Once Linux has booted and you have logged in, an environment similar to [SCREENSHOT] should appear. We call this environment the IceWM desktop. You will use the IceWM desktop to start applications, move windows around, and shut down your system.
IceWM is a program known as a window manager. The primary job of a window manager is to allow you to create, move, resize, minimize, maximize, and close program windows on your system. In addition to these basic functions, IceWM offers features including program menus, workspaces, network and CPU monitors, and a handy shutdown menu. Many of these features are labelled in [SCREENSHOT]. In the following sections we will explore each of these features in detail.
If you have used Windows, KDE, GNOME or another desktop environment before, you may notice that the IceWM desktop lacks some features you are used to. For example, IceWM does not allow you to drag and drop files from one application to another, and IceWM does not support desktop icons. On the other hand, IceWM offers features -- such as workspaces and easy network monitoring -- that are not readily available in other desktop environments. Although you might find using the IceWM desktop strange at first, give it a chance. I grew to appreciate the IceWM interface after using it for a while, and you might as well.
Tooltips are information boxes that are associated with certain objects on screen. A tooltip box pops up when you hover your mouse pointer over the associated object. Hovering your mouse pointer means letting the mouse pointer sit on top of a screen object for a few seconds, without clicking any mouse buttons or moving the mouse.
For example, if you hover your mouse over the program menu at the bottom left corner of the IceWM desktop, a small yellow box displays the text "Favorite Applications". Clicking this box reveals the program menu, which (hopefully) contains your favorite applications. Similarly, when you hover your mouse over the clock in the right bottom corner of the screen, a tooltip pops up displaying the date and time in more detail. [SCREENSHOT]
Many screen objects in the IceWM desktop have tooltips associated with them. Exploring the tooltips in the IceWM desktop is one of the easiest and fastest ways to become familiar with what IceWM has to offer. Let your mouse roam, hovering over different parts of the screen and reading the tooltips that pop up. Similarly, when you are not sure what a button does, hover your mouse over the button and see whether a tooltip pops up.
Many application programs (such as Abiword and XFig) have tooltips as well, so you can explore these applications in the same way.
The grey strip along the bottom of your screen is called the toolbar. The toolbar contains the program menus, the clock, and several other tools offered by the IceWM desktop.
Recent versions of IceWM have introduced a button which allows you to hide the toolbar. This button is on the leftmost edge of the toolbar, and it is marked with an angle-bracket arrow. [SCREENSHOT] clicking this button will slide the toolbar out of the way. Clicking it again will restore the toolbar.
Why might you want to hide the toolbar? By default, the toolbar appears in front of any other windows. Usually this is useful, but sometimes (for example, when playing games or using very large windows) this can obscure useful information. In this case, hiding the toolbar can allow you to access information or buttons at the bottom of the screen. [EXAMPLE? MOVING OR RESIZING IS BETTER.]
When you click on the button at the bottom left corner of the screen, the IceWM program menu pops up. [SCREENSHOT] This menu is similar to the Apple Menu in Mac OS or the Start Menu in Windows. It provides a menu of programs and options you can activate by moving your mouse over the relevant item and clicking.
The program menu pops up when you click the button. It will stay open until you do one of the following things:
The last two options provide a way for you to close the program menu if you open it accidentally.
The program menu is hierarchical, which means that menus can contain submenus. IceWM indicates that a menu entry contains a submenu by placing an arrow to the right of the menu entry. Sometimes clicking on the menu entry opens the submenu; the entry works like this. Otherwise, clicking on the arrow itself will open the submenu. This is the case with the submenu. [SCREENSHOT] IceWM separates the menu entry from the submenu arrow using a faint vertical line when you need to click on the arrow.
The program menu is made of several components, which we will describe in the next few sections.
We have designated some of the applications on your computer as "featured" -- these are the applications we expect most people will use regularly. For easy access, we have plopped menu items for these applications right at the top of the program menu. These applications include:
[WHAT ELSE? HELP? GAMES?]
Depending on how your computer was configured, you may have other featured applications in your program menu. To start these applications, click on their menu entries.
