guidedtour/prefs.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
   2 <html><head><title>Window Maker - Prefs</title>
   3
   4
   5
   6
   7
   8   <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
   9
  10
  11   <link href="title.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"></head>
  12 <h1>
  13 <center>Preferences</center>
  14 </h1>
  15
  16 <p>
  17 </p>
  18
  19 <center><img style="width: 64px; height: 64px;" src="images/wprefs.jpg" alt="Amanda by Agnieszka Czajkowska"></center>
  20
  21 <p>
  22 </p>
  23
  24 <center><a href="index.html">Back
  25 to Index</a>
  26 <h2 style="text-align: left;">WPrefs.app</h2>
  27 </center>
  28
  29 <p>WPrefs.app is the heart of the configuration process in Window Maker.</p>
  30
  31 <p>Upon installing Window Maker and running it for the first time, the
  32 WPrefs icon is already docked. By default, it's the one with the
  33 GNUstep logo in the background and a few tools in the foreground
  34 (although your distibution may use the plain GNUstep icon or something
  35 enitrely different). Normally Linux distributions position WPrefs as
  36 the second or third icon in the
  37 Dock column by default, just above or below the terminal icon. <br>
  38 </p>
  39
  40 <center>
  41 <p><img style="width: 64px; height: 64px;" alt="GNUstep Logo with Tools" src="images/wmakerconf.png" align="middle" hspace="20"><img style="width: 64px; height: 64px;" alt="GNUstep Logo" src="images/gnustep_64.png" align="middle" hspace="20"><br>
  42 </p>
  43 </center>
  44
  45 <p>Double-clicking on this icon opens the WPrefs.app window.
  46 Across the top of the window there is a row of icons, each one
  47 corresponding to a group of settings options. There is a checkbox for
  48 balloon help on the bottom left of the WPrefs.app window. Most of the
  49 following is taken directly from the content of the ballon help dialogs.</p>
  50
  51 <h2>Available preference settings</h2>
  52
  53 <ul>
  54
  55   <li><a href="#wplace">Window handling</a></li>
  56   <li><a href="#switch">Window Focus</a></li>
  57   <li><a href="#menu">Menu</a></li>
  58   <li><a href="#icon">Icon</a></li>
  59   <li><a href="#ergo">Ergonomy</a></li>
  60   <li><a href="#search">Search path</a></li>
  61   <li><a href="#worksp">Workspace</a></li>
  62   <li><a href="#other">Other</a></li>
  63   <li><a href="#appmenu">Applications menu</a></li>
  64   <li><a href="#keyb">Keyboard shortcut</a></li>
  65   <li><a href="#mouse">Mouse</a></li>
  66   <li><a href="#appear">Appearance</a></li>
  67   <li><a href="#exp">Expert user</a></li>
  68   <li><a href="#font">Font configuration</a></li>
  69   <li><a href="#edit">Editing the configuration file</a></li>
  70 </ul>
  71
  72 <h2><a id="whand">Window handling</a></h2>
  73
  74 <center><img style="width: 519px; height: 414px;" alt="WPrefs.app window handling preferences" src="images/prefs1.png"></center>
  75
  76 <br>
  77
  78 Clicking the second icon allows you to select the window handling
  79 options. Clicking on this icon opens a panel allowing you to define the
  80 default placement and properties of windows in the workspace.
  81 <ul>
  82
  83   <li>
  84     <p><em>Window placement</em><br>
  85 You can use the sliders around the screen representation to modify the
  86 original placement.
