Open Multiple Terminals in Single Window using Terminator

While programming I have often found myself switching between terminals, debugging and compiling program in one terminal , looking up man pages in other and modifying source code in the other. I have always wished somehow I could avoid this nuisance of switching and juggling between terminals . Terminator is an application that might just solve this problem.

Terminator allows you to open multiple terminal in a single window , each of these terminals are independent of other, and one can easily switch between these terminals by clicking on the terminal you want to use.


Terminator does not come pre-installed on Ubuntu, but is available in the repositories and can be easily installed by issuing the following command in the terminal window :

sudo apt-get install terminator

Once, Terminator is installed you can launch it from (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminator)

When you first launch Terminator , it looks like your normal Terminal window(by normal I mean without multiple terminals ). However , you can easily split this window into multiple terminals by either right clicking in the Terminator console and selecting one of the Split options or using the following shortcuts :

• Ctrl-Shift-O: split horizontally.
• Ctrl-Shift-E: split vertically.
• Ctrl-Shift-Q: exit terminator.

Multiple Terminals in a Single Terminator Window

Terminator is an extremely useful application especially for programmers , or people who like typing in commands , using terminal and shell instead of using GUI.

Article Written by : Ambuj Varshney (blogambuj@gmail.com)
For Linux on Desktop Blog , http://linuxondesktop.blogspot.com
(C) 2009 , Ambuj Varshney