# The &kicker; Handbook

&Orville.Bennett; &Orville.Bennett.mail;
&Dirk.Doerflinger; &Dirk.Doerflinger.mail;
&tde-authors;
Reviewed: &tde-release-date;
&tde-release-version;
2001 2002 &Dirk.Doerflinger;
2004 &Orville.Bennett;
2005 Titus Laska
&tde-copyright-date; &tde-team;
&FDLNotice;

&kicker; is the &tde; application starter panel and is also capable of some useful applets and extensions. It usually resides on the bottom of the desktop.

TDE Kicker tdebase panel application starter

## Introduction

&kicker; is the application launcher panel of the Trinity Desktop Environment. Besides the TDE Menu, where you can start applications, &kicker; is also capable of running docked applets like the pager, the taskbar or the clock, and extensions, such as child panels.

&kicker; usually resides on the bottom of the desktop, but it can also be moved to any other border.

The panel gives you quick access to applications and makes it easier for you to organize your desktop. Using the &tde; panel you can:

- Launch applications using the TDE menu or the application buttons.

- Switch desktops using the panel's pager applet.

- Switch active windows, and minimize or maximize them.

- Browse folder using the browser menu functionality.

- Access panel applets that extend the panel's functionality, offering for example mixers, clocks or a system monitor.

Please report any problems or feature requests to the &tde; mailing lists.

## Using &kicker;

This is what you see on a freshly installed &tde;, assuming that you skipped KPersonalizer. If you are using lower resolution, some of the icons may not appear immediately. To cater for those smaller resolutions, the screenshot below is divided in two parts.

Here is a screenshot of the left side of &kicker;
Screenshot Left

This is a screenshot of the left side of &kicker;

And here is the right side
Screenshot Right

This is the right side of &kicker;

Of course, this is only one way &kicker; might appear on the screen. There are many more configurations available.

### A quick tour for new &tde; users

If you are experienced with this kind of application launcher, you can ignore this chapter and move on to &kicker; basics.

The main use of &kicker; is starting applications. This is done by clicking icons, either from the panel or from the TDE Menu. &kicker; shows some more things too, so let's see.

Having a look at the screenshots above, there are from left to right:

The TDE Menu

  It is used for launching applications and some other useful things. Refer to The TDE Menu for more information.

Application start icons

  Here are some icons of commonly used applications. They can be moved and removed and others can be added. Some of them have a special meaning, which you can read more about in &kicker; basics. Resting the mouse over an icon without clicking shows the name and a short description of that application, if you have set that in the Settings Dialog.

The Pager applet

  This displays a small view of the virtual desktops. Clicking one section of it will activate that desktop. Please refer to Applets.

The Taskbar

  All running applications are displayed as buttons in the taskbar. Clicking an application's button will bring this application on top. If it was on top before, it will be iconified. More information is available in the Applets section.

System Tray

  The system tray is able to swallow some kind of applications like - in this case - &klipper; and the &korganizer; Reminder Daemon. There are many other applications that dock in the system tray, for example &juk; and &kopete;. Clicking the icons with the left or the right mousebutton performs specific actions defined for each application.

Clock

  The Clock applet is - of course - a small, useful clock. It can have various styles, have a look at the applets section for more information.

The Hide panel button

  This button lets you fade out &kicker; for having more space on the screen. When &kicker; is faded out, only the Hide panel button will remain in order to fade in &kicker; again.

This was only the description of &kicker; on its initial launch. It can be configured in many ways and styles and more applets can be added. There are even some extensions like the external taskbar you can add. See &kicker; basics, Applets and Extensions for more information.

## &kicker; basics

### General usage

As mentioned before, there are a lot of things that can be added to &kicker;. This section will tell you everything about application starting, folder browsing and adding some kinds of applets and extensions. Lots of things can be done from the context menu with Configure Panel... or via the &kcontrolcenter;'s section Desktop Panels.

#### Adding applications

There are three different ways to add an application to &kicker;:

Drag and Drop

  Simply drag any file from &konqueror; into &kicker; and it's there. Dragging also works from the TDE Menu with any entry. You can change the attributes like optional command line parameters or the icon by clicking it with the &RMB; and choosing Configure applicationname Button... from the context menu.

Using the context menu to add a &tde; application

  Click the &RMB; on any free space in &kicker; and choose Add Application to Panel. There you can choose an application which will then be added to &kicker;.

Using the context menu to add a non-&tde;-application

  Non-&tde;-applications ⪚ xosview or xemacs.

  Click the &RMB; on any free space in &kicker; and choose Add Application to Panel and then Add Non-TDE Application. In the newly appearing window, enter Button title and a Description of the application in the first two text boxes. Then fill in the command of the application you wish to add in the Executable: text box. You can also append command line arguments, have the application start from a terminal, and choose the icon which will appear in &kicker; by clicking the gear. If you don't choose an icon, the application will use the gear as a default.

Applications can be moved or removed by &RMB; click and choosing Move application name Button or Remove application name Button. You can also move icons using the &MMB; if you have one. To do this click on an icon using the &MMB;, hold for a second and then drag the icon to its new position. Another way to remove an application is by clicking the &RMB; on any free space and then choosing Remove from Panel Application and then the application you want to be removed.

