Chapter 3 . Getting into the Desktop 107 (Web space)
Chapter 3 . Getting into the Desktop 107 Figure 3-10 shows a portion of the panel with an open drawer that includes icons for launching a Terminal window, the GIMP, and the Ethereal window. Figure 3-10: Add launchers or applets to a drawer on your GNOME panel. Changing Panel Properties Panel properties you can change are limited to the orientation, size, hiding policy, and background. To open the Panel Properties window that applies to a specific panel, right-click on an open space on the panel and choose Properties. The Panel Properties window that appears includes the following values: . Name Contains a name by which you identify this panel. . Orientation Move the panel to different locations on the screen by clicking on a new position. . Size Select the size of your panel by choosing its height in pixels (48 pixels by default). . Expand Click this check box to have the panel expand to fill the entire side, or unselect the check box to make the panel only as wide as the applets it contains. . AutoHide Select whether a panel is automatically hidden (appearing only when the mouse pointer is in the area). . Show Hide buttons Choose whether the Hide/Unhide buttons (with pixmap arrows on them) appear on the edges of the panel. . Arrows on hide buttons If you select Show Hide Buttons, you can choose to have arrows on those buttons. . Background From the Background tab, you can assign a color to the background of the panel, assign a pixmap image, or just leave the default (which is based on the current system theme). Click the Background Image check box if you want to select an Image for the background, and then select an image, such as a tile from /usr/share/backgrounds/tiles or other directory. I usually turn on the AutoHide feature and turn off the Hide buttons. Using AutoHide gives you more desktop space to work with. When you move your mouse to the edge where the panel is, the panel pops up so you don t need Hide buttons. Tip