# Deskbar Applet Manual

2007 GNOME Documentation Project
2007 David Lodge (dave@cirt.net)
2009 Jen Ockwell (jenfraggleubuntu@gmail.com)
GNOME Documentation Project

Deskbar is a quick access and search applet.

Qing Gan
Ubuntu Documentation Project
Phil Bull
Ubuntu Documentation Project

     philbull@gmail.com

Deskbar Applet Manual V2.1
January 2008

Qing Gan

Phil Bull philbull@gmail.com

GNOME Documentation Project

Deskbar Applet Manual V2.0
December 2006

GNOME Documentation Project gnome-doc-list@gnome.org

GNOME Documentation Project

This manual describes version 2.20 of Deskbar.

Feedback

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the Deskbar applet or this manual, follow the directions in the Feedback section of the GNOME User Guide.

## Introduction

The Deskbar Applet can be loaded with specific extensions that allow the user to easily and quickly search various search engines and websites, lookup words in the dictionary, search for files on the computer, or run programs, among other things.

## Adding Deskbar to the panel

To add Deskbar to a panel:

- Right-click on the panel to open the panel popup menu, then choose Add to Panel.

- Select Deskbar in the Add to Panel dialogue, then click Add.

  Alternatively, just drag the applet from the dialogue to a location on the panel.

For more information on adding applets to a panel, see the GNOME User Guide.

## Activating Deskbar

To activate Deskbar, press the Deskbar icon on the panel (see the picture below).

Shows the Deskbar applet.

Alternatively, press Alt F3 to activate Deskbar.

### Sticking the search box to the panel

By default, activating Deskbar will open a new window with a search box in it. If you would prefer the search box to remain attached to the panel when you activate Deskbar:

- Right-click the Deskbar icon on the panel and select Preferences.

- Select the General tab and click Stick to panel.

### Changing the keyboard shortcut

You can change the keyboard shortcut used to activate Deskbar:

- Right-click the Deskbar icon on the panel and select Preferences.

- Select the General tab.

- Click the text entry labelled Keyboard shortcut to focus. The text should change to say New accelerator...

- Type the new keyboard shortcut that you would like to use. The change will take effect immediately.

To cancel editing the keyboard shortcut, click anywhere outside the text entry or press Escape.

## Searching for items

### Performing a search

- Activate Deskbar and type some search terms into the search box.

- Deskbar will recommend some items depending on the search terms you entered.

- Click the item of your choice. Deskbar will perform the appropriate action for that item; for example, clicking a web link will cause it to be opened in your web browser.

Some search results have more than one possible action. In this case, a > is displayed to the right of the item. When you click on the > you will get a list of available actions.

### Enabling and disabling search extensions

You can enable and disable search extensions in order to change what types of search are displayed in the search results. For example, you might wish to enable the Dictionary extension so that you can look up word definitions using Deskbar.

- Right-click the Deskbar icon on the panel and select Preferences.

- Select the Searches tab.

- To enable a search extension, select it from the list. To disable a search extension, deselect it.

For some search extensions you can click More... to set additional settings.

### Changing the order of search extensions

You can change the order of the search extensions, so that types of search which are more important to you are displayed at the start of the search results.

- Right-click the Deskbar icon on the panel and select Preferences.

- Select the Searches tab.

- Select the search extension, then click Top, Up, Down or Bottom to change the search extension's order.

  Alternatively, drag and drop the search extensions to change their order.

### Extensions with errors

If an extension does not appear in the search results as expected, there may be a problem with it.

- Right-click the Deskbar icon on the panel and select Preferences.

- Select the Extensions with Errors tab.

- To see the reason for an error, select the affected extension from the list. Information on the error will be shown below the list.

## Search history

### Using the history

The search history is a list of searches which you have made before. Instead of inputting the same search terms again, you can select a previous search from the history.

- Activate Deskbar.

- Click Choose action and select a previous search from the list.

- The search you selected will be performed again.

### Clearing the history

Sometimes you may want to clear your search history. There are two ways of achieving this:

- Activate Deskbar and click the Clear button to the right of the Choose action drop-down list.

- Right-click the Deskbar icon on the panel and select Clear History.

## Installing new extensions

You can install new search extensions for Deskbar.

Drag and drop a search extension onto the Preferences dialogue to install it. This works with `.py`, `.tar.gz`, `.tar.bz2`, `.tar` and `.zip` files.

Alternatively, you can drag and drop an URL from your web browser onto the Preferences dialogue. The file will be downloaded and installed automatically.

## About Deskbar

Deskbar was written by Nigel Tao (nigel.tao@myrealbox.com), Raphael Slinckx (raphael@slinckx.net), Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (kamstrup@daimi.au.dk), Sebastian Pölsterl (marduk@k-d-w.org). To find more information about Deskbar, please visit the Deskbar Web page.

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, follow the directions in the Feedback section of the GNOME User Guide.

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public licence as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this license is included with this documentation; another can be found in the file COPYING included with the source code of this program.

DESKBAR-APPLET
deskbar-applet