By default, Nautilus displays a breadcrumb bar showing the path to the selected folder or file. However, this may not be efficient if you need to enter a long path. You can easily change Nautilus to display the location entry rather than the breadcrumb bar.

The location entry allows you to easily enter a path to navigate to a specific folder or file. We'll show you how to change the breadcrumb bar to the location entry.

NOTE: When we say to type something in this article and there are quotes around the text, DO NOT type the quotes, unless we specify otherwise.

Press Ctrl + Alt + T to open a Terminal window. Type the following line at the prompt and press Enter.

sudo apt-get install dconf-tools

Type your password when prompted and press Enter.

01_installing_dconf_editor

The installation starts and then tells you how much disk space will be used. When asked if you want to continue, type "y" and press Enter.

02_do_you_want_to_continue

When the installation finishes, close the Terminal window by typing "exit" at the prompt and pressing Enter.

03_closing_terminal_window

Click the Search button at the top of the Unity bar and type "dconf-editor" in the Search box. Items that match what you type start displaying as you type. When the dconf Editor displays, click the icon to open it.

04_searching_for_dconf_editor

In the dconf Editor, navigate to the following location in the tree list in the left pane.

org --> gnome --> nautilus --> preferences

In the right pane, select the always-use-location-entry check box.

05_checking_always_use_location_entry

To close the dconf Editor, click X button in the upper-left corner of the window.

06_closing_dconf_editor

Now, the breadcrumb bar becomes the location entry and you can easily type a path (or paste a path copied from elsewhere) and press Enter to quickly go to that folder or file, similar to how you would copy the path to a file or folder in Windows.

07_location_entry

If you want to go back to the breadcrumb bar, follow the above procedure and uncheck the always-use-location-entry check box.