Global Panel Preferences

To start configuring the GNOME panel, select Global Preferences from the Panel submenu of the Main Menu (you can access the main menu by either pressing the foot icon or by right-clicking on the panel).

This will bring the Global Panel Preferences dialog up (this dialog is one of the components of the GNOME Control Center). With this dialog you can set properties that will affect all Panels you use now and any panels you add in the future.

Figure 17. The Global Panel Configuration Dialog

The Global Panel Configuration Dialog contains five tabs which help you configure the global properties of the GNOME Panel: Animation, Buttons, Panel Objects, Menu, and Miscellaneous. Each of these tabs is explained below.

Animation Tab

Buttons Tab

In this section, you can set appearance of buttons of various types (launcher buttons, menu buttons, drawer buttons, and special (Logout and Lock Screen) buttons).

This tab also contains 3 options which affect all types of buttons simultaneously:

Panel objects Tab

This tab shows some options related to placement and moving objects on the panel.

Menu Tab

In this tab, you can set the options determining the appearance of Panel menus.

Miscellaneous Tab

The Miscellaneous group contains options for various customizable behavior that didn't fit anywhere else.

This tab also allows you to configure some global key bindings. At the moment, you can define key bindings for Global Menu and for Run Command dialog. For example, if you are using a standard PC keyboard, you can bind the Menu key (this key is usually located to the left of the space bar and labelled with a picture of a menu) to the Global Menu, so that pressing this key will bring up the Global Menu; similarly, the common key binding for the Run command dialog is the so-called Windows key (called so because on most PC keyboards this key is indeed labelled with a flying window). To change the key bound to Global Menu or to the Run Dialog, you can either select a key from the drop-down list, or click on the Grab button and then press the desired key.

NoteNOTE
 

If you have problems with using Menu or Windows keys, the most probable explanation is that your X server was incorrectly configured: the keyboard type chosen during installation does not match your actual keyboard. If you are using XFree86 server, you can fix it by manually editing the configuration file. This file, named XF86Config, is usually located in /etc or /etc/X11 directory. Open this file with any text editor (not a word-processor!), find there the line containing words XkbModel and change it to read

              XkbModel "pc104"
	  
You need to be root (system administrator) to do this. Now, logout of GNOME and restart the X server by simultaneously pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace.

WarningWARNING
 

Making a mistake while editing XF86Config file can make you keyboard or screen unusable in X Windows. Therefore, please be careful, make a backup copy of this file and make sure you know how to restore it from backup without using X Windows, i.e., from a terminal. If you don't, then do not edit it at all.