Translations by Adam Collard

Locking Your Screen

Lock button

To unlock the screen, move your mouse or press any key, enter your password in the locked screen dialog, then press <keycap>Return</keycap>.

preference tools

logging out

When you end a session, applications with unsaved work will warn you. You can choose to save your work, or cancel the command to log out or shut down.

Before you end a session, you might want to save your current settings so that you can restore the session later. In the <link linkend="prefs-sessions"><application>Sessions</application></link> preference tool, you can select an option to automatically save your current settings.

Using the Panels

This chapter describes how to use the panels at the top and bottom of the GNOME Desktop, how to customize the objects that appear on them, and how to add new panels to the desktop.

panels

introduction

A panel is an area in the GNOME Desktop where you have access to certain actions and information, no matter what the state of your application windows. For example, in the default GNOME panels, you can launch applications, see the date and time, control the system sound volume, and more.

You can customize panels to your liking. You can change their behavior and appearance, and you can add or remove objects from your panels. You can create multiple panels, and choose different properties, objects, and backgrounds for each panel. You can also hide panels.

By default, the GNOME Desktop contains a panel at the top edge of the screen, and a panel at the bottom edge of the screen. The following sections describe these panels.

top edge panel

By default, the top edge panel contains the following objects:

Your distribution of GNOME may have altered this default setup.

<application>Menu Bar</application> applet

<application>Notification Area</application> applet

Displays icons from other applications that may require your attention, or that you may want to access without switching from your current application window. For more on this, see <xref linkend="panels-notification-area"/>.

Until an application adds an icon to the notification area, only a narrow bar is visible.

<application>Clock</application> applet

<application>Volume Control</application> applet

Bottom Edge Panel

bottom edge panel

By default, the bottom edge panel contains the following objects:

default contents

<guibutton>Show Desktop</guibutton> button

<application>Window List</application> applet

<application>Workspace Switcher</application> applet

Enables you to switch between your workspaces. For more on workspaces, see <xref linkend="overview-workspaces"/>.

Managing Panels

The following sections describe how to manage your panels.

Moving a Panel

moving

A panel that is not set to expand to the full width of the screen can be dragged away from the edge of the screen and placed anywhere. See <xref linkend="panel-properties"/> for details on how to set a panel's expand property.

modifying properties

You can change the properties of each panel, such as the position of the panel, the hide behavior, and the visual appearance.

To modify the properties of a panel, right-click on a vacant space on the panel, then choose <guimenuitem>Properties</guimenuitem>. The <guilabel>Panel Properties</guilabel> dialog contains two tabbed sections, <guilabel>General</guilabel> and <guilabel>Background</guilabel>.

General Properties Tab

In the <guilabel>General</guilabel> tab, you can modify panel size, position, and hiding properties. The following table describes the dialog elements on the <guilabel>General</guilabel> tabbed section:

Dialog Element

Select the position of the panel on your screen. Click on the required position for the panel.

Use the spin box to specify the size of the panel.

By default, a panel expands to the full length of the edge of the screen where it is located. A panel that does not expand can be moved away from the screen edges to any part of the screen.

Show hide buttons

Select this option to display hide buttons at each end of your panel. Clicking on a hide button moves the panel lenthways, hiding it off-screen except for the hide button at the opposite end. Click this hide button to restore the panel to being fully visible.