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<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY manrevision "1.0">
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<!ENTITY date "December 2006">
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<!ENTITY appversion "4.4.0">
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<!ENTITY app "<application>xfce4-panel</application>">
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<article id="xfce4-panel" lang="en">
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<title>Xfce 4 Panel</title>
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<year>2006</year> <holder>Jasper Huijsmans</holder>
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<!-- translators: uncomment this:
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<year>2002</year> <holder>ME-THE-TRANSLATOR (Latin
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<!-- I don't know about this -->
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<legalnotice id="legalnotice">
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This document is provided under the terms of the GNU GPL, version
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2 or (at your option) any later version.
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<firstname>Jasper</firstname> <surname>Huijsmans</surname>
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<address><email>jasper@xfce.org</email></address>
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<!-- This is appropriate place for other contributors: translators,
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maintainers, etc. Commented out by default.
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<othercredit role="translator">
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<firstname>Latin</firstname> <surname>Translator 1</surname>
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<orgname>Latin Translation Team</orgname>
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<address><email>translator@gnome.org</email> </address>
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</affiliation> <contrib>Latin translation</contrib>
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<revnumber>1.0</revnumber>
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<date>June 2006</date>
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<authorinitials>jbh</authorinitials>
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This manual describes &app; version &appversion;.
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<sect1 id="panel-intro">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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The Xfce 4 panel is part of the <ulink url="http://www.xfce.org"
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type="html">Xfce 4 Desktop Environment</ulink> and features program
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launchers, panel menus, a clock, a graphical pager and more. Many
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aspects of the panel can be configured through graphical dialogs. This
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manual should provide you with all necessary information on how to adjust
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the panel to your liking.
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<sect2 id="panel-getting-started">
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<title>Getting Started</title>
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The panel will usually be started as part of your Xfce session. For
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convenience, Xfce provides the <application>startxfce4</application>
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script. The command for the panel is &app;.
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When you first start the panel you will see a bar appearing at the top
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of the screen and a smaller one at the bottom. Both panels are managed
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by the same &app; program. You can add and remove panels from the
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<ulink url="#panel-manager">Panel Manager</ulink>.
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<figure id="default-top-panel-fig">
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<title>Default Top Panel</title>
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<imagedata fileref="images/default_top_panel.png" format="PNG"/>
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<phrase>The default top panel configuration.</phrase>
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<figure id="default-bottom-panel-fig">
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<title>Default Bottom Panel</title>
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<imagedata fileref="images/default_bottom_panel.png" format="PNG"/>
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<phrase>The default bottom panel configuration.</phrase>
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<sect2 id="panel-getting-started-mouse">
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<title>Mouse Actions</title>
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The Xfce Panel makes extensive use of left and right mouse buttons. Left
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clicking performs the default action of an item and right-clicking
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brings up a context menu. Ctrl + left click may generally be used as
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alternative for a right-click. Note that this manual assumes the use of a
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right-handed mouse configuration.
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<sect2 id="panel-getting-started-configure">
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<title>Customizing the Panel</title>
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Right-clicking on an item will pop up a menu from which you can
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configure the item, move it to a new location, or remove it from the
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panel. The menu also allows you to configure the panel(s) or add new
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<figure id="item-popup-fig">
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<title>Item Popup Menu</title>
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<imagedata fileref="images/item_popup.png" format="PNG"/>
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<phrase>Popup menu of a launcher item.</phrase>
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<sect1 id="panel-getting-started-items">
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<title>Panel Items</title>
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The Xfce 4 panel has the possibility to load external plugins as well
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as builtin ones. In this section we will only describe panel items that
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are installed with the panel.
