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Configuring the Fedora Desktop Panels

3,345 bytes added, 16:43, 17 December 2007
Changing the Appearance of a Desktop Panel
[[Image:fedora_desktop_panel_background.jpg]]
 
The level of transparency can be specified by adjusting the ''Style'' slider.
 
The panel may be further configured so that it remains hidden until the mouse point moves to the side of the desktop where the panel is located. To activate this feature, select the ''Autohide'' option on the main panel properties page.
 
Finally, if you do not wish to have the panel occupy the full width or height of the desktop, unset the ''Expand'' option. The panel will then only be as wide or as tall as it needs to be to accommodate the items it is configured to display.
 
== Adding Items to a GNOME Destop Panel ==
 
When Fedora Linux is first installed, a number of items are added by default to the tw panels. Additional items, however, may easily be added to any panel. To add items to a panel simply click with the right mouse button over the panel to be configured and select the ''Add to Panel'' menu option from the resulting popup menu. The ''Add to Panel'' dialog will then appear as follows:
 
 
[[Image:fedora_gnome_add_to_panel.jpg|GNOME Add to Panel Dialog]]
 
 
To add an item to the panel, simply scroll through the list provided, select the required item and press the ''Add'' button. The following panel shows an example Fedora desktop panel with the system monitor and weather items added:
 
 
[[Image:fedora_gnome_panel_with_items.jpg|Fedora Desktop Panel with items added]]
 
 
To edit the properties or preferences for a panel item, move the mouse pointer over the item in the panel and click the right mouse button. Select either ''Properties'' or ''Preferences'' from the menu and the appropriate dialog will appear. For example, the ''Preferences'' panel for the Weather item allows various settings to be changed, such as the location and units for displaying temperature (Celsius or Fahrenheit). The system monitor can similarly be configured to also display metrics such as system load, memory and network graphs.
 
To delete an item from a panel right click with the mouse on the item and select ''Remove from Panel''.
 
in addition, if you find there is an application you frequently launch from the desktop ''Applications'' or ''System'' menus, these may also be added to a panel. To do so, launch the ''Add to Panel'' dialog as outlined above and click on the ''Application Launcher''. The resulting dialog will list each menu item and all sub-menu items. If, for example, you wanted to be able to launch the OpenOffice Word Processor from the panel simply click on the arrow next to ''Office'' in the ''Add to Panel'' dialog to unfold the list of Office applications. Select ''OpenOffice.org Word Processor'' and click on the ''Add'' button:
 
 
[[Image:fedora_gnome_add_application.jpg|Adding an application to a Fedora desktop panel]]
 
 
To move an item to a different location in a panel right click with the mouse of the item and select ''Move''. Then use the mouse to drag and drop the item to a new location. Alternatively, click with either the middle mouse button, or the left and right mouse buttons and drag and drop the panel item to the new location.
 
To add a binary or application not currently available from the desktop menus simply select the ''Custom Application Launcher'' and specify the path to the application and provide a name. Click on the ''No icon'' button to select an icon to represent the item on the panel.