  87 The gadget tells Window Maker how to order windows on the screen: <span style="font-style: italic;">Random</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Manual</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Cascade</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Smart</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">Automatic</span> is the default.</p>
  88   </li>
  89   <li>
  90     <p><em>Edge resistance</em><br>
  91 To set the edge resistance and whether it resists or attracts windows.
  92 According to the selection, windows resist or attract when moved
  93 against other windows or the edges of the screen. The slider defines
  94 the threshold. Some applications' title bars may disappear
  95 at the top of the screen, with the window being too high for the screen
  96 area. Setting the edge
  97 resistance to "0" may solve this problem.</p>
  98   </li>
  99   <li>
 100     <p><em>Open dialogs in the same workspace as their owners</em><br>
 101 Obviously, whether to force dialog boxes "spawned" by an application to
 102 open in same workspace as their owners.</p>
 103   </li>
 104   <li>
 105     <p><em>Opaque move/resize</em><br>
 106 Clicking on <span style="font-style: italic;">opaque move</span>
 107 causes windows to be moved with their contents visible. If not checked,
 108 only the frame is displayed during the move. <span style="font-style: italic;">Opaque resize</span> makes window contents
 109 visible during resizing, otherwise only the frame is displayed.<br>
 110     </p>
 111   </li>
 112   <li>
 113     <p><em>When maximizing</em><br>
 114 This option allows the window to cover (or not) icons or the dock when
 115 maximizing. </p>
 116   </li>
 117 </ul>
 118
 119 <h2><a id="switch">Window focus</a></h2>
 120
 121 <center><img style="width: 519px; height: 411px;" alt="WPrefs.app window focus controls" src="images/prefs2.png"></center>
 122
 123 <br>
 124
 125 The first icon from the left-hand side controls the way windows get
 126 their focus (how they are activated).
 127 <ul>
 128
 129   <li>
 130     <p><em>Input focus mode</em> (two choices are available): <br>
 131     <strong>Manual</strong> - click on the window to set keyboard input
 132 focus.<br>
 133     <strong>Auto</strong> - set keyboard input focus to the window
 134 under the mouse pointer.</p>
 135   </li>
 136   <li>
 137     <p><em>Install colormap in the window</em><br>
 138 Select either (a) install the colormap in the window that has the input
 139 focus or (b) that is under the mouse pointer.</p>
 140   </li>
 141   <li>
 142     <p><em>Automatic window raise delay</em><br>
 143 Setting the delay (in msec) for automatic window raising</p>
 144   </li>
 145   <li>
 146     <p><em>Checkboxes</em><br>
 147 The topmost check box prevents applications from receiving the focusing
 148 mouse-click (I don't know why you would use this, but some people
 149 obviously find it useful).&nbsp;
 150 The bottom checkbox allows you to choose whether newly-opened
 151 application windows automatically receive the focus, or must be clicked
 152 to gain focus. </p>
 153   </li>
 154 </ul>
 155
 156 <h2><a id="menu">Menu</a></h2>
 157
 158 <center><img style="width: 519px; height: 412px;" alt="WPrefs.app menu preferences" src="images/prefs3.png"></center>
 159
 160 <br>
 161
 162 This panel allows you to set menu scrolling speed and submenu
 163 alignment with the parent menu. In addition, two checkboxes are
 164 provided:
 165 <ul>
 166
 167   <li>The topmost box forces submenus to open inside the screen instead
 168 of scrolling&nbsp; when they would otherwise be off-screen.<br>
 169   </li>
 170   <li>The middle box allows submenus to open off-screen, but causes
 171 off-screen menus to scroll when the mouse pointer is
 172 moved over them. This setting is also of value if you "tear off" a menu
 173 and leave it positioned on the desktop. In that case, you might wish to
 174 "park" the menu off-screen (with only the titlebar showing, for
 175 example) and have it reappear when you mouse over it. This is
 176 convenient in some workflows, as when you have multiple applications
 177 open and you are using the window list menu to switch between
 178 applications.</li>
 179   <li>The bottom box allows you to assign EMACS-like keybindings for
 180 the selection of menu items.<br>
 181   </li>
 182 </ul>
 183
 184 <h2><a id="icon">Icon</a></h2>
 185
 186 <center><img style="width: 516px; height: 410px;" alt="WPrefs.app icon preferences" src="images/prefs4.png"></center>
 187
 188 <br>
 189
 190 <br>
 191