#### Adding Folders

Folders can be added by simply dragging a folder to any free space of &kicker;. Quick Browsers can also be added from the context menu or the TDE Menu.

There are two different ways to have a folder in &kicker;, you can choose between them in the menu appearing after dropping.

Add as File Manager &URL;

  Choosing this will add a link to the selected folder. Clicking this folder icon will open &konqueror; displaying the contents of this folder.

Add as Quick Browser

  If you add a folder this way, it will be displayed as a submenu of &kicker;. This submenu contains Open in File Manager, which does the same as a file manager &URL;, and Open in Terminal, which opens a terminal with this folder as the working path. Also, this submenu contains the contents of that folder. Sub-folders are displayed as new submenus like the Quick Browser itself. The maximum number of displayed elements can be set in the Settings Dialog. Quick Browsers can also be added from the context menu of &kicker; and then choosing Add Applet to Panel... and then Special Buttons on the right top of the Add Applet dialog.

Both kinds of folders can be moved or removed by &RMB; click and choosing Move application name Button or Remove application name Button. You can also move icons using the &MMB; if you have one. To do this click on an icon using the &MMB;, hold for a second and then drag the icon to its new position. Another way to remove a folder is by clicking the &RMB; on any free space and then choosing Remove from Panel Applet and then the applet you want to be removed.

File manager &URL;s can also be configured from the context menu, just like any other folder anywhere in &tde;.

#### Special Icons

Some icons in &kicker; have a special meaning. They are added by choosing Add Applet to Panel... and then Special Buttons on the right top of the Add Applet dialog.

The TDE Menu Icon

  The TDE Menu icon is one of the most necessary icons in &kicker;. As you might guess, it opens the TDE Menu, which you can learn more about in The K Menu.

The Window List Menu

  Clicking this icon will show the Window list. Its first entry, Unclutter Windows, tries to move the windows on your active desktop in a way to see as many as possible.

  Cascade Windows puts all windows on the active desktop over each others, the most recently on top and the others sorted by the time they where last used.

  Below those entries is a list of all currently running applications, grouped by the desktops on which they are running. Clicking on an application will activate it.

The Bookmarks Menu

  The Bookmarks icon provides fast access to your bookmarks. They appear in the same way as if you click the Bookmarks menu in &konqueror;. Clicking a bookmark in the menu will launch &konqueror; with the &URL; which is behind that bookmark.

The Recent Documents Icon

  This menu shows the most recently used documents. Clicking the element Clear History will remove those entries, which may be useful for privacy reasons.

The Show Access Icon

  The Show desktop icon lets you have quick access to all the things you have on your desktop by minimizing all currently open applications. Clicking it once will toggle it to show the desktop. The icon will remain pressed until you either click it again, which will restore your minimized apps, or reactivate an application from the taskbar.

The Quick File Browser Item

  Adding a Browse icon will open a dialog which will let you choose a path and an icon, which will appear as a Quick File Browser menu. Refer to the Adding Folders section for more information about quick browsers.

The Non-&tde; Application Launcher

  The Non-&tde; Application Launcher lets you add an application which doesn't appear in the TDE menu to &kicker;. Refer to Adding Applications for more information about Non-&tde; Applications.

The Terminal Sessions Icon

  This icon provides a menu of the available Terminal sessions, just as &konsole; does when you click and hold its New Session button.

The Print System Icon

  This icon gives direct access to &tde;'s printing system. &tde; is able to utilize various printing systems according to users' wishes. The options shown below will vary depending on the printing system in use. Clicking the &LMB; on the icon opens a menu which gives the following options:

  - Add Printer... This will start &tde;'s Add Printer Wizard which allows you to simply add a new printer to your system.

  - &tde; Print Settings This item will open the &tde; Print Configuration dialog.

  - Configure Server This item allows configuration of a &CUPS; Server. An authorization dialog, requiring validation, will be presented to you before allowing any changes.

  - Print Manager This item starts the Printing Manager, &tde;'s main printing control center.

  - Print Browser (&konqueror;) This item will start &konqueror; with the `print:/` io-slave to browse all kinds of printers.

  - Print File... This item opens a dialog which lets you easily print one or more files.

  - The next items with the names of all your printers open the KJobviewer window for each printer.

#### Removing all kinds of icons

Clicking the &RMB; on any icon, whether it's an application, folder or special icon and then choosing Remove name from the appearing context menu will remove the icon from &kicker;.

Another way of removing icons is clicking the &RMB; on any free space in &kicker; and choosing Remove From Panel and then Applet, Application or All. You can then choose the button you want to remove in the submenu.

Please note that removing an icon from &kicker; won't remove the application on the disk!

#### Adding Applets

&kicker; comes with a set of applets like the taskbar or the mini-pager. They can be added by choosing Add Applet to Panel... from the context menu, which can be opened by clicking the &RMB; on any free space in &kicker;. In the upcoming dialog, choose an applet to add and click the Add to Panel button.

Applets can be moved by dragging them on their handle with holding the &LMB;, or the &MMB;, or by choosing Move from the context menu.