Below the featured applications is a menu item labelled . Clicking on this menu item opens a submenu with entries including , , , , and . Clicking any of these menu items opens further submenus containing application programs and yet more submenus. [SCREENSHOT]
The collection of menus in the menu is called the Debian menu hierarchy. It contains links to many applications and programs installed on your computer. You should feel free to explore the menu and its contents; the programs installed on your computer are there for your education, enjoyment and productivity. Be aware, however, that certain programs on the menu may not be very user-friendly, and others may not be relevant to your needs. [DISCUSS WHY THIS IS CALLED THE DEBIAN MENU HIERARCHY?]
There are a few entries in the menu that you might find particularly interesting. These include:
The menu item allows you to change the look of the IceWM desktop to your tastes. A theme is a way to configure the colours, fonts, and positions of IceWM elements on the screen. If you wish, you may ignore this menu item entirely. On the other hand, selecting a new theme is an easy way to customize the look and feel of your desktop to your preferences. [SCREENSHOT]
To select a theme, select any of the entries in the submenu. Some of the theme entries have submenus themeselves; these submenus indicate variations of the theme you can select. [SCREENSHOT]
The default theme shipped with your computer is called "WCLP". If you ever find yourself stuck with a theme you do not like, you can always select the theme to get back to where you started.
One note of caution: themes are allowed to relocate your window controls about each window. [JARGON? WHICH SECTION?] For example, a theme might move the button on windows from the top right corner to the top left corner. [SCREENSHOT] If the meaning of a theme's buttons are not obvious at first glance, hover over the buttons in question to expose the tooltips, or experiment by opening "test windows" (that is, windows where you have saved any important data before playing) and then pressing the buttons.
The menu has two parts. On the left is an entry labelled "Logout". In general you do not want to press this button. If you do (and you proceed to log out) then you may end up with a textual login prompt. [SCREENSHOT] If you find yourself in this screen you have three options. If your account has a password [SEE WHICH SECTION?] you can log in again. If you do not have a password but want to work on your computer some more, you can press ctrl-alt-delete to reboot your computer, then wait until the computer reboots and restarts the IceWM desktop. If you want to shut down your computer, press ctrl-alt-delete to start the reboot process, and then turn off your computer during the memory count [SECTION?], POST screen [SECTION], or GRUB screen [SECTION].
The arrow on the right of the button is slightly more useful. It opens a submenu which contains the same menu options contained in the shutdown [REF?] menu. The [WHICH?] section documents the meanings of these options.
To the right of the program menu is a mysterious, unlabelled button. Hovering your mouse over it reveals the text "Show Desktop". Clicking this button will minimize all of your open windows. Clicking the button again will restore your open windows. [SCREENSHOT]
As the IceWM desktop does not currently support desktop icons, this button is not all that useful. However, it can help you get organized if you have cluttered your desktop with too many open applications.
To the right of the button are some quick launch buttons. These buttons are intended to be shortcuts to launch certain applications with one click of the mouse. Often included are buttons launching Abiword and a web browser. [SCREENSHOT]
[HOW DO YOU ADD YOUR OWN?]Workspaces help reduce screen clutter by providing four areas for you to place application windows. If you regularly find your screen cluttered up with a lot of overlapping windows, you might find that workspaces help you reduce your frustration.
Four buttons labelled , , , and allow you to switch between the four workspaces. The IceWM desktop starts in workspace 1, and you are free to do all of your work in that workspace if you wish.
[SCREENSHOTS SCREENSHOTS SCREENSHOTS] Here is a case where workspaces might be useful. Say you are working on an essay in Abiword, and you decide that a diagram would help you explain your ideas better. You would like to start Xpaint to create the diagram, but you want to leave your essay open as a reference in creating the diagram.
One possibility is to open Xpaint directly. Then the Xpaint and Abiword windows will overlap, as shown in [SCREENSHOT]. Since Xpaint opens multiple windows when running, this can get frustrating.
Another possibility is to switch to workspace 2 and open XPaint there. Then you can create the diagram without the Abiword window getting in the way. When you want to refer to your essay, you simply switch workspaces again.
[ESSAY: "Mullets in Contemporary Society"]To the left of the clock you will see one, two, or three small black boxes. These are called status indicators and they are very useful for keeping an eye on what your computer is doing. If your computer is responding very slowly to your commands, the status indicators can give you an idea of what is happening. Hovering over the indicators reveals additional information, but often the information is fairly cryptic.