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<sect2 id="launcher-item-dialog">
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<title>Add New Items</title>
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When you choose the 'Add Items' option from the right-click mouse menu of
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a panel item, a dialog is opened showing all available panel items. Some
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items can appear only once on the panel, e.g. the system tray, and they
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will appear greyed out when another instance is already present. A search
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box allows you to type a filter term to limit the number of choices in
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<figure id="add-item-dialog-fig">
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<title>Add Item Dialog</title>
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<imagedata fileref="images/add_item_dialog.png" format="PNG"/>
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<phrase>Dialog with all available panel items.</phrase>
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<sect2 id="launcher-item">
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<title>Launcher</title>
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<para>The most common panel item is the launcher item. It allows you to
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start programs from the panel. The properties dialog allows you to edit
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or add one or more programs.
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The first entry in the list is shown on the panel. When more programs
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are added they are shown in a menu that can be accessed by clicking the
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small arrow button that will appear next to the main launcher icon.
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Every item has several options you can edit: name, comment (tooltip),
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icon and command. You can select whether the command should be run in a
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terminal and whether the program supports startup notification. This
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last option allows the window manager to show an hourglass while the
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<figure id="launcher-fig">
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<title>Launcher Item Properties</title>
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<imagedata fileref="images/launcher_properties.png"
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<phrase>Shows properties dialog for a launcher item.</phrase>
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<sect2 id="other-items">
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<title>Other Items</title>
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Besides launchers the panel comes with several other items. We will
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shortly list them here. As always, the best way to find out if they may
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be useful is to try them.
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<term>Xfce Clock</term>
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Simple clock item. You can choose between LED, digital and analog
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<term>Graphical Pager</term>
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Shows a miniature view of the workspaces and even allows you to
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move windows to another workspace by dragging the mini-window in
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the pager. You can change workspaces by using the mouse scroll
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wheel when the mouse is over the pager.
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<term>Task List</term>
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Shows running applications in a button with icon and application
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name. Clicking on the button will focus or minimize the
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application. There's also a right-click menu with more window
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<term>Window List</term>
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Shows running applications in a popup menu. Optionally shows
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active application on the panel.
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<term>Icon Box</term>
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A third alternative to show running applications, in this case
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using a button with only an icon.
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<term>System Tray</term>
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Allows applications to show a so called notification or status
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icon. This is used for example by some media players and instant
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<term>Show Desktop Button</term>
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When clicked it will show the desktop by minimizing all programs.
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Clicking again will restore the windows to their previous state.
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<term>Action Buttons</term>
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Show one or two small buttons that execute a special system action.
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Two actions are available: quit the session and lock the screen.
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<term>Separator</term>
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A separator item shows a line or an empty space between two other
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items. Can optionally expand to fill all available space; this can
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be used on a full width panel to have items on both ends of the
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panel and empty space in between.
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<sect2 id="xfce-goodies">
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<title>Xfce Goodies</title>
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Many more plugins for the Xfce Panel are available from the
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<ulink url="http://goodies.xfce.org" type="html">Xfce Goodies</ulink>
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<sect1 id="panel-manager">
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<title>Panel Manager</title>
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The Panel Manager can be opened from the Xfce Settings Manager or from the
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right-click menu on one of the panel items.
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<figure id="panel-manager-fig">
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<title>Panel Manager</title>
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<imagedata fileref="images/panel_manager.png"
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<phrase>Panel Manager dialog.</phrase>
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<sect2 id="panel-selector">
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<title>Select Panel</title>
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The currently active panel is selected by default or the one that was
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last active if there is no active panel. You can choose another panel
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from the option menu. Next to this menu are two buttons to add a new
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panel or remove the current panel.
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<sect2 id="panel-appearance">
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<title>Appearance</title>
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Choose the size in pixels for the panel. This is the height
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for horizontal panels and the width for vertical panels.
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<term>Transparency</term>
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If your system and the window manager support it, you can set the
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transparency level of the panel. You can also choose if you would
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like the panel to become fully visible when the mouse moves over
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<sect2 id="panel-position">
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<title>Position</title>
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There are two ways to choose the position of a panel: use a fixed
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position or make a panel freely moveable.