You can learn more about the applets in the section Applets.

#### Removing Applets

Applets can be removed by choosing the Remove applet name option from the context menu, which appears when the &RMB; is clicked on the applet's handle (left or top side of the applet) or on the icon itself.

#### Adding Extensions

There is also the possibility to add external extensions to &kicker;, like the External Taskbar, the Dock Application Bar for WindowMaker dock-applications, Kasbar, an iconic kind of taskbar, an Universal Sidebar and even child Panels which behave like new instances of &kicker;.

Extensions can be added by selecting them from the submenu Add New Panel in the context menu of &kicker;. Most of the extensions can be moved to any border of the screen by dragging them with the &LMB; on a free space. If that does not work, open the context menu on any free space in &kicker;, choose Configure Panel... and set up the panel positions in the appearing dialog.

More about extensions can be read in the extensions section.

#### Removing Extensions

You can remove extensions by clicking Remove in their context menu, usually located in the fade-out handles or by selecting them from the Remove Panel submenu of the &kicker; context menu.

### Configuring Application Buttons

Every application starter has some preferences you can set from their context menu with Configure application name Button.... Usually applications and folders have the same preferences as in &konqueror;. Only the applications which are located in the TDE Menu (for experienced users: those which have a `.desktop` extension in the `applnk` folder) have a special kind of config dialog.

#### The General Tab

Here you can see some information about the application link. You can also choose an icon by clicking on the icon button . This may be useful if you want the icon on the panel behave different to the analog one in the TDE Menu.

#### The Permissions Tab

Here you can see the permissions of the link file. Please refer to the manuals or handbooks of your operating system for more about permissions.

#### The Application Tab

You can set the behavior of the application when it's executed on this page.

Name

  Here you can set the name of the application which will be shown in the tooltip.

Description

  Here you can set an informative title which will be shown in the tooltip.

  Once the Description is set however, it alone will be shown in the tooltip.

Comment

  See Description.

  If you set a Name and a Comment, they will be shown as tooltips of the start icons in the style Name - Comment.

Command

  Usually, there is only the name of the binary that has to be started when clicking on the icon. You can search for another application to be started by clicking the Browse... button and/or add special command line parameters to the application.

Work path

  Not yet written

Supported file types:

  In this section you can choose what kinds of filetypes are handled by this application. Please refer to &konqueror; handbook for more about this.

Advanced Options

  This button allows for further configuration of the application to be run.

  Run in terminal

    If this box is checked, the application will be executed in a terminal window. You can also add special Terminal options.

  Run as different user

    Checking this option will let the application start with the permission of the user you typed in the field Username. You will be prompted for the user's password on application start. This option may be very useful if you want to start some applications as superuser.

  Enable launch feedback

    If this box is checked, this will display feedback when an application icon is clicked with the &LMB;.

  Place in system tray

    When checked, the application's icon will show up in the panel system tray. You will then be able to hide or show the application by clicking on the system tray icon. Clicking on it using the &RMB; will allow also you to undock, or quit the application.

  DCOP registration

    Not yet written

## Configuring &kicker;

This section describes the ways &kicker; can be configured. It's only about the basic &kicker; settings. Configuration of applets are described in another section.

You can change the settings by either clicking Configure Panel... in the context menu of &kicker;, or in &kcontrolcenter; by going to Desktop and then selecting the Panels or the Taskbar module.

### The Panel Section

#### Extensions

Panels and panel extensions are configured on the same page. Simply choose one of your extensions (⪚ Child Panel) from the Settings for: listbox. You will then be adjust its settings rather than that of the Main Panel.

#### Arrangement

In the Arrangement tab you can configure some basic functionality of the &tde; panel (&ie; functionality you'd find in other panel applications as well; later we'll come to the more interesting features).

If you have more than one panel on screen, you can select at the top of the window which panel you wish to configure.

In the Position section you can choose which screen border the panel should be attached. If you want to play around with different settings you can change the panel's position even easier by dragging the panel from one border to the other.

In the section labeled Position is a set of 12 buttons arranged in a square. Each button corresponds to a location for the panel. Click on a button and notice where the panel is located on the preview monitor to the right.

Generally, the available space in kicker is used more efficiently when the panel is aligned horizontally, &ie; attached to the top or bottom screen border.

The Length section lets you define how much space a panel will occupy on the side of the screen which it resides. By default this is on the bottom so changing this value will affect a panel's width. The value can be anywhere from 1% to 100%. Use the combo box and slider to adjust the minimum length of the panel. Checking the check box Expand as required to fit contents makes sure that a panel is at least as big as needed to show every icon and applet. The panel will become longer if more space is needed. When less space is required on the panel, the panel will shrink down to the minimum size. If there is no mark in the checkbox, then the panel is fixed to the length specified in this section.

The final section of this table is labeled Size, and refers to the height of the panel. The panel's size can be Tiny, Small, Medium, Large or Custom. If you choose Custom mode, you can resize &kicker; by specifying a height in the combobox.

If you have multiple monitors, you can configure the panel for each screen entirely independently. If you are not sure which screen is which, Press the Identify and a number will appear centred on each screen.

