Doesn't matter how long I look (or where for that matter), I can't find an answer.

My pc login for this Kubuntu 14.04 install looks fine, but my partners log in doesn't.

She has various icons (widgets ?, not sure what qualifies as widget and what is "panel") on the bar on the bottom of the screen.

They're mostly in the "wrong" position. The clock, for example is on the right, which is fine, but it's in a panel/space that I can show up if I use the "panel cashew", but the actual size of this panel is like 1/3rd of the bottom bar. I can't reduce it's size and the clock sits in the middle of it.

The same seems to apply to the "panel" that holds the printer, clipboard, volume setting and network connection icons i.e. it sits in the middle and while the icons seem ok size-wise, the panel can't be shrunk down smaller and moved across to the right so that it sits nicely next to the clock panel.

I am also having difficulty in working out how set her task bar, so that when she has more than one facilty (application ?) open, that is then shown as a temporary icon/button so she can switch between then i.e. when I was looking before, I found a site that said about adding some additional stuff via a terminal, but when I clicked on the open browser window, the open terminal would disappear with no indication of it's use on the task bar. Once the browser was closed I found that there was the terminal window sitting underneath all the time.

I apologise if this seems lame/novice stuff to ask, but I'm not big on jargon and often don't understand advice that I find around the net.

So if anyone could point me toward an "idiots guide" page/site to try and learn how to customise a KDE desktop, that'd be brilliant.........

regards

John.....

I, too, have had problems in the past configuring the panel in KDE. Didnt find an "idiots guide" either!

First, try dragging a task manager widget into the middle of the existing panel. The task manager is the widget that shows running apps. AFAICT the task manager takes up all available space and should push widgets and icons to the left and right.

If that doesn't work, delete the existing panel. Try adding the default panel (New Activity->Add Panel->Default Panel). You can add application icons to the panel by clicking on the Kickoff Application Launcher (K with a gear) and right clicking on the app then selecting "add to panel".

Or add an "Empty Panel" and add the widgets/icons that you want.

Hopefully the above is enough info to get you sorted. If not post back.

Norm

1 members found this post helpful.

Ok Norm, thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a try.

It's probably me, because when I first started with this linux lark, all the answers seem to have been in a config file somewhere. Just that now, especially with the *buntu's, there's no "root" per se (all bloody sudo, which I'm still not keen on) and so much has disappeared into the ether i.e. no obvious config files to mess up etc.

Right, again TVM for that idea I'll go and give it a try

regards

John.......