Panels and Menus


Panels and menus are your desktop palettes that hold icons and links to programs and files. Without panels and menus, you would just have a pretty desktop picture and nowhere to go. Every operating system and desktop environment may style their panels and menus differently, but the common function makes them easy to recognize. KDE and GNOME handle these important widgets in a similar manner.

KDE

The KDE desktop environment (see Figure 2.3) gets alternately praised and critiqued for its similarity to the Windows desktop. There are similar concepts insofar as there are windows, a taskbar type of object, and desktop icons, but KDE is its own creature with its own complexities. Let's look at the basic components of your KDE desktop, starting with the panel at the bottom of your desktop.

Figure 2.3. The KDE desktop in Mandrake.


The Kicker Panel

The Kicker panel is the bar at the bottom of your desktop that looks like the taskbar in Windows. The objects on the panel help you access the programs installed on your computer, see what windows you have open, take advantage of virtual desktops, and use a few other utilities. The panel is your dashboard, where you have everything you need to run the machine. Here are descriptions of the panel objects that you see, moving from left to right.

KDE Kicker Panel Objects

KDE provides a default set of panel objects and icons for you. Most of the icons link to frequently used programs, and the other objects include a few bare necessities.

The K Menu

KDE calls its main menu the K menu. The K menu is arranged into categories in which you will find most of the programs that are installed on your computer. The category names are simple enough (Office, Internet, Multimedia). You can guess what programs are in most of the categories. The K menu, of course, looks different in Mandrake than it does in Fedora. We will look at the Mandrake version. The Fedora version of the K menu is quite similar to the Fedora GNOME main menu described later in this topic.

The more ambiguous category names in the K menu are System and More Applications. The System menu is a maze of submenus. This is the place to take care of configuring KDE, configuring your computer, and accessing other system utilities. More Applications is your miscellaneous category that contains links to programs that Mandrake didn't think fit well in any other category.

The other menu items in the K menu that are near the bottom are important items that you might need often. Here is a quick rundown of those menu items, starting at the bottom and moving up.

Logout

This asks if you want to end your session (log out and return to the login screen), turn off the computer, or restart the computer. Mandrake has a mysterious picture of a cute little dragon in this dialog box. There's probably something Freudian in that.

Lock Screen

This activates the screensaver and prevents access to your desktop. To get back to your desktop, you need to enter your user password.

Start New Session

This displays multiple user options. Linux allows more than one user to be logged in at a time. Most graphical desktops do not emphasize this option, in favor of simplicity. When you start a new session, you see the login screen again. Just log in and go. You can click on this option to read the warning, which explains how function keys are used for switching between sessions.

Run Command

This brings up a text box for commands. If you know the terminal command for a program, you can use this option to type in the terminal command for the program you want to start. This can be a quick alternative to mousing through menus and submenus.

Recent Documents

This lists many of the recent documents you have had open in KDE programs. This menu often isn't good at including documents used in non-KDE programs. You can clear the list with the Clear History button.

Table 2.1. KDE Kicker Objects

K Menu

This menu is similar to the Windows Start menu. Here you will find links to most of the programs you have installed, help manuals, and utilities for searching and logging out of KDE.

Show Desktop

Click this button to minimize all your open windows, revealing your desktop so that you can access any shortcuts or documents you have on the desktop. It's the clutter clearer.

Konqueror

This is KDE's combination browser and file manager program.

Konsole

This is the KDE terminal application, which gives you access to the command line.

OpenOffice.org Writer

Part of the OpenOffice.org suite of productivity applications, Writer is a word-processing program.

Taskbar

This area shows the windows you have open currently. Click any window in the taskbar to bring that window to the front and focus on it.

Pager

This provides you access to your virtual desktops. Keep reading in this topic to learn more about virtual desktops.

System Tray

KDE uses the system tray to give programs a place to alert you to messages or program actions. You can also access the Klipper Clipboard content from here.

Clock

Because this is a clock, it displays, well, the time. You can adjust the date and time as well as the date and time format by right-clicking on the clock applet.


Find

Two items are on this submenu, Find Files and Web Search. Find Files opens a dialog box to search for files. To perform a basic search, type in a file name and select Find. Web Search opens KDE's default Web browser, Konqueror, to a search engine page.

Home

This opens your file manager, Konqueror, to your home directory.

KDE Desktop Icons
  • Home This opens your file manager to your home directory, just like the Home option in the K menu.

  • Trash As with the Windows Recycle Bin, you can throw away files and folders in the trash and recover them until you empty the trash.

  • Welcome This icon opens the welcome message that you see upon first logging in. The Welcome window has links to online Mandrake resources, the Mandrakelinux Control Center, and the Help documentation.

GNOME

Fedora's default of the GNOME desktop (see Figure 2.4) is simple and should look familiar to you if you have used computers before. There is a taskbar-like object on the bottom of the screen, a desktop background image, and a few desktop icons. Right-click on the desktop to see a number of menu options that include opening a terminal, creating shortcuts (launcher), aligning objects, and changing the desktop background.

Figure 2.4. GNOME in Fedora.