Then simply choose the screen you wish to configure from the drop down box labelled Xinerama screen, or choose All Screens to have identical configurations on each.

#### Hiding

Depending on your screen resolution you may find that the panel takes away too much of your precious screen real estate. To save screen space, the panel offers manual hiding of the panel, an auto hide feature, and the ability to allow other windows to lay on top of the panel. These features are selected in the section entitled Hide Mode.

When the Hide Mode feature is enabled, the panel will hide when the mouse cursor has not been moved over it for the configured time. If you move the mouse to the panel's screen border it will show up again.

The Hide Mode section has three options:

Only hide when panel-hiding button is clicked

  When this option is selected, the panel will remain visible at the location you defined unless you click on the button at the far right (for horizontally oriented) or bottom (for vertically oriented) button. This button has an arrow on it pointed to the edge of the screen.

  Once clicked, the panel will disappear. If the button is clicked again, the panel will re-appear at the same location.

Hide automatically

  If this option is selected, then the panel will automatically disappear after the number of seconds specified in the combo box below the option. To make the panel reappear, simply move the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen where the panel is located, and the panel will reappear immediately.

Allow other windows to cover the panel

  As this option's label implies, the panel is always on the desktop when this option is selected. It is now possible, however, for application windows to lay on top of the panel.

  Once the panel has moved back on top of the application window, it will stay there until an application window becomes active again.

If you place a mark in the checkbox labeled Show panel when switching desktops, the panel will automatically reappear when you switch desktops. (The panel will disappear again after the specified number of seconds.) Otherwise, if there are too many applets and icons on &kicker;, two small scroll buttons will be displayed to scroll the whole panel.

To restore the panel, simply move the mouse cursor to the screen location specified in the drop box labeled Raise when the pointer touches the screen's:. You can change this value by selecting one of the choices provided in the drop down box.

When the panel's hide buttons are enabled you'll see buttons on both sides of the panel, with arrows showing to the screen border. If you click on one of these buttons, the panel will slide away in that direction. After that, you'll see a remaining show button in that corner, which will make the panel show again. Check the appropriate checkbox if you want the hide buttons to show up on any side of &kicker;. Using the slider you can change the width of the buttons.

The next section down is labeled Panel-Hiding Buttons. It consists of two check boxes: Show left panel-hiding button and Show left panel-hiding button. Use these checkboxes to show and hide the left and right manual panel hiding buttons.

The Panel Animation frame allows you to choose whether the panel will softly slide away or just disappear. Checking the Animate panel hiding will allow you to configure the speed of the animation using the sliders. Unchecking, naturally, disables the panel animations.

#### Menus

In the Menus tab you can configure the panel menu behavior. This affects the TDE menu you will often use to launch applications, the browser menus you can use to access folders and other menus like the recent documents menu.

The first option is the menu style. &tde; supports two menu styles: a classic menu familiar to many desktops and operating systems and a Kickoff style.

The TDE Menu section provides many options to configure the TDE menu functionality.

The Menu item format section allows you to adjust the details of the TDE menu entries. There are four buttons. Each button option determines how the application Name (&ie; &konqueror;, &kword;, &etc;) and the Description (&ie; Web Browser, Word Processor, &etc;) are displayed on the &kmenu;. The Name only option simply shows the application's name in the menu. The Name (Description) option will show a small description besides the name of the application. The Description (Name) and Name (Description) options will show both name and description in the &kmenu;.

Below the Menu item format section is a button to Edit TDE Menu. Then menu editor is a tool to customize the menu layout and add or delete menu items.

The Optional Menus checkboxes allow you to determine which special menu items appear in the &kmenu;.

- The Bookmarks menu allows you to quickly select from the same bookmarks that are available in &konqueror;.

- The Find menu offers access to the &kfind; application to search for local files, and a quick link to a search engine to search for things on the Internet.

- The Kate Session Menu allows you to open any of your Kate sessions.

- The Konqueror Profiles menu allows you to launch &konqueror; with any of your configured profiles.

- The Network Folders menu can launch a &konqueror; file manager window displaying any of your configured network folders.

- The Print System menu provides several menu entries to help manage the printer(s) attached to your system.

- The Quick Browser menu gives you quick links to locations on your hard drive.

- The Recent Documents menu lists the most recently edited documents and will automatically launch the application to edit or view this document.

- The Settings menu allows you to launch each &kcontrol; module directly from the TDE menu.

- The System Menu allows you quick access to some commonly visited places, including your Home folder, and the Trash. You may find this useful instead of having a separate entry for each of these in the &kmenu;

- The Terminal Sessions menu provides menu items to launch several different types of terminal programs (command line interfaces).

Other options in the Menu item format section include:

Open menu on mouse hover: This option affects only the Kickoff menu style. When enabled, hovering the mouse pointer over the menu buttons will atuomatically open that menu without clicking the mouse button.

Show Tooltip: When enabled a tooltip appears when hovering the mouse pointer over menu items. Using this option requires that tooltips ar enabled in Panels Appearance.

Show side image: Enabling this option displays a nice image on the left side of the TDE menu.

Display text in menu button: When enabled the text enter into the associated text box will be displayed in the menu button.

Font: This option allows you to select the font and size for all items in the menu.

Change TDE Menu icon: This option allows you to change the menu icon.

In the QuickBrowser Menus section you can configure whether the panel's browser menus will show hidden files or not (hidden files on &UNIX; systems are those whose filenames begin with a dot) as well as how many files at most will be shown in a quick browser menu. The latter option might be useful when you have a rather small screen resolution, because the browser menus would otherwise quickly fill up your screen when you browse folders containing many files.

The QuickStart Menu Items section provides quick access to programs you have used often or recently. You can choose whether to show the most recently programs or the most frequently used programs. Use the option Maximum number of entries to configure how many programs the quick start section will remember.

The Recent Documents Menu section includes an option to enable a submenu showing the most recent documents opened using &tde; applications. This option does not show recent documents opened with non &tde; applications.

The TDE Menu Search section includes an option to show a search box in the menu to help find items in the menu.

#### Appearance

Using the Appearance tab you can configure the panel's overall appearance.

##### General

The check box Enable icon mouseover effects toggles the large animated tooltips of &kicker;. They show name and description of the icons and applets the mousepointer is positioned on.

When Enable icon activation effects is enabled, the icons in the panel (not the taskbar) activate or "blink" when selected.

If Show tooltips is checked, the classical small tooltips with descriptions of the icons and applets will be shown if the mousepointer rests over an icon for some seconds. Note that this has no effect as long as the option to Enable icon mouseover effects is enabled.

##### Button Backgrounds

The &tde; panel supports so-called Button Backgrounds. This means that the buttons shown on the panel will be drawn using configurable images. To enable button backgrounds, simply choose the button type from the list, and change the drop down box to the color image you would like to use. Choose Default to return to an unstyled button. If you choose Custom color, the color button next to the drop down list will be enabled. Click on it to select a custom color to use.

For every kind of panel button there is a combo box offering a custom color option and tiled images. When the value is changed from "Default", tiles are enabled for this kind of button. You can also see a preview of a tile before use via the combo box.

The different kinds of buttons are:

TDE Menu tiles

  The icon for the TDE Menu will be displayed as a tile

Applications tiles

  The icons which start applications will be displayed as tiles

Desktop access tiles

  The Desktop Access icon will be displayed as a tile

QuickBrowser menus Tiles

  The icons for Quickbrowsers will be displayed as tiles

Window list Tiles

  The Window List icon will be displayed as a tile

##### Panel Background

The Enable transparency option, when checked, allows the panel to appear transparent.

The background image is a picture that will be used to draw the panel's background, just like you can use a picture for the desktop background. Check the Enable background image option to enable this feature. You can specify an image file in the edit box below or choose one by clicking on the Open file dialog button. You may also check the Colorize to match the desktop color scheme box to modify the background image's colors. You'll see a preview of the selected picture on the right.

##### Advanced Options

The Hide button size: option allows you to choose a width in pixels for the hide buttons, if they are visible.

The panel itself has several default sizes set, which you can switch between by simply dragging the edge of it, or by &RMB; clicking on an empty space in the panel, choosing Size and selecting the desired size from the submenu. If you enable Allow Drag and Drop resizing of panels then by choosing Custom in the panel menu, you can drag the panel edge to any size you like.

Applet handles are normally visible beside each applet on the panel, so that it is clear where to click to configure them, or to get to the panel menu. You can instead have them Fade out, or hide unless you hover the mouse over them, or you can choose to Hide them completely.

Finally, if the panel is transparent, you can tint it with a color of your choice. The slider allows you to choose how opaque the tint is. At the lowest end, there is no tint visible, while at the highest, the panel is not transparent at all.

### The Taskbar

#### Taskbar

This section changes the settings of the taskbar. Changes affect the external taskbar and also taskbar applets on &kicker; or child-panels. The taskbar can be located in the panel (default), or outside the panel on the desktop.

Show windows from all desktops

  This option determines whether all open windows are included in the taskbar or not. By default, the taskbar only shows the open windows on the current desktop. If this option is enabled, the taskbar will show all open windows on all desktops.

Sort windows by desktop

  This option changes the sort order of the icons on the taskbar, so that windows on virtual desktop 1 are shown first (to the left, or at the top of the taskbar), followed by windows on virtual desktop 2, and so on.

Sort alphabetically by application name

  This options shows the icons in an alphabetical sort order on the taskbar.

Allow taskbar items to be rearranged using drag and drop

  When selected the order of the taskbar buttons can be rearranged simply by selecting the button with the mouse pointer and dragging to the desired location.

Cycle through windows with mouse wheel

  This option allows cycling or switching through all apps in the taskbar by moving the mouse scrool wheel while the mouse pointer hovers over the taskbar.

Show only minimized windows

  If this box is checked, only windows which have been minimized will be shown in the taskbar. If Show windows from all desktops has been checked then all minimized windows will be shown. Otherwise, only the minimized windows of the current virtual desktop will be shown.

Show window list button

  Checking this box will show the small window list button at the fat left of the taskbar. This button opens a popup menu listing all applications in the taskbar.

Display

  This option affects how taskbar buttons are displayed. The drop-down list button supports three options: Icons and Text, Text only, and Icons only.

Group similar tasks

  This is option helps you if you often lack space in your taskbar. If it is set to Always, several instances of the same application are grouped together in one taskbar button. Select When Taskbar Full to make &kicker; only group similar tasks if there is not much space left in the taskbar.

Appearance

  This option allows you to set the taskbar appearance to Elegant, Classic or For Transparency.

Use custom colors

  This option allows you to choose different colors for the taskbar buttons.

#### Actions

The next set of options allow you to customize the actions performed with different mouse clicks on taskbar icons.

You can select any action from the list for the Left button, the Middle button and the Right button.

Some of these settings have effect only when a taskbar button contains more than one application.

Show Task List

  Clicking with the mouse button will open a menu displaying all tasks in that group. If you click an entry of that menu with any mouse button, the corresponding application will become active.

Show Operations Menu

  Clicking with the mousebutton will open a menu with all applications of that group, where every application has its window menu as a submenu and there are some group specific entries like Close All which closes all applications of that group, All to Desktop which lets you define on which desktop the whole group appears and Maximize All, Minimize All and Restore All which appends those actions to all applications of that group.

Activate, Raise or Minimize Task

  When a task is minimized, this option activates and raises the task to focus. When open in the background but not visibile, this option raises the task to focus.

Activate Task

  Clicking with the mousebutton will activate the first application in that group without opening the group menu.

Raise Task

  The first application of that group will be put in the foreground without giving focus to it.

Lower Task

  The first application of that group will be put in the background. It won't lose the focus.

Minimize Task

  The first application of that group will be minimized. If it is already minimized, it will be restored again.

Move To Current Desktop

  When the taskbar is configured to show all apps from all desktops, this options will move the selected app from a different desktop to the current desktop.

Close Task

  This option closes or terminates the task.

## The TDE Menu

The TDE Menu is one of the central elements of &kicker;.

There are five main groups in the TDE Menu which will be described now from bottom to top.

### The &tde; Group

This group is for the common &tde; things in the TDE Menu.

Log Out...

  This entry is used to finish the &tde; session. It also shuts down the &X-Window; session.

Lock Session

  With this entry you can lock your session if you don't want anybody else to access your desktop. If you have set a screensaver, it will appear when locked, otherwise the screen will turn black. If you hit any key, you will be prompted for your user password. This is independent from the screensaver's password settings.

Special Configuration

  Clicking with the &RMB; on the TDE Menu, will produce a special submenu. In this submenu is the Panel Menu. Here you can change the settings of &kicker;, described in the Configuring &kicker; section, add things to &kicker; (see in &kicker; Basics for more), or reach the Help Menu, but as you are reading this, you probably found it yourself. You can also start the Menu Editor via this submenu.

### Run Command...

This will bring up a small but powerful application start dialog.

In the standard case, you just type in a command and press Enter or click Run. But there is also an Options >> button which will bring up some starting options to the command window.

Run in terminal window

  Checking this box will let the application start in a terminal which means that you will be able to see any command-line messages the application may give.

Run as a different user

  If this box is checked, you can specify a user with whose permission the application should run in the Username textfield. If you specify another user, you will have to give a password at the box below.

Run with different priority

  Check this option to run with a different priority. A higher priority will tell the operating system to give more processing time to the applications. You can use the slider to change the priority. If you want to give your app a higher priority than the default one (middle position), you will need to enter the root password below.

Run with realtime scheduling

  The Scheduler is the part of the operating system which processes will run and which have to wait. Usually, an application will run with normal schedule, which means it can use the processing time it gets from the operating system, but you can also set it to realtime. This means that the application has all the process time until it gives it away. You will need to enter the root password to use Run with realtime scheduling.

  This can be dangerous. If the application hangs and cannot give up the processor, the complete system might hang.

### The Actions Group

This group contains some very useful dynamic menus as described in the Menus section of &kicker;'s settings.

Quick Browser

  This submenu contains quick browsers for three very useful folders: home, root, and system configuration.

Recent Documents

  This menu shows the most recently used documents (works only with &tde; applications for the moment). Clicking the element Clear History will remove those entries, what may be useful for privacy reasons.

Bookmarks

  This submenu shows your personal bookmarks just like &konqueror; does. Refer to the &konqueror; Handbook for more help on this.

### The All Applications Group

The submenus for application starting are located in this group. You can use &kmenuedit; to add, remove or move the entries. Applications will have a short description if either the Name (Description) or Description (Name) option is enabled in the settings.

### The Most Used Applications Group

This group holds either the most recently or the most frequently used applications. See the Menus Configuration section for more about that.

## Applets

Applets are small applications running inside of &kicker;. Almost everything besides the application starter buttons are applets. They can be added from the context menu by choosingAdd Applet to Panel. Every applet contains a small arrow in its handle. Clicking it will bring up a menu which lets you move or remove it, set the Preferences, if there are any and set the preferences of &kicker;.

### The Taskbar Applet

The taskbar applet shows buttons for the running applications. The application, which has the focus, is shown as a pressed button. If an application is minimized, the title displayed in the taskbar will fade to gray.

If you click on the button of the active application, it will be minimized. This means also that if you click twice on an inactive application, it will also be minimized.

