GNOME Applets

Applets are small programs that perform tasks within the panel. To add an applet, right-click the panel and choose Add To Panel. This displays the Add To box, listing common applets along with other types of objects, such as launchers. Select the applet you want. For example, to add a clock to your panel, select Clock from the panel’s Add To box. Once added, the Clock applet will appear in the panel. If you want to remove an applet, right-click it and choose Remove From Panel.

GNOME features a number of helpful applets. Some applets monitor your system, such as the Battery Charge Monitor, which checks the battery in laptops, and System Monitor, which shows a graph indicating your current CPU and memory use. The Volume Control applet displays a small scroll bar for adjusting sound levels. The Deskbar tool searches for files on your desktop. Network Monitor lets you monitor a network connection.

Several helpful utility applets provide added functionality to your desktop. The Clock applet can display time in a 12- or 24-hour format. Right-click the Clock applet and choose Preferences to change its setup. The CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor displays CPU usage for CPUs such as AMD and the Intel processors that run at lower speeds when idle.


Workspace Switcher
The Workspace Switcher appears at the lower-right side of the lower panel and shows a view of your virtual desktops, as shown next. Virtual desktops are defined in the window manager. The Workspace Switcher lets you easily move from one desktop to another with the click of a mouse. This panel applet works only in the panel. You can add the Workspace Switcher to any panel by selecting it from that panel’s Add To box. The Workspace Switcher shows your entire virtual desktop as separate rectangles shown next to each other. Open windows show up as small colored rectangles in these squares. You can move any window from one virtual desktop to another by clicking and dragging its image in the Workspace Switcher. To configure the Workspace Switcher, right click it and select Preferences to display the Preferences dialog box. Here, you can select the number of workspaces. The default is four.


GNOME Window List
The Window List icon appears on the bottom panel. This list shows currently opened windows, arranging opened windows in a series of buttons, one for each window. A window can include applications such as a Web browser, or it can be a file manager window displaying a directory. You can move from one window to another by clicking its button. When you minimize a window, you can later restore it by clicking its entry in the Window List. Minimized windows will be grayed out.

Right-clicking a window’s Window List button opens a menu that lets you Minimize or Unminimize, Roll Up, Move, Resize, Maximize or Unmaximize, or Close the window. The Minimize operation reduces the window to its Window List entry. Right-clicking the entry displays the menu with an Unminimize option instead of Minimize, which you can then use to redisplay the window. The Roll Up entry reduces the window to its title bar. The Close entry closes the window, ending its application.

If the Window List applet doesn’t have enough space to display a separate button for each window, common windows will be grouped under a button that will expand like a menu, listing each window in that group. For example, all open terminal windows will be grouped under a single button, which when clicked will pop up a list of buttons. The Window List applet is represented by a small serrated bar at the beginning of the window button list. To configure the Window List, right-click this bar and choose Properties. Here, you can set features such as the size in pixels, whether to group windows, whether to show all open windows or those from just the current workspace, or to which workspace to restore windows.

Source of Information : McGraw Hill Ubuntu The Complete Reference