G'day...

I'm running FC4. The main menu consisting of Applications, Places, and Desktop takes up a fair bit of space. I was wondering if it's possible to change these menu names to something else like Apps etc or even to icons.

I've looked at the .menu entries in /etc/xdg and directory entries in /usr/share/desktop-directories
I've tried changing the Name=Applications to Name=Apps in all the files that I could find that referenced Applications... but it made no difference...

Does anyone know which files actually influence the panel menu entries? or are they built into the gnome desktop?

Cheers

you can just right click and remove that menu and then right click againg and add the main menu icon , which will give you the gnome icon which includes everything all the apps and places, desktop in one. i dont know if that helps .....

you can find the result herehttp://www.fedorafaq.org/#editmenus

I worked with the pannel at the bottom and started working my way backwards. For instance, I rightclicked at the separator between the icon on the very left and unlocked it to be able to move such separator to the right and create space for the launchers and icons I needed the most.

Very well:

1. To the left of the separator I added a Main Menu GNOME and locked that little red hat.

2. I then added a Connect to remote server to simplify the process on connecting to the Internet.

3. I added the following things then: Firefox browser, Email, Openoffice Writer, Openoffice Calc, Openoffice Impress and a Terminal...

Those are the ones I use most often...

To the right I just placed a volume control, Up2date (Don't know if I am going to keep it though...), Desktop, Force quit and Wanda the Fish...

After I was done with all that I simply erased the pannel on top and increased the font for the pannel at the bottom...

What do I miss? I miss the background from Fedora Core 1! I absolutely loved that background!

Where on the Internet could I save the image of my desktop so that you can see it?

EDIT 1: http://img15.imgspot.com/?u=/u/05/28...1129128507.png <-- Desktop

Can somebody help please! I've followed above guidelines and deleted MY WHOLE PANEL, not parts of it as it seems in the above guidelines.

How can I get it back. There is no panel to right click and add new ones to!

Thanks

Hey Daacosta Im glad you got your desktop the way you wanted it ....to save and post your screenshot go to www.gnome-look.org, you have to register but its free... you will also find many other themes and things for your desktop ....enjoy!!!

The easiest way to solve your problem is to log as root and create a new account for yourself. Transfer all the files to the new account and wait for me to post a set of instructions with images so that everything will be clearer. Can you do that or do you want me to walk you through the process?

login as root so you can create new user and move all your files to that user same using root....

Very well... Create a new user to experiment with this and once you know what you are doing try on your regular user account...

Disclaimer: BS BS BS BS... Not my fault... Don't sue me...

I shall be a little bit more detailed than before and try to show how I configured my desktop to look like it does now. It is beyond the scope of this post to teach what the different parts of the desktop are. My goal is simply to show the one or two ideas that I have to customize it...

After installing Fedora Core 4 this is what you end up with:

http://img15.imgspot.com/?u=/u/05/28...1129307543.png

What I want is to have the upper and lower panels merged into a single one that accomplishes all that I need from my desktop while looking elegant. So, I am going to add all the icons from the upper panel onto the lower panel.

Right click on an empty space of the lower panel and a window with the options Add to panel, Delete this panel, Properties, New Panel, Help and About panels will appear. Click on Add to panel and a window will appear with all the things that you can add to the panel as seen here:

http://img15.imgspot.com/?u=/u/05/28...1129307810.png

Find the Volume Control within the options, select it and then click on Add. You should now have a Volume control icon on your panel. Try to move it all the way to the right. Those four boxes are on your way so right click on them and click on the lock to panel option. After that you will be able to move the boxes out of the way or move the volume control all the way to the right... Easy, huh? The following screen shot shows what you’ll end up with...

http://img15.imgspot.com/?u=/u/05/28...1129307984.png

Now, I need to add the date and time so right click on any empty space to the left of the 4 boxes (workspaces switcher) and the click add to panel. Find the Clock and then select it and add it. Right click on the date select move and move it to the right of the workspaces switcher. The next one would be the red circle with the exclamation. This one is the up2date icon and to add it right click on any empty space of the panel to the right of the workspaces switcher and do: Add to panel -> Application Launcher (one of the choices with a rocket) -> Forward -> On System tools click on the little triangle by this choice and you will see more choices -> Look for a check mark that says Red Hat Alert Network Alert Icon and add that to the panel... That does the same thing as the red ball with the exclamation to the best of my knowledge (Though, I haven’t used this one just yet...) Move the icon as was shown before to the right... OK? Now, I want to keep the icons that I just configured into a nice little set so I right click to add a Notification Area... Look for that in the add menu and you shall be fine... Move it to keep the workspace switcher, up2date, date and volume control into a single organized unit... I guess a picture of what’s the result of this is worth keeping...
http://img15.imgspot.com/?u=/u/05/28...1129308257.png

For the next step I just unlock the two icons of the very left and move them to make space for the remaining icons and some others I plan to install... The result is shown in this screen:

http://img15.imgspot.com/?u=/u/05/28...1129308533.png

Click at the empty space to left and:

Add to panel -> Main Menu

That red hat has everything that you need and can very well replace the Applications Places Desktop icon from the upper panel. Place it to the very left and lock it... Add the remaining icons by doing Add to panel -> Application Launcher locating the applications that you need... (I believe that you can take it from here, can’t you? I like to have other things handy on my panel like a terminal, a network device control (for the Internet connection...) I also like to have the desktop icon available (you don’t need to add that one is already there and you only need to move it wherever you want it on the panel...) to be able to minimize all windows with just one click and a force quit button to kill programs that are misbehaving... The whole desktop looks as shown here:

http://img15.imgspot.com/?u=/u/05/28...1129308780.png

Of course, I increased the font of my icons in the panel... That one is easy to figure out... Once your panel is ready you may want to erase the upper panel and move on with life

If something is not clear please drop me a line...

Thanks everybody!

Got it right!