Volume 45 October, 2010 LXDE: Configure LXPanel LXDE: Get To Know Obconf LXDE: Add Wallpapers, Panel Decorations OpenOffice 3.2, Part 5: Draw Testimonials PCLinuxOS Takes Center Stage Repo Spotlight: Know Your System with Systeminfo DeaDBeeF: A Linux Audio Player Computer Languages A to Z: Pascal Reading Barnes & Noble Ebooks On PCLinuxOS Getting Help In The Forum Firefox Add­Ons: ForecastFox Weather Ms_meme's Nook & Forum Foibles Double Take & Mark's Quick Gimp Tip And more inside! 1 TTaabbllee OOff CCoonntteennttss 3 Welcome From The Chief Editor 4 LXDE: Get To Know Obconf 9 Screenshot Showcase 10 PCLinuxOS Takes Center Stage The PCLinuxOS name, logo and colors are the trademark of 11 Double Take & Mark's Quick Gimp Tip Texstar. 12 Repo Spotlight: Know Your System With Systeminfo The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine is a monthly online 16 ms_meme's Nook: My PCLOS Prayer publication containing PCLinuxOS­related materials. It is published primarily for members of the PCLinuxOS 17 LXDE: Configuring LXPanel community. The Magazine staff is comprised of volunteers 21 Getting Help In The Forum from the PCLinuxOS community. 26 Screenshot Showcase Visit us online at http://www.pclosmag.com 27 OpenOffice 3.2, Part 5: Draw This release was made possible by the following volunteers: 30 Forum Foibles: Forum User Names, Part 2 Chief Editor: Paul Arnote (parnote) Assistant Editors: Andrew Strick (Stricktoo), Meemaw 31 Testimonial: My Sidekick Consultants: Archie Arevalo, Tim Robinson 32 DeaDBeeF: A Lightweight Linux Audio Player Artwork: Sproggy, Timeth Magazine Layout: Paul Arnote, Meemaw, ms_meme 33 Screenshot Showcase HTML Layout: Galen Seaman 34 LXDE: Add Wallpaper, Panel Decorations Staff: 35 Screenshot Showcase Neal Brooks ms_meme Galen Seaman Mark Szorady 36 Firefox Add­ons: Rain Or Shine, Forecastfox Tells All Patrick Horneker Darrel Johnston Guy Taylor Meemaw 38 Reading Barnes & Noble eBooks On PCLinuxOS Andrew Huff Gary L. Ratliff, Sr. 42 Screenshot Showcase Contributors: 43 Forum Foibles: Linux Tarot Cards Peter Kelly Daniel Meiß­Wilhelm 46 Computer Languages A to Z: Pascal 49 Screenshot Showcase The PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution­NonCommercial­Share­Alike 3.0 50 Testimonial: Arriving To PCLinuxOS By Accident Unported license. Some rights are reserved. 51 Big Linux Laptop Copyright © 2010. 52 More Screenshot Showcase 2 WWeellccoommee FFrroomm TThhee CChhiieeff EEddiittoorr I know I've said this before, but there is a lot going we continue our coverage of the LXDE desktop I take a look at another Firefox add­on in my Firefox on, and a lot of it within the last environment. Andrew Strick Add­ons: Rain or Shine, Forecastfox Tells All month or so. First, the maintainers presents a duo of articles, with article. DeBaas reports on his efforts to help sow the of the various PCLinuxOS desktop LXDE: Get To Know Obconf and seeds of Linux, in the PCLinuxOS Takes Center remasters are preparing for the LXDE: Configuring LXPanel. I Stage article. Patrick Horneker shows us how to next round of quarterly releases of follow that up with my LXDE: Read Barnes & Noble eBooks on PCLinuxOS, updated ISOs of the Live CD. Adding Wallpapers, Panel and shares his parody of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Second, there has been a lot of Decorations article. Meemaw Taxi song, Big Linux Laptop. speculation about the future of continues her series of articles on Mandriva, and PCLinuxOS is the free OpenOffice Office Suite, We also have two new testimonials this month. We starting to see a lot more users with her OpenOffice 3.2, Part 5: also have our regular columnists, ms_meme and taking another look at PCLinuxOS. Draw article. georgetoon, back with more. Ms_meme shares a Face it. Linux users everywhere couple of different, new Forum Foibles, as well as are in pursuit of stability and want Darrel Johnston reviews another two new songs. Georgetoon returns with another to use something that has a more PCLinuxOS original, with his Double Take, as well as another of Mark's Quick stable, certain future. Repo Spotlight: Know Your Gimp Tips. This month's cover, celebrating fall, System With Systeminfo article. comes from Timeth. Google continues to alter the range Gary Ratliff, Sr. continues of services they offer, ending the marching through the alphabet of We hope you enjoy this issue of the magazine, and files and pages features of Google computer programming that it gives you plenty to read until the next issue. Groups, with no opportunity for languages, with his Computer Until then, I wish each and every one of you peace, discussion or input from those who Languages A to Z: Pascal tranquility, serenity and success. utilize the features (just as they did previously with article. Peter Kelly, coming off of his long and Google Wave, after its short run). Xmarks, the very popular Command Line Interface Intro series, gives popular browser add on that allows