Multi Gnome Terminal User's Guide: Multi Gnome Terminal 1.6.2
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# 4. Preferences Configuration

`Multi Gnome Terminal` configuration options are set via the Tab Preferences and Win Preferences selections, which are located on the Settings menu, or similar selections on the Pop-up menu. Each will open a Window containing the various options available for that particular Class (e.g. Win). Preferences options are grouped into their own "Tabs", according to similar functionality.

Changing any settings in either place, will effect the active Class only. If no Class has been explicitly set, then automatically `Multi Gnome Terminal` uses a built-in Class called "Default". (If the Class concept is confusing, see the next section, Terminal Configuration Classes.)

### The Tab Preferences Dialog

## 4.1. Tab Preferences

Tab Preferences are those configuration options that can be applied to "Tab" Classes. These options are all available on a per Tab basis for a high degree of configuration flexibility.

### 4.1.1. The General Tab

While most options are self-explanatory, a brief explanation of all options follows. Most options are simple checkboxes that are either enabled or disabled. After making any changes, be sure to click the Apply button to save and activate changes.

Terminal Class

  Define a new "Class" from the currently selected settings, essentially cloning the configuration to a new class. Classes can also be deleted here. Refer to the section on Classes for further information on `Gnome Terminal` "Classes".

Font

  Click the Browse button to choose a font from the GNOME font chooser. Or, you can alternately click the input field, and hand edit the font entry. (There is also a command line option for the preferred font.)

Bold Font (NEW v1.5.2)

  Same as above, but select a (different) font to use for bold fonts if the Use bold font, do not overstrike feature is enabled (see below).

Enable bold text

  Enable bold text for applications that request it (example: man pages).

Use bold text color (NEW v1.5.2)

  Replace the bold text attribute with a color (color is definable in the Tab Colors Tab).

Swap Delete/Backspace

  If your DEL and BS are working backward from what you expect, this will reverse it.

Delete generates DEL/^H

  Try this if having problems with the DEL key.

Enable multibyte support

  Turn on multi-byte support for font characters.

Use bold font, do not overstrike (NEW v1.5.2)

  Allow specification of a different font for bold text only (see above). This should be a font of the same size as the normal font (though different family is OK), and both fonts should be consistent as to whether they are specified as pixels or points.

Silence terminal bell

  Turn off the terminal bell (^G).

Blinking cursor

  If you prefer a blinking style cursor, turn it on here.

No Terminal Border

  The "border" is a very fine frame around the edge of the terminal Window. Turn on or off here. Turn off No Notebook Border also to get a complete borderless effect.

Open IM (input method)

  Input method is useful for ideographic languages that require a pre-editing stage.

Select-by-word characters

  Defines a list of characters (or character classes) that should be considered 'word characters'. These are used when selecting text by word with the mouse (i.e. double-click).

### 4.1.2. The Image Tab

In the Image tab, you can set various options for the `Multi Gnome Terminal` Window background. The available choices are:

None

  If checked, then disable transparent and pixmap backgrounds. In this case, `Multi Gnome Terminal` will use the background color as set in Colors. See the Tab Colors Tab Section.

Background pixmap

  This option allows you to choose an image file to be used as background. Press the Browse button to choose an image file. The image can also be scaled or tiled.

Transparent

  With this option, `Multi Gnome Terminal` will use a pseudo-transparent background. It is not truly transparent; it just mimics the background of your desktop (root Window), much like a chameleon does. Do not expect to see other Windows through the `Multi Gnome Terminal` Window though.

Shaded Background

  Pixmap and Transparent backgrounds can also be "shaded", which will "dim" the background. With the slider control, you can choose the degree of shading to use.

Adjust Contrast (NEW v1.5.2)

  You can also adjust the "contrast" of Pixmap and Transparent backgrounds to brighter or darker values. Click the button on the left to enable, then use the slider to adjust.

Gamma Correction (NEW v1.5.2)

  The gamma correction of the background can also be adjusted to lesser or greater values. Again, click the button, and adjust with the slider control. Remember to click Apply when done.