 192 <p>Set icon or miniwindow handling options.<br>
 193 </p>
 194
 195 <ul>
 196
 197   <li><em>Icon positioning</em><br>
 198 This area defines the initial placement of miniwindows or icons will be
 199 displayed: <span style="font-style: italic;">bottom, top, right, left</span>...<br>
 200   </li>
 201   <li>
 202     <p><em>Checkboxes</em><br>
 203 The topmost box enables/disables auto-arrangement of icons.&nbsp; The
 204 bottom box places miniwindows for opened applications on all existing
 205 workspaces (<span style="font-style: italic;">omnipresent</span>).</p>
 206   </li>
 207   <li>
 208     <p><em>Iconification animation</em><br>
 209 When an application's window is miniaturized, <span style="font-style: italic;">miniaturization animation style</span>
 210 offers four animation choices.</p>
 211   </li>
 212   <ul>
 213     <li>Shrinking/Zooming,<br>
 214     </li>
 215     <li>Spinning/Twisting,<br>
 216     </li>
 217     <li>3D Flipping, or<br>
 218     </li>
 219     <li>None </li>
 220   </ul>
 221   <li>
 222     <p><em>Icon size</em><br>
 223 Selects the size of the icons shown when a window is miniaturized and
 224 for application icons. Dockapp developers usually assume that tiles
 225 will be 64x64 pixels, so it's
 226 probably a good idea to leave it at that size, unless you know you
 227 won't be using dockapps.</p>
 228   </li>
 229 </ul>
 230
 231 <h2><a id="ergo">Ergonomy</a></h2>
 232
 233 <center><img style="width: 518px; height: 413px;" alt="WPrefs.app ergonomic settings" src="images/prefs5.png"></center>
 234
 235 <br>
 236
 237 Various types of information are defined in this panel.
 238 <ul>
 239
 240   <li>
 241     <p><em>Size display</em> <br>
 242 Window Maker provides a box that informs you about the size of a window
 243 during resizing. You may choose to have this display (a) in the center
 244 of the screen, (b) the center of the screen, (c) the center of the
 245 resized window, (d) the side and bottom of the window as a technical
 246 drawing-like size display or (e) not at all.</p>
 247   </li>
 248   <li>
 249     <p><em>Position display</em><br>
 250 Same information as above but regarding the screen placement of a
 251 window while moving (no technical drawing-like option).<br>
 252     </p>
 253   </li>
 254   <li>
 255     <p><em>Workspace border</em><br>
 256 You can set a small border for the workspace. This allows you to easily
 257 access the clip (for instance) when windows are maximized.</p>
 258   </li>
 259   <li>
 260     <p><em>Show balloon text for</em><br>
 261 Selecting
 262 checkboxes displays balloon text for: incomplete window
 263 titles, miniwindow titles, application and dock icons, or internal
 264 help. This may be useful for new users but many people find having help
 265 balloons pop out all over the desktop gets annoying quickly. I use the <span style="font-style: italic;">incomplete window title</span> and the <span style="font-style: italic;">miniwindow title</span> options and none
 266 of the others.<br>
 267     </p>
 268   </li>
 269   <li>
 270     <p><em>Checkbox</em><br>
 271 The top check bos, if selected, raises a window when switching focus
 272 with the keyboard. The bottom box enables a keyboard language selection
 273 button on window titlebars (must have multiple keyboard maps/locales
 274 defined - this is handy if you are working in multiple languages in
 275 applications such as word processors, for example).<br>
 276     </p>
 277   </li>
 278 </ul>
 279
 280 <h2><a id="search">Search Path</a></h2>
 281
 282 <center><img style="width: 521px; height: 408px;" alt="WPrefs.app icon and pixmap search path settings" src="images/prefs6.png"></center>
 283
 284 <br>
 285
 286 This panel is used to add or delete directory paths to search for
 287 icons and pixmaps. These paths are used in the <span style="font-style: italic;">settings</span>
 288 dialogs for dockapps and docked application icons, so having a good,
 289 complete set of defined paths is important.&nbsp; This may require some
 290 manual intervention, especially upon initial setup, since some default
 291 paths will not be present on your system, while others not predefined
 292 will be present.&nbsp; Use the <span style="font-style: italic;">add</span>
 293 and <span style="font-style: italic;">remove</span> dialogs to
 294 configure according to what is actually available.<br>
 295
 296 <h2><a id="worksp">Workspace</a></h2>
 297
 298 <center><img style="width: 520px; height: 410px;" alt="WPrefs.app workspace preference settings" src="images/prefs7.png"></center>
