GNOME 2.0 Desktop for the Solaris Operating Environment User Guide

Introducing Panels

A panel is an area in your desktop environment from which you can run applications and applets, and perform other tasks. When you start a session for the first time, the desktop environment contains the following panels:

Menu Panel
Edge panel at the bottom of the screen

The following sections describe these panels.

Menu Panel

The Menu Panel stretches the full length of the top edge of your screen. The Menu Panel includes textual rather than graphical menus. Figure 4–1 shows the Menu Panel. Your system administrator might have set your default Menu Panel according to your local requirements, so you might see a slightly different Menu Panel.

Figure 4–1 Typical Menu Panel

The typical Menu Panel contains the following objects:

Object	Description
Applications menu	The Applications menu contains the standard GNOME applications.
Actions menu	The Actions menu provides commands that enable you to perform desktop tasks.
Home folder launcher	Click on this launcher to open your home folder in a `Nautilus` file manager window.
`Terminal` launcher	Click on this launcher to start the `Terminal` application. `Terminal` provides access to a UNIX command line.
`Volume Control` applet	`Volume Control` enables you to control the volume of the speaker on your system.
`Clock` applet	`Clock` shows the current time. Click on the time readout to display a menu of clock commands.
Window list icon	The window list is a list of all your open windows. To give focus to a window, click on the icon at the extreme right of the Menu Panel, then choose the window.

Unlike other types of panel, you can only have one Menu Panel at a time on your desktop.

Bottom Edge Panel

On startup, an edge panel stretches the full length of the bottom edge of the screen. Figure 4–2 shows a typical bottom edge panel. Your system administrator might have set your default bottom edge panel according to your local requirements, so you might see a slightly different bottom edge panel.

Figure 4–2 Typical Bottom Edge Panel

The bottom edge panel contains the following applets:

Window List: Displays a button for each window that is open. Window List enables you to minimize and restore windows.
Workspace Switcher: Enables you to navigate between your workspaces.

You can change the behavior and appearance of your bottom edge panel to suit your requirements. You can also add or remove objects from your bottom edge panel. You can create multiple panels, and choose different properties, objects, and backgrounds for each panel. You can also hide panels.