GNOME User's Guide
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# Adding, Moving, and Removing Panel Objects

## Moving objects

To move any object on the Panel to a different location, just drag it with the middle mouse button to the desired place, or right-click on it and choose Move applet. You can move it to a different location on the same Panel, or to a different Panel. If in the course of this movement it hits other objects, the behavior depends on the global preferences you set (see the section called Panel Objects Tab): the object you are moving can switch places with other objects, "push" all objects it meets, or "jump" over all other objects without disturbing them. You can also override the default behavior by holding Shift button (for "push" mode), Ctrl (for "switched" mode), or Alt (for "free" mode, i.e. jumping other other objects without disturbing them) button while dragging.

## Removing objects from the panel

To remove an object from the Panel, right-click on it and choose Remove from panel from the pop-up menu.

## Adding objects to the panel

By default, the GNOME Panel contains very few basic objects, such as the Main Menu. However, there is a number of things you can add to it. For example, every menu item in the Main Menu or its submenus can be added to the panel as an application launcher. GNOME also contains a number of applets that can be added to the panel, ranging from `Printer Applet`, which prints a file which you drag and drop onto this applet, to `Wanda the Fish`. If these are not enough, there is also a number of GNOME applets available on the Internet.

Applets

  To add an applet, right-click on the Panel and select Add to panel->Applet from the Panel menu. This will show you the menu of all the applets on your system, divided into categories; choosing any applet from this menu will add it to the Panel.

Application launchers

  To create a new application launcher, select Add to panel->Launcher from the Panel menu. You will be presented the Create Launcher dialog, shown below. In this dialog you should enter a name for your launcher, a comment, and the command line to launch the application. This dialog is virtually identical to Launcher Properties dialog, so we refer the reader to the section called Launchers for detailed description.

  Figure 18. The Create launcher dialog

  You can also add to the Panel any existing menu item or any launcher on your desktop: just drag it to the panel and drop there. Be careful to drop in the empty space on the panel and not on any existing object: for example, if you drop it on the printer applet, it will be printed. For menu items, you can also right-click on an item in the menu and select Add this launcher to the panel. After this, you can change any options for that launcher by clicking on it with the right mouse button and selecting Properties menu item.

Menus

  To add a menu, select Add to panel->Menu from the Panel menu. This gives you a choice of the Main menu, Programs menu, and Favorites menu.

  You can also add the Main Menu or any its submenu as a new menu to the panel by right-clicking on the menu title (the top line of the menu, separated from menu items by a thin line) and selecting Add this as a menu to the panel.

  Advanced users can also create new menus manually. To do so, you need to know that internally, GNOME represents a menu by a directory, with menu items presented by files of special type (`.desktop` files — these files also represent the application launchers), and submenus presented by subdirectories. For example, the Favorites menu corresponds to the directory `~/.gnome/apps` (where `~` denotes your home directory), and the Programs menu corresponds to the directory `/usr/share/gnome/apps`. Thus, you can create a new directory, using the GNOME File Manager, drag and drop there any `.desktop` files from any other directories you might have (for example, from `/usr/share/gnome/apps`) or from the desktop, and then drag and drop this directory from the File Manager window to the Panel. This will add this directory as a menu to the Panel.

  After you have added a menu to the Panel using any of the methods described above, you can modify its properties (for example, add new items to this menu or change the icon used by the menu), as described in the section called Menus.

Drawers

  To add a new empty drawer, select Add to panel->Drawer from the Panel menu. After this, you can right-click on this drawer and select Properties to change its properties (for example, the icon it uses). You can add new items to this drawer in the same way as you add items to the panel: all the methods for adding new objects to the panel described in this section will also work for adding new items to the drawer.

  You can also add the Main Menu or any its submenu as a new drawer to the panel by right-clicking on the menu title and selecting Add this as a drawer to the panel.

Swallowed application

  To add a new swallowed application, select Add to panel->Swallowed app from the Panel menu. This will produce a Create Swallowed Application dialog, which is shown in Figure 16 in the section called Swallowed Applications. For details, see the section called Swallowed Applications.

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