 299
 300 <br>
 301
 302 This panel defines navigation features within the workspace.
 303 <ul>
 304
 305   <li>
 306     <p><em>Workspace navigation</em><br>
 307 Selecting the first
 308 checkbox allows switching to the first workspace when
 309 switching past the last workspace and vice-versa. Selecting the second
 310 checkbox allows windows to be dragged from one workspace to another.
 311 Selecting the third checkbox
 312 cause a new workspace to be created when windows are dragged off the
 313 last existing workspace. A selection menu allows you to define where
 314 the workspace name&nbsp; is displayed each time you move from one
 315 workspace to another (or not to display the workspace name at all).</p>
 316   </li>
 317   <li>
 318     <p><em>Dock and clip</em><br>
 319 Enables / disables the dock and/or the clip. I have seen some
 320 interesting configurations using no dock but having the clip present.
 321 For users who prefer a bottom or top "panel" of application launchers,
 322 system monitors and other tools, this is a very valuable bit of
 323 flexibility.<br>
 324     </p>
 325   </li>
 326 </ul>
 327
 328 <h2><a id="other">Other</a></h2>
 329
 330 <center><img style="width: 516px; height: 413px;" alt="WPrefs.app other workspace configuration settings" src="images/prefs8.png"></center>
 331
 332 <br>
 333
 334 <br>
 335
 336 <p>This panel sets icon slide speed, shade animation speed, smooth
 337 scaling and titlebar control (button) style. Animations and sound are
 338 also defined here.</p>
 339
 340 <ul>
 341
 342   <li>
 343     <p><em>Icon slide speed</em><br>
 344 Selecting the left icon gives the slowest result, selecting the right
 345 one gives the fastest.</p>
 346   </li>
 347   <li>
 348     <p><em>Shade animation speed</em><br>
 349 Same as icon slide</p>
 350   </li>
 351   <li>
 352     <p><em>Smooth scaling</em><br>
 353 If selected, neutralizes pixelization effect on background images. The
 354 side-effect is to slow down background image loading.</p>
 355   </li>
 356   <li>
 357     <p><em>Titlebar style</em><br>
 358 To choose a more or less "NeXTish" titlebar. (The top version is
 359 "newer," while the bottom left is ca. 1990 and the bottom right is ca.
 360 1988.)<br>
 361     </p>
 362   </li>
 363   <li>
 364     <p><em>Animations</em><br>
 365 Selecting the animations icon enables animations for window
 366 miniaturization, shading and so on.<br>
 367 Selecting
 368 the superfluous icon enables "ghosting" of dock (when moved -
 369 especially when moved from one side of the screen to the other) and
 370 explosion
 371 animation for icons you remove from the dock.<br>
 372     </p>
 373   </li>
 374   <li>
 375     <p><em>Dithering colormap for 8bpp</em><br>
 376 For 8-bit displays (anyone still have one of these?) this enables
 377 dithering and changes the number of colors to reserve either for
 378 applications or for Window Maker. The Default setting almost always
 379 gives the best result.</p>
 380   </li>
 381 </ul>
 382
 383 <h2><a id="appmenu">Applications menu</a></h2>
 384
 385 <center><img style="width: 517px; height: 413px;" alt="WPrefs.app application menu configuration" src="images/prefs9.png"></center>
 386
 387 <br>
 388
 389 <br>
 390
 391 <p>In this panel the applications menu and the commands to launch each
 392 application can be defined. This panel has been changed in version
 393 0.63.and later. It now displays the actual menu thus allowing direct
 394 editing. This can be done only if the menu is in property list format.
