Multi Gnome Terminal User's Guide: Multi Gnome Terminal 1.5.0
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# 4. Preferences Configuration

Configurable options are set via the Preferences dialog-box, which can be invoked by selecting Preferences from the Settings menu, or a similar selection from the Pop-up menu. Preferences options are grouped into "Tabs" according to their functionality.

### The Preferences Dialog

## 4.1. 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.)

Enable bold text

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

Hide menu bar

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

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.

Hide tool bar

  Hide the Toolbar if checked.

No Border

  The "border" is a very fine frame around the edge of the terminal Window. Turn on or off here.

Enable multibyte support

  Turn on multi-byte support for font characters.

Blinking cursor

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

Silence terminal bell

  Turn off the terminal bell (^G).

Use --login by default

  If this option is selected, `Multi Gnome Terminal` will launch the shell in login mode (it will run all of your login initialization scripts in this mode). See also the information about `--login` and `--nologin` command line options.

Hide button bar

  Disable the button bar.

Confirm window closing

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

Open IM (input method)

  Input method is useful for multi-byte support. (?)

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).

## 4.2. The Tabs Tab

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

Reopen tabs

  This option enables saving the current Tab set-up, but you will need to actually do the saving, either manually with the Save Tabs menu selection of the File menu (see above). Or, with the Auto Save Tabs 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.

Restore Paths

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

Titled Tabs

  The Window title is the same as the Tab label. Normally, this is the case anyway, but some applications may change the Window Title dynamically (e.g. `vim`). In this case, the Tab title will change also to match 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.

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.

Restore Commands

  Re-execute any `Multi Gnome Terminal` customized start-up "Commands" on application start-up. This requires that the Reopen tabs option is also enabled (see above).

Auto Save Tabs

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

Max Chars in Titled Tabs

  Maximum number of total characters to use for Tab titles.

Tab position

  Choose from the droplist the relative position within the Window: "top" (default), "bottom", "right", "left", or "hidden".

## 4.3. 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 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 to the right, you can choose the degree of shading to use.

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 Colors Tab Section below for selecting the shadow color.

## 4.4. 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. How these actually appear depends on the palette selected (for the white on black and black on white options). Custom 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.

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`.

Text shadow color

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

## 4.5. 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.

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