I accidentally messed mine up one night and had to struggle around to rebuild it. I thought I would put something on paper that might be of assistance to someone.
Rebuild your main panel from scratch in LDXE.
If you have messed up your main panel in LXDE, or you just want to customize it differently, it is quite customizable in what it can do and how it looks.
This is an attempt to cover some basics of how to configure it and set it up the way you like.
The first step is to define the dimensions and location of the panel. This can be done by right clicking on the panel and selecting the “Panel Settings” option. This brings up the “Panel Preferences” window which is the main configuration window for the panel. From here, you can make almost all of your panel configurations.
Choose the “Geometry” tab at the top and select your preferences. I like my Position at the bottom, Size 100 % Height at 39 or 40 Pixels the Alignment in the Center and my icon pixels at 31. But you can see that any combination that you like can be used.
Next, choose how you want the panel to look by clicking on the “Appearance” tab at the top.
Here you see that there are 3 different background styles “System Theme”, "Solid color (with opacity)" and “Image”. I like the solid color (with opacity). If you chose to use this as your option, there are additional settings that can be made by clicking on the checkerboard button. When you do, you can set the color of and opacity of the panel. I like mine completely clear so I set it to 0.
The last option on this tab is the “Font” setting which actually only allows you to set the color of any text that might show up on the panel. If you have set the panel to be “clear” as I have, pick a color that contrasts your wallpaper so it can be easily read.
Next is to pick all of the things you want to show up on the panel by clicking on the “Panel Applets” tab at the top. Here the fun begins. The first thing you are probably going to want is the “Menu”. To add the menu, click on “Add” at the right. This brings up the “Add plugin to panel” window and shows all of the things you can place on the panel. Pick Menu as your option to add and then click on “Add” at the bottom of that window. You may notice that the default icon of that menu is NOT the PC logo that we all love. If you want the PC logo, you need to highlight the newly added Menu in the “Panel Preferences” window and click on “Edit” at the right. This will allow you to pick any .png icon that you might want to use. The PC logo is /usr/share/lxde/images/lxde-icon.png
You are probably going to want to add at least 2 spacers, one with “Stretch” enabled and one without. This will come in handy when setting up the placement of your icons. Continue to add PlugIns to your panel until you have everything on it that you want, a clock, Application Launch Bar, System Tray. Remember to highlight each item as you add it and click on “Edit” to configure how it looks and what its functions are as you go. If you add something and it is not what you wanted, or you can't edit it to do what you want, just highlight it and click on "Remove" so feel safe adding stuff and editing it to see what it does. Note that some items cannot be edited.
Next you need to arrange the icons on the panel so that things are located were you want them. This is tricky to figure out but it is done by highlighting the item and moving it up or down with the green arrows. Remember to add spacers and move them around as well. With some playing around, you will see how things move and you should be able to figure out how to place everything just where you want it.
Good luck. I hope this is useful. Rudge.
