Global Panel Preferences

To start configuring the GNOME panel, select Global Preferences from the Panel submenu of the Main Menu (you can access the main menu by either pressing the foot icon or by right-clicking on the panel).

This will bring the Global Panel Preferences dialog up (this dialog is one of the components of the GNOME Control Center). With this dialog you can set properties that will affect all Panels you use now and any panels you add in the future.

Figure 17. The Global Panel Configuration Dialog

The Global Panel Configuration Dialog contains five tabs which help you configure the global properties of the GNOME Panel: Animation, Buttons, Applets, Menu, and Miscellaneous. Each of these tabs is explained below.

Animation Tab

Buttons Tab

In this section, you can set appearance of buttons of various types (launcher buttons, menu buttons, drawer buttons, and special (Logout and Lock Screen) buttons).

This tab also contains 3 options which affect all types of buttons simultaneously:

Applets Tab

This tab shows some options related to placement and moving objects on the panel (contrary to the title, this options apply not only to applets but to all objects — applets, application launchers, menus, etc.).

Menu Tab

In this tab, you can set the options determining the appearance of Panel menus.

Miscellaneous Tab

The Miscellaneous group contains options for various customizable behavior that didn't fit anywhere else.

This tab also allows you to configure some global key bindings. At the moment, you can define key bindings for Main Menu and for Run Command dialog. For example, if you are using standard PC keyboard, you can bind the Menu key (this key is usually located to the left of the space bar and labelled with a picture of a menu) to the Main Menu, so that pressing this key will bring up the Main Menu. To change the key bound to Main Menu or to the Run Dialog, you can either select a key from the drop-down list, or click on the Grab button and then press the desired key.