Providing On Item Help for Front Panel Controls

There are two ways to provide help for a control:

• Providing a help string in the control definition.

  The help string is displayed in the help viewer when the user invokes on-item help for the control. The help string cannot include formatting (such as headings) or links.

  To provide a help string, specify it in the control definition:

  HELP_STRING help_string

• Specifying a help topic in a registered help volume.

  A help topic is information authored using the full capabilities of the help system. Authoring a help topic requires you to use the desktop Help Developer's Kit.

  To provide a help topic, specify the help volume and topic ID in the control definition:

  HELP_VOLUME help_volume_name HELP_TOPIC topic_id

Customizing the Workspace Switch

There are several ways to customize the workspace switch:

• Changing the number of workspaces

• Changing the layout of the switch

• Changing the controls in the switch

To Change the Default Number of Workspaces

• Modify the following Workspace Manager resource:

	Dtwm*workspaceCount:						n

For more information, see "To Change the Number of Workspaces on a System-Wide Basis".

To Change the Number of Switch Rows

• Modify the NUMBER_OF_ROWS field in the SWITCH definition.

For example, the following definition defines a three-row switch.

SWITCH Switch
 {
 	CONTAINER_NAME				box_name
 	NUMBER_OF_ROWS				3
   ...
 }

To Change or Add Controls in the Workspace Switch

1. Create a Front Panel configuration file with the control definition.

   • Specify that the control be inside the switch:

     CONTAINER_NAME Switch CONTAINER_TYPE SWITCH

   • Specify the position in the switch:

     POSITION_HINTS n

     where n is an integer. The positions are numbered sequentially left-to-right, top-to-bottom. (For the default two-row switch, the positions are 1 through 4.)

2. Create the icon for the control. The recommended size is 16 by 16 pixels.

   For example, the following control puts a Terminal control in the switch.

   CONTROL SwitchTerminal { TYPE icon CONTAINER_NAME Switch CONTAINER_TYPE SWITCH POSITION_HINTS 3 ICON Fpterm LABEL Terminal PUSH_ACTION Dtterm HELP_TOPIC FPOnItemTerm HELP_VOLUME FPanel }

   The control uses a built-in icon and the same help topic used by the Terminal control in the Personal Applications subpanel.

General Front Panel Configuration

Front Panel's PANEL syntax allows you to:

• Change the location of the Front Panel

• Change the window decoration

• Set general appearance and behavior of controls

  The default PANEL description is in /usr/dt/appconfig/types/language/dtwm.fp.

  For additional information, see the dtfpfile(4X) man page.

General Steps

1. Create a new Front Panel configuration file in /etc/dt/appconfig/types/language or HomeDirectory/.dt/types.

2. Copy the default PANEL description from /usr/dt/appconfig/types/language/dtwm.fp to the new file.

3. Edit the PANEL description.

   The new PANEL description has precedence over the default one.