The rightmost box is the CPU indicator. It shows the activity of your CPU; roughly speaking, it indicates how hard your computer is "thinking". If the coloured bars on the CPU indicator are low or missing, your computer is mostly sitting idle. If the CPU indicator is solid with colour, the CPU is working very hard, and you can expect your computer to be slower and less responsive than usual. [SCREENSHOT]
The other two boxes indicate Network status. Depending on whether you have Internet access at home, they may or may not be present. The red [IS IT ACTUALLY RED?] portion on the bottom indicates download speed -- how much information is going into your computer. The yellow portion on the top indicates upload speed -- how much information is going out of your computer. When you download large files, you can expect this indicator to be mostly red. [SCREENSHOT] If the box in question is black then you are neither uploading nor downloading anything.
If you have high-speed Internet access, the middle box will indicate the activity of your Internet connection. The middle box is called the ethernet indicator. If you have dial-up Internet access, the rightmost box will indicate Internet activity. The rightmost box is called the PPP indicator. If you have no Internet access at home, the leftmost two indicators may not be present.
Unfortunately, there is no indicator to measure hard drive usage. However, if you hear a lot of hard drive activity then you should expect your computer's performance to be sluggish.
One thing that might be happening is that your computer is swapping, which means it is copying a lot of information from your computer's memory (the RAM) to the hard drive or vice versa. Computers will often swap a lot when you have many applications open, and switch between the applications frequently. To reduce swapping, you might be able to run fewer applications at a time.
Another cause of high hard drive activity and sluggish performance is when your computer performs certain regularly-scheduled maintenance operations. If your hard drive churns for a while even when it is idle or you are only running one or two applications, this may be the reason (and it is nothing to worry about). [DO WE SCHEDULE HEAVY I/O JOBS INFREQUENTLY?]
[THIS INFORMATION ABOUT SWAPPING DOES NOT BELONG HERE]Near the bottom right corner of your screen you will see a clock. Hovering over the clock will reveal the date. [SCREENSHOT]
Unlike in Windows, clicking on the clock will not bring up a screen that allows you to modify the time and date. In fact, fixing an incorrect computer clock is surprisingly involved. If your system clock is incorrect and you would like to fix it, please see [WHERE?]
When you start Abiword or any other graphical program, one or more windows appears on the screen. When you do so, IceWM automatically draws borders and buttons around the window. These controls allow you to close windows, resize them, hide them, maximize them, move them between workspaces, and more.
[SCREENSHOT] shows a typical program window and its components. In the next few sections we will describe how to perform basic window operations.
Say that you have two windows open on your screen: one Abiword window and one web browser window. [SCREENSHOT] Now you type at your keyboard. Which application receives your keystrokes?
The answer depends on which window has focus -- which window is "active" at the time. Only one window can be active at any one time. IceWM indicates that a window is active by colouring in the titlebar. [SCREENSHOT] To make a window active, click its titlebar.
Reading from left to right, the three buttons at top righthand side of a window's titlebar respectively allow you to minimize, maximize, and close that window. Each of these buttons is activated by a single mouse click.
Minimizing a window means hiding it from view. You can restore the window by clicking on its entry on the toolbar. [SCREENSHOT]
Maximizing a window will increase its size so that it fills the entire screen. When you maximize a window the "maximize" button changes to a restore button; clicking this button will restore the window to its original size. [2 SCREENSHOTS]
Closing a window will eliminate that window. If you are closing an application window, be sure to save your work before clicking the close button. (Many applications will prompt you to save your work, but not all will.) Closing a windows often ends the application that was running in the window. [SCREENSHOT]
Resizing windows or moving them on the screen involves first clicking on a particular part of the window, then dragging the mouse while holding down the mouse button. When you have clicked on the window for a move or resize operation, the mouse cursor will change. [SCREENSHOT?]
The operation you perform on the window depends on what part of the window you click and drag. If you click on the window's titlebar, you can move the window. If you click on one of the bottom corners of the window, you can stretch or shrink the window horizontally or vertically. If you click on the left or right border of the window, you can resize the window horizontally, and if you click on the bottom border of the window you can resize it vertically. [SCREENSHOT WITH LABELS]
Sometimes naughty applications create windows that are bigger than your screen size. [SCREENSHOT] These windows can hide window controls that you need offscreen. IceWM provides a way to force window movement: hold down the Alt key, then click and drag the window to reposition it. [SCREENSHOT]