The Main Menu

The footprint icon seen towards the left end of the example panel is the Main Menu (yes, you guessed right, it is the footprint of the gnome). This menu provides you access to almost all you can do with GNOME — all the applications, configuration tools, command line prompt, Logout and Lock Screen commands, and much more. To access any of its items, click on the Main Menu Button. You should release the mouse after pressing the Main Menu button so that you can take advantage of other mouse-activated features in the Main Menu such as right mouse clicks and drag and drop from the menu.

Figure 4. The Main Menu Button

You can also access the Main menu by clicking on the Panel with the right mouse button. If you wish, you can also have several main menu buttons on different panels.

Components of the main menu

The main component of the Main Menu is the Programs menu, which contains a list of preconfigured menu items. Here you will find all the GNOME applications, from Gnumeric spreadsheet to Kanji terminal, as well as quite a few non-Gnome ones, such as Netscape browser and emacs text editor. Programs menu also contains commands File manager, which launches the GNOME file manager, Run program, which gives you the command line prompt where you can enter any command, and Help, which launches the GNOME help browser. GNOME help browser gives you an easy access to all the documentation installed on your system — not only GNOME documentation (Users guide, application manuals, …), but also all other types of documentation (man pages, info pages).

In addition to the Programs, the main menu can also contains a number of other submenus and useful commands, listed below. Depending on your configuration, you may not see all of them. Also, some of them may be shown as submenus, and others included as part of the main menu, separated by horizontal lines from other parts.

Configuring the main menu

To change configuration of the main menu which you access from the foot icon, right-click on this icon and select Properties from the pop-up menu. This will show Menu Properties dialog. In this dialog, for each of the submenus of the Main menu listed above (Programs, Favorites, …) you can choose whether you want it to be shown as part of the main menu, as a submenu, or not shown at all.

WARNING

The main menu which you get by right-clicking on the panel is configured independently from the main menu you get by clicking on the foot icon. Configuration of the main menu which you get by right-clicking on the panel (which is the same as the one you get by using keyboard shortcut) is done using Menu tab in Global Panel Preferences dialog.

Figure 5. Menu Properties Dialog

You can also edit the contents of the Favorites menu (or, if you are the system administrator, also of the Programs menu) using the GNOME Menu Editor. To start it, right-click on the main menu button and select Edit Menus. Alternatively, you can start GNOME Menu Editor by selecting Programs->Settings->Menu Editor from the Main Menu itself.

Keyboard navigation in the main menu

If you prefer, you can use keyboard instead of the mouse to navigate the main menu. To activate the main menu, press Menu key on your keyboard (if you are using standard PC keyboard, this key usually is located to the left of the space bar and labelled with a picture of a menu); you can change the default key in the Miscellaneous tab of Global Panel Preferences dialog. After this, you can use Up and Down arrows to move inside the menu, Right arrow to go to a submenu, and Enter to select an item. To hide the menu again, just press Esc.