Using the GNOME Panel is very simple and will come easily to anyone who has used a graphical desktop environment. This section will give you a basic introduction to help you get started, and the following sections will discuss the various panel objects and features in more detail.
The Panel can hold several types of objects. The example Panel in Figure 1 shows each type of Panel object.
This example Panel contains the following objects:
Menus. Menus are lists of items, each of which either starts an application, executes a command, or is a sub-menu. In the example Panel, the left-most icon after the arrow is a stylized footprint icon(the GNOME logo). This is the Main Menu, one of the most important objects in the Panel. This menu provides access to almost all the applications, commands, and configuration options available in GNOME. The Main Menu is described in detail in the section called The Main Menu. The second icon shown is a folder, the default icon used for user Menus. GNOME allows users to create their own Menus with personalized contents to use in addition to the Main Menu. To open a Menu, just click on the icon with the left mouse button. For more information on Menus, see the section called Menus.
Launchers. Launchers are buttons which either start an application or execute a command when you press them(click with the left mouse button). The third icon in the example Panel is a Launcher which starts the Gnumeric spreadsheet. For more information on Launchers, see the section called Launchers.
Applets. Applets are applications which run inside a small part of the Panel. The fourth through eighth icons in the example Panel are Applets. The first Applet shown is GNOME Weather, which periodically downloads the current weather conditions off the Web and displays the information. The second Applet is the Drive Mount Applet, which shows whether a disk (in this case, the floppy drive) is mounted and allows you to mount and unmount the drive with a single click of the mouse. The third Applet shown is the Quick Launch Applet, which acts as a container for Launchers, but saves more space than placing your Launchers directly on the Panel. In the example shown the Quick Launch Applet contains six application Launchers. Next is the GNOME Desk Guide, which allows you to control multiple virtual desktops, each of which can have multiple screens. You can move between desktops and screens by clicking with your left mouse button. The final Applet shown is the Tasklist, which allows you to control your windows in various ways, including changing the focus, iconifying windows, closing windows, and killing applications. The Tasklist shown is for a screen with only two windows, both of which are for Electric Eyes. For more information on Applets, see the section called Applets.
Drawers. Drawers are essentially extensions of the Panel which can be opened or closed. They can hold anything the panel can. The brown icon of a drawer in the example Panel is the default icon for Drawers, although any icon can be used. Click on the Drawer with the left mouse button to open or close it. For more information on Drawers, see the section called Drawers.
Special Objects. Special Objects are items you can add to the Panel which perform functions which are generally not available through the other Panel objects. The last item in the example Panel is a Special Object called the Logout Button. Pressing this with the left mouse button begins the logout sequence to end your GNOME session. For more information on Special Objects, see the section called Special Panel Objects.
Each of these object types is described in detail in the following sections. You can easily add, move, or remove Panel objects (see the section called Adding, Moving, and Removing Panel Objects).
Clicking on any panel object with the right mouse button brings up the Panel object Pop-up Menu. This Menu contains Remove from panel for removing the object from the panel, Move applet for moving objects within the Panel or between Panels, the Panel Submenu described below, and object-specific items. For Drawers, Menus, and Launchers the only object-specific item is the Properties... item which allows you to customize the properties and settings of the object. For Applets, the Pop-up Menu will often contain About for viewing information about the Applet such as the author's name and the Applet version, Help for viewing documentation about the Applet, and Properties for configuring preferences and settings for the Applet. Applets often have other Applet-specific controls in the Pop-up Menu.
The Panel Submenu allows you to create and remove Panels and add objects to the Panel. It also allows you to modify the properties of the particular Panel of interest using the Properties menu item (see the section called Individual Panel Properties) or the properties of all panels using Global Preferences... menu item (see the section called Global Panel Preferences).
You can also right-click on the Panel itself. This will bring up the Main Menu. In particular, this Menu also contains the Panel Submenu described above.
The left and right arrow icons seen at either end of the example panel are used to hide the panel. These arrows are shown in the following figure.
Figure 2. The Hide Button
Pressing one of these arrows will hide the GNOME Panel by sliding it in the direction of the arrow pressed. Pressing it a second time will expand the Panel.
The Panel can be configured to automatically hide when you are not using it and reappear when you move the mouse to the part of the screen where the Panel resides. This can be a helpful function if you are unable to run your system in a high resolution. To learn how to have the Panel auto-hide, see the section called Individual Panel Properties.
To log out of GNOME, right click on either end of the Panel and select Log out. This will bring up the Logout Dialog seen below.
Figure 3. The Logout Dialog
If you would like to save your current setup, select the Save current setup checkbox. This will save any GNOME programs you have open and configuration changes you may have made in the Control Center.
The default way of logging out is by using the Logout option, which ends your GNOME session but does not shut down the computer. Depending on your system configuration, you may also have the Halt option, which shuts down the computer, and the Reboot option, which will reboot the computer.
Note for advanced users: The Halt and Reboot choices will only be shown if you have the permission to execute the command /usr/bin/shutdown.
If you do not want to log out, press the No button and you will be returned to your GNOME session. Otherwise press the Yes button to log out.
Logging Out and Window Managers: If you are running a window manager that is GNOME compliant, the logout feature will quit the window manager as well as GNOME. If you are running a non-compliant window manager you will have to quit the window manager yourself.
You can disable the Logout Dialog so that pressing the logout button will end your GNOME session without asking any questions. To do so, start GNOME control center (Startup programs) and uncheck the button Prompt on logout. You may also control whether changes to your session are automatically saved using the Automatically save changes to session button.
Sometimes you may want to leave your computer with GNOME running and not allow others to use or view your GNOME session. GNOME allows you to do this by locking the screen, requiring a password to unlock it. To lock your GNOME session, right click on either end of a Panel and select Lock screen.
Screensavers and The Lock Button: The Lock Button uses a feature of the xscreensaver program. This is the same program that the Control Center uses to set your screensaver. In order for the Lock Button to work properly, you must have a screensaver enabled in the Control Center.