Restart the X-Server (the low level windowing sub-system):

• CTL+ALT+BACKSPACE

Capture the screen to a graphic file:

• Just hit the Print Screen key (Prt Scr on my keyboard)

Why doesn’t CTL+X delete properly – like it does in MS Windows?

• Because it’s not meant to! It only Cuts the item to the Clipboard; you need to hit the Del key to Delete. CTL+C has its long-accepted use, and so doesn’t do dual duty.

How can I enter special characters from the keyboard; I  can’t find a special character pallet?

• More than one way to do this but the coolest is the compose key. Compose means that you can use multiple keystrokes that are related to what you want to enter in order to compose the final single character. For instance if you want a ™ character you simply hit the compose key followed by the t and m keys. For a Euro character € do the same but use the e and and = keys  to create your character. Where is the compose key? Well you need to define it first, it’s not set up by default. For this you need to dig quite deep on the menus. System->Preferences->Keyboard->Layouts(Tab)->Other Options…(Button)->Compose key position(Arrow) I prefer to use the right Windows key – seeing it’s rarely used for anything else – but the right Alt Gr is also a strong candidate as it’s often used for similar purposes.

Permanently mount a drive so it’s there at boot time: