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Chapter 4

Working With Panels

The information in this chapter describes how to use panels.

Introducing Panels

A panel is an area in your desktop environment from which you can run applications and applets, and perform other tasks. When you start a session for the first time, the desktop environment contains the following panels:

Menu Panel
Edge panel at the bottom of the screen

The following sections describe these panels.

Menu Panel

The Menu Panel stretches the full length of the top edge of your screen. The Menu Panel includes textual rather than graphical menus. Figure 4-1 shows the Menu Panel. Your system administrator might have set your default Menu Panel according to your local requirements, so you might see a slightly different Menu Panel.

Figure 4-1 Typical Menu Panel

Default Menu Panel. The context describes the graphic.

The typical Menu Panel contains the following objects:

Object	Description
Applications menu	The Applications menu contains the standard GNOME applications.
Actions menu	The Actions menu provides commands that enable you to perform desktop tasks.
Home folder launcher	Click on this launcher to open your home folder in a Nautilus file manager window.
Terminal launcher	Click on this launcher to start the Terminal application. Terminal provides access to a UNIX command line.
Volume Control applet	Volume Control enables you to control the volume of the speaker on your system.
Clock applet	Clock shows the current time. Click on the time readout to display a menu of clock commands.
Window list icon	The window list is a list of all your open windows. To give focus to a window, click on the icon at the extreme right of the Menu Panel, then choose the window.

Unlike other types of panel, you can only have one Menu Panel at a time on your desktop.

Bottom Edge Panel

On startup, an edge panel stretches the full length of the bottom edge of the screen. Figure 4-2 shows a typical bottom edge panel. Your system administrator might have set your default bottom edge panel according to your local requirements, so you might see a slightly different bottom edge panel.

Figure 4-2 Typical Bottom Edge Panel

Bottom edge panel. The context describes the graphic.

The bottom edge panel contains the following applets:

Window List: Displays a button for each window that is open. Window List enables you to minimize and restore windows.
Workspace Switcher: Enables you to navigate between your workspaces.

You can change the behavior and appearance of your bottom edge panel to suit your requirements. You can also add or remove objects from your bottom edge panel. You can create multiple panels, and choose different properties, objects, and backgrounds for each panel. You can also hide panels.

Managing Your Panels

The following sections describe how to manage your panels.

To Add a New Panel

You can add different types of panels to your desktop environment. Table 4-1 lists the types of panel that you can add, and their characteristics.

Table 4-1 Types of Panel

Panel Type	Snap Behavior	Size
Corner Panel	Snaps to one of the edges of the screen, but can only snap to the center or the corner of the edge.	Stretches as much as required to display the objects on the panel.
Edge Panel	Snaps to one of the edges of the screen. The startup panel at the bottom of the screen is an example of an edge panel.	Stretches the full length of the edge that the panel snaps to.
Floating Panel	Does not snap to anything. You can place a floating panel anywhere in your desktop.	Stretches as much as required to display the objects on the panel.
Sliding Panel	Snaps to one of the edges of the screen, can snap to any point on the edge.	Stretches as much as required to display the objects on the panel.
Menu Panel	Snaps to the top edge of the screen. You cannot move the Menu Panel.	Stretches the full length of the top edge of the screen. You can only have one Menu Panel in your desktop environment.

To add a panel perform the following steps:

Right-click on a vacant space on any panel, then choose New Panel.
Choose the type of panel that you want to add. The new panel is added to your desktop environment. The new panel contains no objects, except for a Menu Panel.

You can customize the new panel to suit your preferences.

To Interact With a Panel

To interact with a panel, you must left-click, middle-click, or right-click on a vacant space on the panel. You can also middle-click or right-click on one of the hide buttons to select the panel, if the panel has no vacant space. If the hide buttons are not visible on a panel, modify the properties of the panel so that the hide buttons are visible.

You use the mouse buttons to interact with a panel in the following ways:

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Updated: 2003-11-11, 13:43