There are several special panel objects which are not considered Menus, Applets, or Launchers. These special objects are described below.
Figure 12. The Lock Button
The Lock Button is a Panel button which begins a screensaver which locks the screen. In order to remove the screensaver and access the GNOME session again, you must supply your password. This is typically used when you must leave your computer for a while and do not want to log out or allow other people to use your computer. To lock your screen, simply click on the Lock Button.
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.
The Logout button is used to exit the GNOME desktop environment. It initiates the logout sequence, bringing up the Logout Dialog, as described in the section called Logging Out.
The GNOME Panel allows you to run applications which are not applets inside the Panel as if they were applets. Applications which you pull into the Panel, even though they are not GNOME applets, are called "swallowed applications". Applications do not have to be GNOME-compliant to be swallowed. In general, the only constraints for swallowing an application are that the application must be small enough to fit in your panel and you must know the title of the window you would like to swallow. In many cases, the application can be automatically shrank to fit in the Panel, as specified in the Create Swallowed Application Dialog..
The Title of application to swallow is the window title, typically displayed on the top left edge of the window. (Note that the window title is case sensitive.) The width and height determine the size of the swallowed application in the panel in pixels.
If you leave the Command field empty, this dialog will create an empty window of given size on the panel which will sit there waiting for a window with the given title to appear on your desktop. As soon such a window appears (for example, when you choose appropriate item in the menu), it will be swallowed.
You can also enter any command in the Command field; this command will be executed before adding the swallowing window to the panel (and each time the panel is restarted afterwards). This is normally used to start an application which you want the Panel to swallow.
The Status Dock is a Panel object which can hold Status Docklets - small windows which applications place in the Status Dock to provide status information. Status Docklets can also be used to control the application. Essentially, Docklets are small (both in size and in complexity) applets. GNOME currently does not have many applications which place Status Docklets in the Status Dock. However, GNOME's Status Dock is compatible with that on the K Desktop Environment (KDE), so KDE applications, such as kscd, may place Status Docklets in GNOME's Status Dock. Future versions of GNOME applications will make use of this recently added Panel object.
The above example shows the Status Dock with a Status Docklet from the kscd CD player program. This particular Docklet is used to open and close the main kscd window without ending the program.