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<articleinfo>

<authorgroup>
<author>&Mike.McBride; &Mike.McBride.mail;</author>
<author>&Lauri.Watts; &Lauri.Watts.mail;</author>
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</authorgroup>

<date>2003-10-08</date>
<releaseinfo>3.2</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>panel</keyword>
</keywordset>
</articleinfo>

<sect1 id="panel">
<title>Panel</title>

<para> The &kde; panel (often referred to as &kicker;) is the bar that
you'll usually find at the bottom of the screen when you start up
&kde; for the first time. <!-- FIXME: reference to the kicker manual
--> The panel gives you quick access to applications and makes it
easier for you to

organize your desktop. Using the &kde; panel you can:
</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>launch applications using the <guimenu>K</guimenu> menu or
the application buttons</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>switch desktops using the panel's pager applet</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>switch active windows, and minimize or maximize them</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>browse folder using the browser menu functionality
</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>access panel applets that extend the panel's functionality,
offering for example mixers, clocks or a system monitor</para> </listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<sect2 id="panel-position">
<title>Arrangement</title>

<para>In the <guilabel>Arrangement</guilabel> tab you can configure the size and
position of the panel.</para>

<para>In the section labeled <guilabel>Position</guilabel> is a set of
12 small buttons arranged in a square. Each button corresponds to a
location for the panel. Click on a button and notice where the panel
is located on the preview monitor to the right.</para>

<tip><para>Generally, the available space in kicker is used more
efficiently if the panel is aligned horizontally, &ie; attached to the
top or bottom screen border.</para></tip>

<para>In the section labeled <guilabel>Length</guilabel>, you can use
the combo box and slider to adjust the <emphasis>minimum</emphasis>
length of the panel.  If you place a mark in the checkbox labeled
<guilabel>Expand as required to fit contents</guilabel>, the panel
will become longer if more space is needed.  When less space is
required on the panel, the panel will shrink down to the minimum size.
If there is no mark in the checkbox, then the panel is fixed to the
length specified in this section.</para>

<para>The final section of this table is labeled
<guilabel>Size</guilabel>, and refers to the
<emphasis>height</emphasis> of the panel.  The panel's size can be
<guilabel>Tiny</guilabel>, <guilabel>Small</guilabel>,
<guilabel>Medium</guilabel>, <guilabel>Large</guilabel> or
<guilabel>Custom</guilabel>.  If you choose
<guilabel>Custom</guilabel> mode, you can resize &kicker; by
specifying a height in the combobox.</para>

<para>If you have multiple monitors, you can configure the panel for
each screen entirely independently.  If you are not sure which screen
is which, Press the <guibutton>Identify</guibutton> and a number will
appear centred on each screen.</para>

<para>Then simply choose the screen you wish to configure from the
drop down box labelled <guilabel>Xinerama screen</guilabel>, or choose
<guilabel>All Screens</guilabel> to have identical configurations on
each.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="panel-hiding">
<title>Hiding</title>

<para>Depending on your screen resolution you may find that the panel
takes away too much of your precious screen real estate. To save
screen space, the panel offers manual hiding of the panel, an auto
hide feature, and the ability to allow other windows to lay on top of
the panel. These features are selected in the section entitled
<guilabel>Hide Mode</guilabel>.</para>

<para>The <guilabel>Hide Mode</guilabel> section has three options:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Only hide when panel-hiding button is clicked</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>When this option is selected, the panel will remain visible at 
the location you defined unless you click on the button at the far right (for horizontally 
oriented) or bottom (for vertically oriented) button.  This button has an arrow on it pointed 
to the edge of the screen.</para>

<para>Once clicked, the panel will disappear.  If the button is clicked again, the panel will re-appear 
at the same location.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Hide automatically</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>If this option is selected, then the panel will automatically disappear after 
the number of seconds specified in the combo box below the option.  To make the panel reappear, 
simply move the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen where the panel is located, and the 
panel will reappear immediately.</para>