Tint Background

  Pixmap and Transparent backgrounds can also be tinted with the Tint background checkbox. This will color the background according to the color value in the color selector control to the right. Just click on this to select a color to use for the "tint".

Text Shadow

  This will enable "font shadowing", which is a technique for drawing a very fine outline around each character when the terminal is in "image" mode. This can improve readability of text on transparent or pixmapped backgrounds. And just looks cool ;-) See the Tab Colors Tab Section below for selecting the shadow color.

### 4.1.3. The Colors Tab

The Colors tab is used to configure various color settings. `Multi Gnome Terminal` fully supports the color extensions used by `xterm`.

Color scheme

  Some applications are capable of using the color capabilities of a terminal. The way the interaction between an application and the terminal is set up is that the application can request one of sixteen named colors (ANSI colors), such as "blue" or "bright red": for example, `mutt` mail reader can use red color to show urgent messages. However, it is up to the terminal to decide which exact tint to use for "bright red" or "blue". This collection of sixteen colors is called a palette, or "color scheme".

  `Multi Gnome Terminal` supports four color schemes: the Linux console scheme, the Color Xterm scheme, the rxvt color scheme, and a completely customizable color scheme. They all are slightly different: for example, Linux console uses light gray in place of "white", while rxvt uses real white.

  If you have selected the custom option, then all 16 colors (nominally 8 colors and 8 bright colors) can be customized by clicking on the "Color palette" buttons at the bottom of the dialog.

Foreground/Background Color

  Here you can set the default terminal foreground and background colors, which are used when no colors have been requested by the application running inside of `Multi Gnome Terminal`.

  The following options are available: white on black, black on white, green on black, black on light yellow, and Custom colors. How these actually appear depends on the palette selected (for the white on black and black on white options). Custom colors allows you to select the default foreground and background colors individually and separate from the palette.

  Additionally, the user can drag a color from the rectangular box beneath the color wheel from any GNOME color selector or color source and drop it into the terminal. If the user drops the color on a blank space, it will set the background, if the user drops the color on a cell that contains a character, it will change the foreground. This will also automatically change foreground/background type to Custom colors and set the custom foreground or background color.

Foreground Color

  This is the color for font characters and cursor.

Background Color

  The background color to be used for the terminal Window. Except for transparent and pixmap backgrounds, in which case it is ignored.

Text shadow color

  The color to be used for the shadow effect if Text Shadow is enabled. See the Image Tab Section.

Bold text color (NEW v1.5.2)

  Replace bold text with text of this color. See the General Tab to turn this feature on.

Tab label colors are configured in Win Class Preferences.

### 4.1.4. The Scrolling Tab

Scrollbar position

  For the Scrollbar position, select from the list: either "Left", "right", or "hidden".

Scrollback lines

  Set the number of lines that will be maintained in the scrollback buffer. The buffer history can be viewed by using the Scrollbar, or the keyboard (SHIFT-PageUp and SHIFT-PageDown).

Scroll on keystroke

  If this is enabled, then when you have scrolled backward into the buffer, and press any key, the screen will automatically jump back to the cursor position. If not, keystrokes are still echoed to the screen, but may not be visible.

Scroll on output

  If this is enabled, then when you have scrolled backward into the buffer, and any output is echoed to the screen (either by you typing or some process that generates the output), the screen will automatically jump back to the end of the terminal buffer so that the output is immediately visible.

### 4.1.5. The Logs Tab (NEW v1.6.0)

`Multi Gnome Terminal` can keep track of user log-ins using standard UNIX "utmp" style logging. For this to work correctly, `mgt-pty-helper` must be installed correctly. See locally installed man pages for more details on what each of these does.

Update lastlog entry

  Enable or disable "lastlog" tracking.

Update wtmp entry

  Enable or disable "wtmp" tracking.

Update utmp entry

  Enable or disable "utmp" tracking.

## 4.2. Win Preferences

Win Preferences are those configuration options that can be applied to "Win" Classes. These options apply to those configuration attributes that are a Windows-only type feature, such as whether the Toolbar is enabled or not, or the colors of the Tab button labels.