In GNOME, that taskbar-like object is called the panel. A panel is a base on which you can add other objects, such as your main menu, icon links to programs, a window list, a clock, and other system controls, such as volume and a logout button. Panels give you a lot of flexibility and control over the appearance and geography of your desktop. You can have multiple panels on the same desktop. Use the panel for a while as it is right now, to get used to how everything works. You can then experiment with adding new objects to your panel, changing the panel placement, and adding multiple panels.

The Default Panel

You already have everything you need to start on the bottom panel. The first thing you see on the left side of the panel is a series of icons. These are for menus and programs that Fedora and GNOME thought you might like to have handy. There are also helpful utility objects on the panel to help you arrange windows and perform common tasks.

GNOME Panel Objects

Here is a quick run-down of the default objects on the GNOME panel.

Table 2.2. GNOME's Default Panel Objects

GNOME Main Menu

It's a fedora. Get it? Observant users will also notice that it is a red hat, just like the company Red Hat. That hat is your main menu, comparable to the Windows Start menu. On your main menu, you find links to most of the programs installed on your computer.

Mozilla

The default Web browser in Fedora is Mozilla. Mozilla is similar to Netscape, and the two programs used to be related in their development. Mozilla also has mail and chat programs connected with it.

Evolution

Evolution is an e-mail and scheduling program similar to Microsoft Outlook.

OpenOffice.org Writer

Part of the OpenOffice.org suite of productivity applications, Writer is a word-processing program.

OpenOffice.org Calc

Calc is the OpenOffice.org program for working with spreadsheets.

OpenOffice.org Impress

This is a presentation tool comparable to Microsoft PowerPoint.

Print Manager

The Print Manager is a utility for adding printers and checking on current print jobs.

Workspace Switcher

The thing that looks like a little window pane is the workspace switcher. This lets you switch between virtual desktops. You will learn what those are in a few minutes.

Window List

As with the KDE taskbar, you can see the windows you have open on the panel and click to switch to any of those open windows.

Volume Control

Use this to adjust the system volume. Many music and media programs also have their own separate volume controls.

Up2date (in the Panel Notification Area)

This area is where some programs show icons to alert you to messages or program actions. Fedora has a built-in update you can use to make sure all of the programs that came installed with Fedora are always the latest version. This also downloads security updates. Up2date sits in the System Notification Area.

Clock

It's a clock; you know what that is. You can also adjust the date and time with this panel object.


You can right-click empty areas of the panel to add new objects or to change the properties of the panel. You can right-click any panel object to go to the properties or preferences for that object.

The GNOME Menu

Now let's talk about that hat on the panelor foot, or star depending on which distribution you are inotherwise known as the main menu (or the GNOME menu). This thing has more disguises and aliases than most seasoned criminals. The GNOME menu (see Figure 2.5) contains links to most of the programs that are installed on your computer. The programs are divided into categories. Fedora adds another layer of preference to the main menu categories. Within each category are first the programs that the distribution favors and then the rest of the menu items that fit the category, in a submenu. So, you get menu items that look like this: Internet > More Internet Applications. You can find most KDE programs and programs that you added later after install in the More submenus.

Figure 2.5. The main menu in GNOME, with the Internet menu expanded into view.


A few of the main menu items are not squirreled away in submenus. These items are at the bottom of the main menu. The lineup of menu options at the bottom of the GNOME menu includes utility items that you might use often. That is why they are so conveniently located. Starting at the bottom of the menu, let's go over the menu items.

Log Out

This logs out to the login manager screen, but it also gives you the option to shut down or restart the computer.

Lock Screen

This activates the screensaver and prompts you for your user password to turn off the screensaver.

Recent Documents

This lists recent documents you have opened. The list notoriously does not include many documents from non-GNOME programs.

Search for Files

This brings up a Search window to look for files using a variety of criteria.

Run Application

This opens a dialog box with a text field so you can run a program using its command. This is sometimes quicker than wading through menus and submenus.

Network Servers

This opens your file manager, Nautilus, to view other computers on your local area network (LAN).

Help

This starts the GNOME Help browser, in which you can read up on many help topics for different programs.

Browse File System

This opens your file manager, Nautilus, to your home directory in browser mode.

GNOME Desktop Icons
  • Computer This opens your file manager to a view of your system organized by file system. Depending on your setup, you might see icons for File System (your local files on this computer), CD-ROM (your CD or DVD drive), and Network (a link to your local area network).

  • [username]'s Home This icon opens your file manager, Nautilus, in spatial mode at the directory location /home/[username]/. More on what spatial file management is comes later.

  • Start Here This icon opens Nautilus to a view with shortcuts to many of your system preferences that you can adjust. All of these preferences are also available from your main menu. I usually drop this icon into the next icon...

  • Trash Remember the Recycle Bin in Windows? Same thing. This icon represents a virtual trash can into which you can throw files and folders to delete them. You can recover items put into the trash until you empty the trash. Empty the trash by right-clicking the icon then choosing Empty Trash.



Linux Desktop(c) Garage
Linux(R) Desktop Garage
ISBN: 0131494198
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 141

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