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Give Xfce a Mac or Unity-style makeover

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Software

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  • PART 2 Xfce's Panel Profiles app can rearrange your desktop, but getting every layout working properly still takes some manual tinkering.
  • In the Unity layout, it's easy to push the status icons and session controls over to the right, where they belong.
  • Go into the Panel submenu, then click Panel preferences.
  • Use the "up" button to move it up the list until it's directly after "AppMenu Plugin (external)".
  • Set its Style to Transparent and tick the Expand checkbox.

5 sentences from our version of the report, chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below. How

For instance, the Unity layout's global menu is immediately followed by the status icons. If you want something more gee-whizz, there's also the fancy animated Cairo dock but can use OpenGL-accelerated visual effects and more.

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The existing layouts are fun, but there's much more we can do.

PART 2 Xfce's Panel Profiles app can rearrange your desktop, but getting every layout working properly still takes some manual tinkering.

For instance, the Unity layout's global menu is at once followed by the status icons, when they ought to be over on the right. Some of these issues are easy to resolve with the built-in tools, while some need a little more work.

In the Unity layout, it's easy to push the status icons and session controls over to the right, where they belong.

Choose the panel you want to change, find a blank part of the panel, and right-click it. Go into the Panel submenu, then click Panel preferences.

In the Panel Preferences dialog box, the first two lines are a backup button, then a listbox to choose which panel you're editing.

Use the "up" button to move it up the list until it's directly after "AppMenu Plugin (external)".

To adjust the separator's own settings, click the button with a wrench below the list – it's directly after +Add and -Remove. Set its Style to Transparent and tick the Expand checkbox.

For the "Cupertino" layout, the fix for the aligned menu is even simpler. Go into the preferences for the top panel, and go to the Items tab.

Go to the second tab, labelled "Appearance", and under the heading "Panel Button", the first entry should be labelled "Display". Change it from "Icon and title" to just "Icon," then click the Close button.

Shortened to 1 minute of reading, this version reads 10 on the Niral Score.

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is The Register's report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

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The Registeras they published this story 12.8 20 50 -0.1 48.5
Mundane Readneutralized from The Register 12.5 20 50 -0.1 48.5

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