Copyright © 2003 Jasper Huijsmans
Table of Contents
The XFce 4 panel is part of the XFce 4 Desktop Environment and features program launchers, panel menus, a clock, a desktop switcher and more. The actual command to run is xfce4-panel. Many aspects of the panel can be configured through graphical dialogs.
If you are familiar with previous versions of XFce you will find many new features. Most visible are probably the vertical panel mode, the icon themes, the new graphical pager and the configurable position of the panel menu popup buttons. The way preferences are handled has changed completely, so it may take some time to get used to. This manual should provide you with all necessary information on how to adjust the panel to your liking.
When you start the panel you will see a bar apearing at the bottom of your screen, looking like this:
The figure shows the default panel configuration with one open panel menu and the mouse hovering over the setup button, making it show a tooltip.
There is a move handle on each side of the panel which you can use to drag the panel anywhere on the screen. Right clicking (or Shift-click) on one of them shows a popup menu ... Go on, try it ;-)
The area between the move handles contains panel items. The available items are are described in the "Panel Items" section. Most items perform an action when clicked.
Right-clicking on an item will popup a menu from which you can open a properties dialog, remove the item or add a new item. Items can also be added from the right-click menu on one of the move handles (see above). A submenu shows a list of available item types that you can choose from. When you add a new item, the panel will imediately open its properties dialog, so you can change the item's options and position.
Global panel preferences can be changed from the XFce 4 Settings Manager, which can be started either from the 'Setup' button on the panel or from the right-click menu on the move handles. See "Panel Preferences" for an explanation of the available options.
The properties dialog for a panel item can be opened from the right-click menu on the item. Each type of panel item has its own configuration dialog. Every dialog offers at least these options:
- Change the position of the item on the panel.
- Revert changes. When you change anything on in the dialog, the Revert button will be enabled so you can always go back to the initial settings.
- Remove the item.
The most common panel item is the launcher item. It allows you to start programs from the panel. The properties dialog offers the following options:
- Command
- You can type the command to run or browse the file system. There is an option to start in a terminal and one to use startup notification. This last option means that the window manager can show an hourglass while the program is loading. But, the apllication has to support that and not many program do at the moment. Programs build with Gtk 2.2, should support it.
- Icon
- The panel provides a number of standard icons that can be used. These icons will also follow the icon theme you choose from the global preferences dialog. Of course you can also choose a custom icon, either by browsing the file system from the button next to the entry or by dropping an image on the preview area from a file manager.
- Tooltip
- The panel item will show this tooltip if you hold the mouse over it.
- Menu
- A launcher can have a panel menu attached to it. When this option is selected a small button with an arrow will appear next to the item. Look here for more info on panel menus. The position of the menu button can be changed from the global settings dialog.
The Xfce Clock has a number of options to change the way it looks. There are three clock types available: analog, digital and LED. There is an option to show seconds and for the digital and LED clock types you can choose whether the clock will be in 24 hour mode, 12 hour mode, or 12 hour mode with AM/PM indication. The clock shows the current date as a tooltip. Clicking on the clock will not perform any action.
The mailcheck item monitors your inbox, or any other mailbox you want, as long as it is in mbox format. The mailbox icon will follow your icon theme. You can choose the location of the mailbox, the command to run when you click on the button and the interval between checks. The command has the same options as the launcher item command (see above).
The panel provides two items that deal with virtual desktops. A CDE-like desktop switcher, that shows buttons with the desktop name and a graphical pager that shows a miniature view of the desktops and even allows you to move windows to another workspace by dragging the mini-window in the pager. The graphical pager also allows you to change workspaces by using the mouse scrollwheel, when you hold the mouse over it.
A systembuttons item shows one or two buttons wich can perform special system actions. The buttons follow your panel icon theme. There are four buttons available:
- Lock
- Runs the xfrun4 script that will attempt to lock the screen using either xscreensaver or if that fails xlock.
- Exit
- This will exit the panel and usually also end your X session (when you used startxfce4 or put the panel at the end of your X startup file).
- Info
- The info button will show the About XFce 4 dialog.
- Setup
- Pressing the setup button will open the XFce settings manager dialog, from which you have acces to the settings for all XFce components as well as some system settings, such as mouse behaviour and user interface settings.
This item simply adds a separator line to the panel. It has no options to set except its position.
Note that it may be a bit hard to popup the right-click menu, because you only have a small area to click on.
Panel launcher items can have a menu associated with it, which can be opened by clicking on the small arrow button next to the item. The actual position of these popup buttons is configurable from the global preferences dialog. You can also open the menu by pressing the laucher button and holding it down. After a short delay the menu will open.
Use the 'Add launcher' item at the top of a panel menu to add a new item or drag an executable to this item from a file manager. To remove items from a subpanel use the 'Remove' button in the item properties dialog.
A special feature of panel menus is that they can be detached from the panel and live in their own window. To detach a menu click on the small line at the bottom of the menu (see the screenshot of the default panel).
The properties dialog for a menu item is opened immediately when clicking the right mouse button (or Shift+left click). The dialog itself is very similar to the dialog for launcher type panel items.
The properties dialog for the XFce 4 Panel can be opened from the XFce 4 Settings Manager, which can be started from the panel using the setup button as shown in Figure 1 or from the right-click menu on the panel handles. The latter menu also provides direct access to the panel properties dialog.
- Size
There are four panel sizes available: tiny, small, medium and large. Small is the default.
- Orientation
An exciting new feature of the XFce 4 Panel is the ability to put it in a vertical orientation as well as the standard horizontal layout.
- Popup position
This option change the position of the buttons that open a panel menu. It can be above, below, to the left or to the right of the panel item.
- Icon theme
Also new in XFce 4 are icon themes for the panel. The predefined icons for launcher items and the icons of other types of panel items follow the panel icon theme.
- Layer
The panel layer determines its behaviour relative to other windows. The panel can be always below or above other windows or act the same as other windows. By default the panel will be on top.
- Centering
It is very easy to move the panel around the screen. The settings dialog provides an easy way to center the panel on one of the four edges of the screen. Note that the panel will also 'snap' to the edge centers as well as the screen corners when you drag it close enough to those positions.
- Behaviour
If you choose autohide, the panel will collapse to a thin bar. Moving the mouse over it will unhide the panel. This works best when the panel is on the edge of the screen (this makes the target much easier to hit).
xfce4-panel was written by Jasper Huijsmans (<huysmans@users.sourceforge.net>). To find more information, please visit the XFce web site.
To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual send an e-mail to the xfce4-dev mailing list, or use the bug tracking system at the XFce sourceforge project site.
This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.