set. Just log out and log back in and those buttons will stay put no matter which theme you choose. Sweet!
Note: If you need to undo these changes for whatever reason, all you need to do is open up a terminal and type in "gksudo gconf-editor" and go to File > New Mandatory Window. Browse to apps > metacity > general and change the key back, then log out and log back in and you're all set. Thanks to the helpful community over at Ubuntu Forums for this tip.
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