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<term>Fixed Position</term>
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A panel can be placed in one of twelve positions on the edge of
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the screen. You can choose whether the panel should be stretched
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to fit the entire width or height of the screen. When the autohide
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option is selected the panel will collapse to a thin line and
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reappear when the mouse is moved over it.
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<term>Freely Moveable</term>
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A freely moveable panel has one or two move handles by which you
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can drag the panel anywhere on the screen. You can select the
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orientation and where to put a move handle (on one or both sides
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<sect2 id="panel-monitor">
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<title>Select Monitor</title>
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If you use a Xinerama or multihead setup, you can choose on which
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monitor you would like the panel to appear.
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<sect1 id="panel-advanced">
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<title>Advanced Configuration</title>
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<sect2 id="panel-config-files">
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<title>Configuration Files</title>
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Xfce uses the Basedir Specification as defined on
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<ulink url="http://freedesktop.org">Freedesktop.org</ulink> to locate its
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data and configuration files. This means that file locations will be
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specified as a path relative to the directories described in the
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<term>${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}</term>
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The first base directory to look for configuration
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files. By default this is set to <filename
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role="directory">~/.config/</filename>.
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<term>${XDG_CONFIG_DIRS}</term>
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A list of system directories that contain configuration data. By
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default the panel will look in <filename
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role="directory">${sysconfdir}/xdg/</filename> and
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<filename role="directory">/etc/xdg/</filename>. The value of
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${sysconfdir} depends on how the program was build and will often be
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<filename role="directory">/etc/</filename> for binary packages.
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<term><basedir>/xfce4/panel/panels.xml</term>
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This is the location of the xml configuration file that describes
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the contents of the panel, relative to the base directories metioned
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<term><basedir>/xfce4/kiosk/kioskrc</term>
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Kiosk Mode configuration file. See <ulink
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url="#panel-kiosk">below</ulink> for an explanation.
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None of the configuration files, except <filename>kioskrc</filename>, are
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designed to be edited by hand; in fact the changes will be overwritten if
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you edit them while the panel is running.
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<sect2 id="panel-data-files">
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<title>Data Files</title>
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The Xfce Panel will look under the data directories specified by the
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Basedir Specification for data files, such as panel plugin description
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<term>${XDG_DATA_HOME}</term>
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The first base directory to look for panel plugin files. By
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default this is set to <filename
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role="directory">~/.local/share/</filename>.
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<term>${XDG_DATA_DIRS}</term>
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A list of system directories that contain data files. By default
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this is <filename role="directory">/usr/share</filename> and
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<filename role="directory">/usr/local/share</filename>.
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<sect2 id="panel-kiosk">
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<title>Kiosk Mode</title>
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The panel now has support for Kiosk Mode, that will prevent users from
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making changes to their panel configuration. To use it you have to edit
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<filename>${sysconfdir}/xdg/xfce4/kiosk/kioskrc</filename>.
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The best way to explain the format of this file is by using an example.
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The xfce4-panel section of your kioskrc might look like this:
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CustomizePanel=%powerusers,foo
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This allows only users in the group powerusers and the user foo to
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customize their panels.
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<sect1 id="panel-copyright">
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<title>About &app;</title>
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The maintainers of &app; are Jasper Huijsmans
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<email>jasper@xfce.org</email> and Nick Schermer
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<email>nick@xfce.org</email>. For more information about Xfce and its
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components, visit the
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<ulink url="http://www.xfce.org" type="http">Xfce web site</ulink>.
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To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this
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manual, please use the bug tracking system at
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<ulink url="http://bugzilla.xfce.org/"
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type="http">http://bugzilla.xfce.org/</ulink>.
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If you have questions about the use or installation of this package, please
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<ulink url="http://foo-projects.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce"
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type="http">xfce</ulink> mailing list. Development discussion takes
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<ulink url="http://foo-projects.org/mailman/listinfo/xfce4-dev"
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type="http">xfce4-dev</ulink> mailing list.
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&app; is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
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published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License,
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or (at your option) any later version.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
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this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
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59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
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