<para>If you place a mark in the checkbox labeled <guilabel>Show panel when switching 
desktops</guilabel>, the panel will automatically reappear when you switch desktops.  (The panel 
will disappear again after the specified number of seconds.)</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Allow other windows to cover the panel</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>As this option's label implies, the panel is always on the desktop when 
this option is selected.  It is now possible, however, for application windows to lay 
on top of the panel.</para>  

<para>To restore the panel, simply move the mouse cursor to the screen 
location specified in the drop box labeled <guilabel>Raise when the pointer touches 
the screen's:</guilabel>.  You can change this value by selecting one of the choices 
provided in the drop down box.</para>

<para>Once the panel has moved back on top of the application window, it will stay there 
until the application window becomes active again.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>The next section down is labeled <guilabel>Panel-Hiding Buttons</guilabel>.  It 
consists of two check boxes:  <guilabel>Show left panel-hiding button</guilabel> and 
<guilabel>Show left panel-hiding button</guilabel>.  Use these checkboxes to show and 
hide the left and right manual panel hiding buttons.</para>

<para>If there is no mark in the checkbox labeled <guilabel>Animate 
panel hiding</guilabel>, then whenever the toolbar is hidden, is simply disappears.  If there 
is a mark in the check box, then the panel appears to slide off the edge of the screen.</para>

<para>You can determine how quickly the panel appears to move by adjusting the slider from 
<guilabel>Fast</guilabel> to <guilabel>Slow</guilabel>.</para>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="panel-menus">
<title>Menus</title>

<para>In the <guilabel>Menus</guilabel> tab you can configure the panel
menu's behavior. This affects the K menu you will often use to launch
applications, the browser menus you can use to access folders and other
menus like the recent documents menu.</para>

<para>The <guilabel>K Menu</guilabel> frame offers you some options to
configure the <guimenu>K</guimenu> menu's functionality. This frame consists 
of 4 items:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>The <guilabel>Menu item format:</guilabel> radio
buttons have three options.  This determines how the application name
(&ie; &konqueror;, &kword;, &etc;) and the description (&ie; Web
Browser, Word Processor, &etc;) are displayed on the K
menu. </para></listitem>

<listitem><para>The <guilabel>Optional Sub Menus</guilabel> checkboxes allow you to 
determine which special menu items appear in the K Menu.</para>
<para>The <guilabel>Bookmarks</guilabel> 
menu allows you to quickly select from the same bookmarks that are available in &konqueror;.  </para>
<para>The <guilabel>Find</guilabel> menu offers access to the &kfind; application to search for local files, and a quick link to a search engine to search for things on the Internet.</para>

<para>The <guilabel>Preferences</guilabel> menu allows you to launch each &kcontrol; module 
directly from the K menu.</para>
<para>The <guilabel>Print System</guilabel> menu provides several menu entries to help manage 
the printer(s) attached to your system.</para>
<para>The <guilabel>Quick Browser</guilabel> menu gives you quick links to locations on your hard drive.</para>
<para>The <guilabel>Recent Documents</guilabel> menu lists the most recently edited documents and will automatically 
launch the application to edit or view this document. </para>
<para>The <guilabel>Terminal Sessions</guilabel> menu provides menu items to launch several different types of 
terminal programs (command line interfaces).</para>
</listitem>

<listitem><para><guilabel>Show side image</guilabel> will add a small
image to the side of the menu.  This is purely decorative.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>The <guibutton>Edit K Menu</guibutton> button launches the &kde; 
menu editor.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para> In the <guilabel>QuickBrowser Menus</guilabel> area you can configure
whether the panel's browser menus will show hidden files or not (hidden
files on unix systems are those whose filenames begin with a dot) as
well as how many files at most will be shown in a browser menu. The
latter option may be especially useful if you have a rather small screen
resolution, as then the browser menus will quickly fill up your screen
when you browse folders containing many files.</para>

<para>The quick start section in the K menu offers quick access to
programs you have used often or recently. In the <guilabel>Quick Start Menu Items</guilabel> 
frame you can choose whether
this section will show the most recently or the most frequently used
programs. Using the option <guilabel>Maximum number of entries</guilabel> 
combo box, you can configure how many programs the quick start 
section will remember.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

</article>