 395 Menus in plain text format can't be edited in WPrefs. Check the README
 396 file in the Window Maker directory on how to use one or the other.</p>
 397
 398 <h2><a id="keyb">Keyboard shortcut</a></h2>
 399
 400 <center><img style="width: 518px; height: 412px;" alt="WPrefs.app keyboard shortcut settings" src="images/prefs10.png"></center>
 401
 402 <br>
 403
 404 Many actions in Window Maker have predefined keyboard shortcuts.
 405 These actions mainly concern windows and workspaces.
 406 Modifying, adding or removing shortcuts can be done in this panel.
 407 Defining a shortcut can be done interactively, capturing the key
 408 combination.
 409 <h2><a id="mouse">Mouse</a></h2>
 410
 411 <center><img style="width: 520px; height: 413px;" alt="WPrefs.app mouse configuration" src="images/prefs11.png"></center>
 412
 413 <br>
 414
 415 This panel sets the mouse speed and double-click delay.
 416 Mouse button bindings can be defined and can be disabled or enabled.
 417 <p>The default setting binds the right mouse button to the applications
 418 menu, middle button to the window list menu and left button to window
 419 selection (focus). Of course, with a two button mouse, the middle
 420 button binding will not work. However, on some OSes pressing both
 421 buttons at once gives the same result as the one obtained with middle
 422 button.</p>
 423
 424 <p>Starting from version 0.65 on, the mouse wheel can be used to switch
 425 workspaces. This is not default behavior and must be enabled here.</p>
 426
 427 <p>The mouse grab modifier represents the keyboard shortcut to use for
 428 actions like dragging windows with the mouse or clicking inside the
 429 window. Mod1 (Alt) is the default.</p>
 430
 431 <h2><a id="appear">Appearance</a></h2>
 432
 433 <center><img style="width: 520px; height: 412px;" alt="WPrefs.app appearance settings" src="images/prefs12.png"></center>
 434
 435 <br>
 436
 437 In this panel, everything related to the appearance of the GUI (except
 438 the background color or image) can
 439 be configured. Windows, menus and icons can have their own background
 440 "texture," meaning color gradients of various types can be configured
 441 here. Texture, color, menu style, and title alignment can be fully
 442 customized.
 443 <h2><a id="exp">Expert user</a></h2>
 444
 445 <center><img style="width: 519px; height: 411px;" alt="WPrefs.app expert user settings" src="images/prefs13.png"></center>
 446
 447 <br>
 448
 449 Using this panel implies some knowledge. Many options are available.
 450 Among these are:
 451 <ul>
 452
 453   <li>Disabling miniwindows (useful when using with KDE and GNOME)</li>
 454   <li>Using (or not) xset</li>
 455   <li>Saving session on exit (highly recommended!)</li>
 456   <li>Using SaveUnder in different objects</li>
 457   <li>Using Win style cycling (added from version 0.63.0)</li>
 458   <li>Disabling confirmation panel for the kill command</li>
 459   <li>Disabling cycling colors highlighting of icons</li>
 460 </ul>
 461
 462 <h2><a id="font">Font configuration</a></h2>
 463
 464 <center><img style="width: 517px; height: 411px;" alt="Wprefs.app font configuration options" src="images/prefs14.png"></center>
 465
 466 <br>
 467
 468 This panel allows you to configure fonts for the window and menu
 469 titlebars, for the menu body text, and for the icon and clip
 470 text.&nbsp; In addition, a font may be defined for desktop messages.<br>
 471
 472 <h2><a id="edit">Editing the configuration file</a></h2>
 473
 474 <p>If needed, the defaults configuration file found in
 475 $(HOME)/GNUstep/Defaults/WindowMaker can be edited by hand. This file
 476 is a database with a property list syntax. When selecting an option in
 477 WPrefs.app, it's written down into this file. When modifying this
 478 defaults file, it's very important to follow the syntax.<br>
 479 </p>
 480
 481 <center><a href="index.html">Back
 482 to Index</a>
 483 </center>
 484
 485 </body></html>