While on Windows I use hotkeys to quickly (tiny fractions of a second) shift between opened applications and documents. The procedure to create shortcuts is done just by pointing to the appropriate executable and there are several small programs to do that thing.

But here on Ubuntu being a newbie I am totally helpless since I don't seem to be able to locate the executable to point to. No “Program Files” folder here. I tried to make a shortcut on Compizconfig that points to Thunderbird but could not make it work. Probably the command in “command line” area is way off and the executable name (thunderbird.bin?) totally wrong. Would very much appreciate if someone pointed me to working examples of this sort of thing to get me on the right track.

To find the name and path to an executable, use the 'which' command in a console. 'which thunderbird' (without quotes) should give you the information you need.

For more information on how to make keyboard shortcuts under gnome, point your browser at www.google.com/linux, and search for 'gnome keyboard shortcuts'.

Thank you for your info. I found another place with easy to find executable names too and that was the System Guard. But this way doesn't seem to work that well in Linux since most but not all shortcuts I have tried to make so far have opened new instances of the programs instead of bringing the already opened ones to the front and so the question remains as if it is possible to have shortcuts to OPENED APPS.

On a happier note I have found Workspaces and ctrl+alt+arrow shifters and that is a killer app. My need for abovementioned shortcuts is thus greatly diminished but not entirely gone.