A click with the &RMB; on a button will show the standard application menu. Only the entry To Current Desktop differs: if you have set the taskbar to show the applications of all desktops, you can move this app to the current desktop.

There is also a small icon on the left or top side of the taskbar, which opens a menu. This is called the windows list icon. The menu's first entry, Unclutter Windows, tries to move the windows on your active desktop in a way to see as many as possible. Cascade Windows puts all windows on the active desktop over each others, the most recently on top and the others sorted by the time they where last used.

Below those entries is a list of all currently running applications, grouped by the desktops on which they are running. Clicking on the name of a desktop will switch to that one, clicking an application will also activate it. You can specify the mouse behavior. Please refer to Taskbar settings for more about that.

#### Configuring the Taskbar Applet

You can configure the taskbar by clicking the &RMB; on the small move handle.

Please refer to for details about the preferences of the taskbar.

### The Mini-Pager Applet

This little applet shows a preview of the virtual desktops, lets you switch between virtual desktops and gives you the ability to move windows from one desktop to another by dragging them.

There is also a very useful context menu used to configure this applet:

Configure Desktops...

  This opens the configuration dialog for virtual desktops. There you can specify how many desktops you want to have and give them names.

Pager Options

  In this submenu you can configure the appearance of the Mini-Pager. It provides the following functionality:

  Pager Layout

    In this section you can choose in how many Rows or Columns the desktop previews are arranged, if you want to see which windows are currently visible on the desktops and if icons should indicate the applications running on the different vitual desktops.

  Text Label

    Here you can choose if the desktop previews should be labeled by their numbers, their names or if you you don't want them to be labeled at all.

  Background

    You can set the background of the pager to Elegant, Transparent or equivalent to the Desktop Wallpaper.

Launch Pager

  This launches the application &kpager;, which provides functions similar to those offered by the Mini-Pager applet.

### The Clock Applet

As you might already guess, the clock applet is a small clock which resides in &kicker;.

A click with the &LMB; on the clock will show a small calendar. You can use the single arrows to switch the months or the double arrows for switching years. This won't have any effect of your date settings, it's just for your information.

There are some things you can do with the clock applet. This can be done from the context menu.

#### Type

There are four ways the clock can appear:

Plain

  This lets the clock appear as a simple text that shows the time in plain text.

Digital

  This lets the clock appear as a digital clock showing the time in the well known seven segment style.

Analog

  If this is set, the clock will be displayed as an old styled analog clock.

  This may only be useful if you set &kicker; to normal or large size.

Fuzzy

  This is a very unorthodox style of time display. Try it out, it is really funny!

#### Show Timezone

Select available timezones or open the Timezones tab of Configure dialog of the clock applet with Configure Timezones....

#### Adjust Date & Time

This option starts the Date & Time configuration module in the section System Administration of the &kcontrolcenter;.

You will need the super user password for adjusting date and time.

#### Date & Time Format

This will open the Country/Region & Language module in the section Regional & Accessibility of the &kcontrolcenter; where you can set your formats on the page Times & Dates. There aren't any special permissions needed for that.

#### Copy to Clipboard

If you need to paste the actual date and/or time in another application (⪚ in a text editor), you can copy it to the clipboard with this function. After selecting one of the available formats, the actual date and/or time is placed in the clipboard using the appropriate format.

#### Configure Clock...

Here you can set some general preferences of the clock applet.

Appearence

  In the Clock Type settings you can choose between the clock styles like in the context menu.

The Plain Clock options

  In the Display section you can check if you want to have the date and/or the seconds shown. In Time you can choose if you want the common &tde; look or your own custom colors and font.

The Digital Clock options

  In the Display section you can check if you want to have the date, the seconds and/or blinking dots shown. In Time you can choose if you want the common LCD-Look or your own custom colors.

The Analog Clock options

  In the Display section you can check if you want to have the date and/or seconds shown. In Time you can choose if you want the common LCD-Look or your own custom colors. You can also set the level of antialiasing, which means that lines will get blurred a little bit to prevent steps in the drawing. High quality antialiasing may catch some system load on low-end systems.

The Fuzzy Clock options

  In the Display section you can check if you want to have the date shown. In Time you can choose the colors and the font of the fuzzy clock. There is also a slider to set the Fuzziness. This cannot be described in the documents, just do your own experiments.

### The Quick Launcher Applet

This is a compressed application launcher. It is very useful especially if the panel is set to normal or large size. You can add applications by drag and drop or from the context menu. The context menu is also used to remove an application.

### The System Tray Applet

The System Tray is used to dock some special applications ⪚ &klipper; or &juk;. The applications shown in the system tray all provide individual funtionality. If you need help concerning these options, please refer to the application handbooks.

The System Tray's context menu provides the option Configure System Tray... . If you click on it, a dialog pops up which lets you choose applications that should not be permanently visible in the System Tray. Hidden icons can be made visible by clicking on the small arrow appearing on the left or top side of the applet.

### Lock/Logout Applet

This little applet contains two buttons. The Lock the session is used to lock the session if you ever want to leave your &tde; unattended and don't want anybody to access it. The Log out is used to close your &tde; session.

