# The Panel and the Desktop

## &kicker;, the &kde; Panel

&kicker; is the application launcher panel of the K Desktop Environment. By default, it appears along the bottom of the screen, and takes up the whole of the width of the screen, but this is configurable. &kicker; is something of a one-stop shop for (almost!) everything that you might want quick access to. Besides the &kicon; 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. With all these options, you will probably want to configure &kicker; so that it works best for you. The next section describes some common ways to customize the panel.

## Configuring &kicker;

### Customizing the icons on the panel

When you first start &kde;, kicker displays some icons next to the K menu. These can be used to start the applications that they represent. To see which application is launched by each icon, hold the mouse cursor over the icon until a tooltip (a small popup label) appears telling you the name of the application.

These default icons might not represent the applications you use most often, so you can remove the ones you do not want and add icons for other applications that you use. To remove an icon, &RMB;-click on the icon, and select Remove `application name` Button in the popup menu that appears. To add a new icon, &RMB;-click on an empty space on the panel, and follow the menu entry Add Application to Panel . This leads you to a copy of the K menu, where you can find all of the &kde; applications. For example, to add an icon for the &juk; music player, follow through the menus to Add Application to Panel Multimedia&juk; (Music Player). The icon will appear on the panel in the space that you right-clicked on.

### Adding extras and applets

&kicker; can add many types of items as well as application launch icons. You can find these items using the same menu as before, but this time selecting Add Applet to Panel... or Add New Panel. The items in the Add Applet window are small programs that can reside on the panel. An example of an applet is the Desktop Preview & Pager
, which shows a small image of each of your virtual desktops. (For more information about virtual desktops, see using-multiple-desktops). You can switch to a different virtual desktop by clicking on its image in the desktop pager.

You can find information about the other applets available for &kicker; in the &kicker; manual. Just enter `help:/kicker` in the Location bar in &konqueror;.

### The System Tray

The system tray is where programs that are run, but not directly needed are kept. Some programs (like music players) are shown there, because you probably want to keep them open, but so that it does not take too much space on your screen, it will put an icon in the system tray.

When you right click on such an icon, a popup menu will appear where you can see some options of the program (like play, pause, stop, ... in a music player).

When you left click on it, the main window of the program will appear. If you hover your mouse above the icon, a tool tip will appear with some information (in the music player case information like the current song). Programs that normally support system tray icons are music players, IRC clients, organizers, ...

In most of these programs you can configure if you want an icon to be shown or not. For other tricks and tips with the system tray see the section on system-tray.

### Removing Panel Items

You can remove applets and other special items from the panel using the arrow on its handle on the applet's left. Right click on the arrow, and choose Remove `applet name`.

## The Taskbar

The taskbar is an item on the panel which displays an entry for each window that you have opened. You can use the taskbar to switch between windows by clicking on the entry of the window you want to activate. The taskbar has entries for windows on each virtual desktop, including windows which have been minimized.

## Using the Clipboard

Very often, it's useful to move some text, or an object in a program, from one place to another. It's also very common to need to duplicate some text, for example, if you're typing the same thing several times. The system used for doing this is known as the clipboard. There are two slightly different ways to use this system, known technically as the selection and the clipboard. We'll look at them separately:

### The Selection

This method uses the mouse to copy text from one place to another. The method is:

1. Select the text you want to copy.

2. Click the &MMB; at the place you want the text to be copied to. This can be in the same program as you copied the text from, or in another program entirely.

If you have three buttons on your mouse, this is easy, but if not, all is not lost! If you have only two buttons, try clicking them both at the same time instead of the &MMB;.

### The Clipboard

With this method, you can copy text, or cut it (that is, remove it from one place and move it to another). You can use either the mouse and the menu entries, or the keyboard with this method. I'll list both ways, with the menu entry to use, followed by the keyboard shortcut which will do the same thing, like this:

&Ctrl;X Edit Cut

### Moving (Cutting) Text

1. Select the text you want to cut.

2. From the menu, select &Ctrl;X Edit Cut , and the text will be removed from its current location.

3. Position the text cursor at the point you want to insert the text. This can be in the same application you got the text from, or another application entirely. Select &Ctrl;V Edit Paste , and the text will appear at the point where you placed the cursor.

Copying text from one place to another is very similar:

### Copying Text

1. Select the text you want to copy.

2. From the menu, select &Ctrl;C Edit Copy , and the text will be copied in the clipboard.

3. Position the text cursor at the point you want to insert the text. This can be in the same application you got the text from, or another application entirely. Select &Ctrl;V Edit Paste

### More Advanced Clipboard Use

The instructions above describe the default clipboard behavior. The &klipper; application, which you can add as an applet in the panel (see kicker-configuring for instructions on how to do this), provides some useful clipboard-related features, like a clipboard history, and the ability to change the behavior of the clipboard and selection. Take a look at the &klipper; Handbook for more information.

### Related Information

- You can find more information about &kicker;, the &kde; Panel, in &khelpcenter; or by entering `help:/kicker` in &konqueror;'s Location bar.

- The &klipper; Handbook has information about the advanced clipboard management features in &kde;. You can read it in &khelpcenter; or by entering `help:/klipper` in &konqueror;'s Location bar.

## Related Information

- Though some information has been presented here, there is a lot more information on &kicker; tips, options, tricks and hacks, in the &kicker; handbook. You can access it via the &khelpcenter; or by simply entering `help:/kicker` in the &konqueror; Location toolbar.