for us some tips on how to best get assistance in the synchronization of bookmarks and open tabs across PCLinuxOS forum, with his Getting Help In The multiple computers, is closing their doors and ending Forum article. Leiche reviews another recent and their service, unable to find a business model that new addition to the PCLinuxOS repository, with his works to provide them with sufficient funds to DeaDBeeF: A Lightweight Linux Audio Player continue operation with a free browser add on. article. Speculation abounds about Xmarks future, ranging from possibly making the Xmarks code open source, to making Xmarks a pay service with a nominal yearly fee. But have no fear, good things are also happening with The NEW PCLinuxOS Magazine. This month, 3 LLXXDDEE:: GGeett TToo KKnnooww OObbccoonnff by Andrew Strick (Stricktoo) The second option ("Configure Openbox") launches are seen in the window decorations. The theme also Obconf. affects any on screen displays (such as the desktop­ switcher) and the Openbox menu, if the user has Introduction turned off the LXDE right­click menu. Overview Obconf is a GUI utility for configuring the Openbox The Themes tab also has buttons for installing and window manager. Many of its options are difficult, if Obconf has eight tabs. Each controls a specific exporting Openbox themes. not impossible, to explain in words, and so the Openbox component: Theme; Appearance; reader is encouraged to “play at home,” as it were; Windows; Move & Resize; Mouse; Desktops; “Install a new theme”: launches a file brower launch Obconf and play with each setting as it is Margins; and Dock. window for navigating to the desired location. Once described. there the user can select any .obt archive and Openbox will install it. Note: Both the LXDE and Openbox versions of Theme PCLinuxOS use the Openbox window manager. "Create a theme archive (.obt)”: also launches a file browser. The user can use this window to select This article uses LXDE, but most of the The Theme tab lists the available Openbox themes. discussion is applicable to both. a directory containing an Openbox theme, and that Each theme changes the way that Openbox looks. directory will be compressed into Openbox’s own On a default LXDE install the most obvious effects .obt archive format. Launching Obconf Note: I could not get either of these options to work. Most themes downloaded from the internet come in There are several ways to a more standard archive type (e.g. .tar.gz) and are launch Obconf. In the menu, not seen by the install utility. And the creation utility it is found under More refuses to recognize any file or directory as an Applications > Openbox theme. An easier method is to extract Configuration > Openbox themes from their archives and move them into the Configuration Manager. In ~/.themes directory (which does not exist by default the LXDE Control Center, it and must be created by the user) is the Configure Openbox option under the Appearance Settings tab. And it can be launched from Appearance the console or run dialog with the command obconf. There are three subsections to the the Appearance tab. Fig. 02. The Themes tab, with the Bear2 theme selected. Fig. 01. The LXDE Control Notice that the window decorations change as soon as Center. the user selects a theme. 4 LXDE: Get To Know Obconf Window Titles Fonts By rearranging the listed options in the “Button This section contains options for setting various order” input box, the user can change the layout of system fonts. the window decoration’s buttons and title. The default has the window icon (N) on the left edge, the “Active window title”: the font for the title of the window title (L) in the middle, and the currently active window minimize/iconify (I), maximize (M) and close (C) buttons at the right edge. “Inactive window title:”: the font for the title of any currently inactive windows Note: the Openbox theme determines the position of the window title. Thus even if the window title (L) is “Menu header”: the font for the heading of the the first variable listed in the box, it will still display in Openbox menu the middle of the window decoration, offset only by buttons on the right edge. See Fig. 04 for an “Menu item”: the font for items in the Openbox example. menu Fig. 03. The Appearance tab with default settings “On­screen display”: the font for any Openbox notifications (such as the Information Dialog during a window resize) Windows Note: “Menu header" and “Menu item" are not “Windows retain border when undecorated”: if generally necessary because the Openbox menu is the user launches an without any window only used if the user enables the it in the PCManFM decorations, this option then allows the user to settings. decide whether that application window should still have a border Windows “Animate iconify and restore”: when checked, the act of minimizing an application to, or restoring it Focusing Windows from, the taskbar will show a simple visual.