GNOME Applets

Applets are small programs that perform tasks within the panel. To add an applet, right- click the panel and select Add To Panel from the pop-up menu. This displays other pop-up menus listing categories of applets with further listings of available applets. Select the one you want. For example, to add the clock to your panel, select Clock from the Accessories menu. To remove an applet, right-click it and select the Remove From Panel entry. You can also select the Applets menu in the main menu and select an applet to add to your panel.

GNOME features a number of helpful applets, such as a CPU monitor and a mail checker. Some applets monitor your system, such as the Battery Monitor, which checks the battery in laptops, and System Monitor Usage, which shows a graph indicating your current CPU and memory use. The Volume Control applet displays a small scroll bar for adjusting sound levels. The CD player displays a small CD interface for playing music CDs.

For Internet tasks, there are Inbox Monitor, Modem Lights, and Wireless Link Monitor applets. Inbox Monitor checks for received mail. To configure Inbox Monitor, right-click it and select the Preferences entry. You can set the frequency of checks, as well as specify whether to check local mailboxes or remote POP3 and IMAP mailboxes. The Modem Lights feature monitors your modem connection. You can configure it to monitor a PPP connection to an ISP over a modem. Wireless Link enables you to monitor the quality of your wireless transmissions.

Several helpful utility applets provide added functionality to your desktop. The Clock applet can display time in a 12- or 24-hour format. Right-click the Clock applet and select the Preferences entry to change its setup. The Disk Mounter applet enables you to mount a drive using a single click. You can create a Disk Mounter applet for each device you have, such as a floppy drive and a CD-ROM. To mount a file system, all you have to do is click the appropriate Disk Mounter icon in the panel (helpful for mounting floppy drives quickly). To specify the file systems to mount, use the Disk Mounter Preferences dialog box.

Workspace Switcher

The Workspace Switcher appears in the panel and shows a view of your virtual desktops. Virtual desktops are defined in the window manager. Workspace Switcher lets you easily move from one desktop to another with the click of a mouse. The Workspace Switcher is a panel applet that works only in the panel. If the Workspace Switcher is not already active, you can activate it by right-clicking the panel and selecting Add To Panel from the pop-up menu. This, in turn, displays other pop-up menus listing categories of applets and their listings of available applets. Select the Utility category and, in that menu, select Workspace Switcher.

The Workspace Switcher shows your entire virtual desktop as separate rectangles within a box. Open windows show up as small colored rectangles in these squares. You can move any window from one virtual desktop to another by clicking and dragging its image in the Workspace Switcher. To configure the Workspace Switcher, right-click it and select Preferences to display the Preferences dialog box. Here, you can select the number of workspaces.

GNOME Tasklist

The Tasklist shows currently opened applications. The Tasklist arranges tasks currently running in a series of buttons, one for each window. A task can be any open application, usually denoted by a window displayed on the screen. These can include applications such as a Web browser or a file manager window displaying a directory. You can move from one task to another by clicking its button, in effect moving from one window to another. When you minimize a window, you can later restore it by clicking its entry in the Tasklist.

Right-clicking a window's Tasklist entry opens a menu that lets you Minimize or Unminimize, Shade, Move, Resize, Maximize, or Close the window. The Minimize operation will reduce the window to its Tasklist entry. Right-clicking the entry will display the menu with an Unminimize option instead of a Minimize one, which you can then use to redisplay the window. The Shade entry will reduce the window to its title bar. The Close entry will close the window, ending its application.

To configure the Tasklist, right-click it and select the Properties entry. Here, you can set features such as the size of the Tasklist, the number of rows, whether to display mini-icons, and the tasks to show.