### 4.2.1. The General Tab

Basic configuration options that can be applied to Windows Classes.

Window Class

  Define a new "Window Class" (wclass) from the currently selected settings, essentially cloning the configuration to a new class. Windows Classes can also be deleted here. Refer to the section on Classes for further information on `Multi Gnome Terminal` "Classes".

Hide menu bar

  Hide the main Menubar at the top of the Window, or not.

Hide tool bar

  Hide the Toolbar if checked.

Hide button bar

  Disable the ButtonBar if checked.

Confirm window closing

  Alert the user before closing the `Multi Gnome Terminal` Window.

Use --login by default

  If this option is selected, `Multi Gnome Terminal` will launch the built-in, hard-set shells in login mode (the ones at the top of the New Term menu). Your login initialization scripts will be run in this mode. See also the information about --login and --nologin command line options.

No Notebook Border

  The "border" is a very fine frame around the inside edge of the GTK Window. Turn on or off here. Turn off No Terminal Border in Tab Preferences also to get a complete borderless effect.

Window Title

  Enter a name to be used as the title that will appear on the X Window titlebar.

### 4.2.2. The Tabs Tab

This is where much of the configuration for the Tabs that represent multi-terminals is done.

Reopen saved terminals

  This option enables saving the current Tab set-up, but you will need to actually do the saving, either manually with the Save Terminals menu selection of the File menu (see above). Or, with the Autosave terminals on exit feature (see below). This just enables/disables these other features. Re-opening will not restore the buffer contents or shell command history. Just the Tab layout and titles. (See the Command Examples Section, for a very useful script that can restore unique history files.)

Restore saved terms paths

  When re-opening Tabs (see above), restore the shell `path` (pwd) as well.

No Numeric Prefix

  Without this checked, `Multi Gnome Terminal` will prepend a number in front of the Tab label to designate its position: `[ 3-My Projects ]`. Also, on the Window title. Check this to turn off this feature.

Titled Tabs

  If enabled, the Tab label will match the Window title. Some applications may change the Window Title dynamically (e.g. `vim` or through `xterm` escape sequences). In this case, the Tab title will change also to match the Window Title. And conversely, manually changing the Tab label, will be reflected in the Window title. If not checked, then the Tab title stays constant. This should be disabled if you want to be able to change Tab labels with MiddleMouse (and not have it change).

Restore saved terms commands

  Re-execute any `Multi Gnome Terminal` customized start-up "Commands" on application start-up.

Restore saved terms classes (NEW v1.6.0)

  Automatically restore the previous "Tab Class" (tclass) state on application start-up. This requires that the Reopen tabs option is also enabled (see above).

Autosave terminals on exit

  Save Tabs for the current "Class" automatically when the Window is closed. Tab configuration can also be saved manually with the Save Terminals menu selection of the File menu (see above). This also requires that the Reopen tabs option is enabled (see above, this section).

  This is different from saving the gnome-session configuration when logging out of GNOME, which saves all `Multi Gnome Terminal` Tabs for all opened Windows, and all Classes.

Max Chars in Titled Tabs

  Maximum number of total characters to use for Tab titles. Useful only if Titled Tabs is enabled.

Tab position

  Choose from the droplist the relative position within the Window: "top" (default), "bottom", "right", "left", or "none".

### 4.2.3. The Colors Tab

The Win Preferences Colors tab is used to configure color values of the `Multi Gnome Terminal` Tab labels.

Terminal is changing

  The color used for inactive Tab labels to indicate that the terminal buffer is in the process of changing. This is so the user is alerted that something is happening in a terminal, other than the current one. The default is `red`.

Terminal changed

  The color used for inactive Tab labels to indicate that the terminal buffer has undergone a change. This is so the user is alerted that something has happened in a terminal other than the current one, and that the activity has either stopped or paused. The default is `blue`.

Terminal State Default colors (NEW v1.6.0)

  Use to reset the Tab label colors back to the default colors of red and blue.

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