### The Application Launcher Applet

This applet provides a simple command line embedded in &kicker;. Nothing more, nothing less.

### The Runaway Process Catcher Applet

This applet shows a smiley which will get angry when any process catches up too much system resources. If an application uses too much, a messagebox will appear and ask you how to handle that application.

Clicking it with the &LMB; will show a configuration dialog. Here you can set the Update interval, which is set in seconds, and the CPU load threshold. At the moment, there is no real advice for setting this up, you will have to do some experimenting. These settings will probably change in a future release. There is also a section Programs to ignore where you can add applications that use many resources naturally, ⪚ compilers or 3D renderers.

### &klipper; Applet

This applet does exactly the same like the &klipper; residing in the system tray. It has the advantage, that it consumes a little bit less system resources, which only matters on really slow systems, but has the disadvantage, that it uses more space than &klipper; in the system tray. You can read more about that in the manual for &klipper;.

## Panel Extensions

There are also some features that run outside of &kicker;, the extensions. They are added from the context menu by choosing Add New Panel. You can move them to any screenborder by dragging them at the small applet handle on their side and remove it by right clicking on an empty space and choose Remove Panel.

The style of the extensions can be configured in the section of &kicker;'s preferences.

### The External Taskbar Panel Extension

The external taskbar is just the same as the taskbar applet with the only difference that it provides its own panel. Refer to the taskbar applet section for help about it.

### The Child Panel Extension

This is just a panel like &kicker; itself, where you can add all the stuff &kicker; is also capable. So you can have as many &kicker;s as you want. Just add a child panel and add applications and applets to it.

### The KasBar Extension

The KasBar is an iconic replacement of the taskbar. It always shows the icons of all currently running applications on any desktop, they can be chosen by clicking with the &LMB;. The active window is highlighted, minimized windows will show a little triangle pointing downwards instead of the square in the lower right of the icons. A triangle pointing to the right indicates that the application is shaded.

### The Dock Application Bar Extension

The Dock Application Bar is an external bar which lets WindowMaker applications be docked. Just run your dockable WindowMaker programs, if the Dock Application Bar is running, they will be automatically docked.

## Command Reference

### The Panel

There is only one standard shortcut available in &kicker;:

&Alt;F1

  Opens the TDE Menu

## Questions and Answers

How can I add applications, applets or anything else to the panel?

Click the &RMB; on any free space in &kicker; and choose what you want to add. See in &kicker; Basics for more about that.

Can I have an external Taskbar just like in &tde; 1?

Yes, you can just click the &RMB; on any empty space in &kicker; and then choose Add, Panel and the External Taskbar.

How can I move &kicker; to another screen border?

Simply drag it by holding the &LMB; on any empty space in &kicker; to any screen border.

How can I move extensions to another screen border?

Just drag them by holding the &LMB; on the small handles on the left or the top of the extension.

I want the taskbar to show all applications I am running, independent on which desktop they are. Is that possible?

It is. Click the &RMB; on the small handle of the taskbar, then choose Configure Taskbar... and check Show windows from all desktops in the appearing dialog.

How can I access the TDE Menu without using the mouse?

Simply press &Alt;F1 and it will appear.

Is there a way to add a menu containing all desktop icons to &kicker;?

Just start &konqueror;, go to your home folder and drag the Desktop icon to any free space of &kicker;, then choose Add as Quick Browser from the appearing menu.

How can I change the color and style of &kicker;?

You can change the colors of the panel with the global color module of the Control Center or you can style the panel itself, see in for more about that.

Why is the clock showing the wrong time?

On some &RedHat;systems, the clock always shows the time in &GMT;. This is a bug in the system setup, and not directly related to &kicker;. However, to solve it, just create this symbolic link: ``ln` `-s` `/usr/share/zoneinfo` `/usr/lib/zoneinfo``.

Is it possible to change the T button of the panel to another picture?

Look for `$HOME/.trinity/share/apps/kicker/pics/go.png` and `$HOME/.trinity/share/apps/kicker/pics/mini/go.png` and replace them. Do not forget to flatten the replacements to one layer, or else you will not see anything. Create the folders if they do not already exist. Then restart &kicker;.

Why is my Settings menu not working?

Your menu entries may be mixed up for some reason. Simply run `tdebuildsycoca` on a commandline.

&reporting.bugs;

## Credits and License

&kicker;

Program copyright 1999-2000 The &kde; Team (www.kde.org).

- &Matthias.Elter; &Matthias.Elter.mail;

- &Matthias.Ettrich; &Matthias.Ettrich.mail;

- &Wilco.Greven; &Wilco.Greven.mail;

- &Rik.Hemsley; &Rik.Hemsley.mail;

- &Daniel.M.Duley; &Daniel.M.Duley.mail;

- &Preston.Brown; &Preston.Brown.mail;

Original documentation copyright 2001, 2002 &Dirk.Doerflinger; &Dirk.Doerflinger.mail;

Portions copyright 2004 &Orville.Bennett; &Orville.Bennett.mail;

Portions copyright 2005 Titus Laska titus.laska@gmx.de

&underFDL; &underBSDLicense;
&documentation.index;