The dock, the clock and the launcher are one surface at the bottom of the
screen: the only part of etyDE that lives outside a window. It is one applet
(dock).
The dock
- It comes when called. Rest the pointer on the bottom edge and it slides up; it stays while the desktop is empty, while the launcher is open, and in the window overview (without the clock). It stays away while the focused window is full screen.
- Left click opens an application or brings it forward; on the one already in front, it minimizes it. An application with several windows lays just those windows out to pick from.
- Right click an icon, or an application in the launcher: pin, unpin, close.
- Dragging: icons along the bar to order them, from the launcher to pin them. Files held over an icon bring its application forward, to be dropped into its window; dropped on the icon, they open in it.
- A dot marks a running application; for the focused one it widens into a dash.
- A dock with more icons than fit shrinks them, then scrolls sideways.
Pins are kept in ~/.config/etyde/dock, one desktop-file id per line.
Status and controls
The bar ends with a few quiet glyphs: the network, the sound and, on machines that have one, the battery. Each opens a small panel in the launcher’s place: a volume slider, a brightness slider where the screen has a backlight, the connection, the battery. Nothing is shown for hardware that is not there.
Quick actions have a panel of their own, as tiles: do not disturb, night light, lock, screenshot, screen recording, Settings.
A bell opens the notification centre; a power glyph, the way out: lock, sleep, log out, restart, shut down.
The launcher
Super+Space, or the first icon of the dock. A glass panel that rises out of
the dock, not a full-screen grid: the applications opened most, then all of
them. It is always loaded, so it opens within a frame.
Typing replaces the grid with a short ranked list; the top result is
selected, arrows move, Enter opens. Search matches prefixes, words,
substrings and loose abbreviations, treats text typed in the wrong keyboard
layout as what was meant, and favours what is opened often. Arithmetic is
answered in place; > command runs a command.
Terminal-only programs are not listed. An application can be hidden from the lists (right click > Hide from Launcher); search still finds it.
Notifications
etyDE is the session’s notification server
(org.freedesktop.Notifications). What programs announce arrives in the top
right corner as glass cards, newest on top, at most four at once: the sender,
a title, a few lines, at most three actions. In the dock’s notification
centre they are grouped by application and then by conversation.
The volume level shows there too when it changes, and so does pinning a window on top.
Settings > Notifications has Do Not Disturb, and quiet hours: every day between two times.
A program that wants attention does not raise its own window: a click on its notification, or on its dock icon, does.
At the text caret
Two things appear where you are typing (the caret applet):
- Clipboard history,
Super+V: the last texts and pictures copied (40 unless Settings says otherwise), screenshots included; searchable, and picking one copies it again. - The keyboard layout: switching it shows the new layout’s two letters for a moment.
Programs report where their caret is through text-input-v3; GTK and Qt
programs do. Where a program does not say, the history opens at the pointer
and the layout shows under the focused window.
Screenshots and recording
| Keys | What is taken |
|---|---|
Super+Shift+A, or Print | The screen |
Super+Shift+S, or Shift+Print | An area, dragged out on a frozen picture of the screen |
Super+Shift+R | A screen recording, started and stopped (needs wf-recorder) |
A screenshot is saved to Pictures/Screenshots and put on the clipboard; the
notification opens it. Settings > Capture & Clipboard turns either half off.
The lock screen
Super+L. The shell’s own picture, locked: a picture of your choosing, a
glass bar where the dock stands with your name and the password field, the
time above it, and cards of what is worth a glance (today’s tasks, what is
playing, the battery, missed notifications by count only).
It checks the password with the system’s own unix_chkpwd. It keeps
passers-by out; it is not a hardened session lock.
The desktop
The files of the Desktop folder are shown on the desktop, under every window: double click opens, right click offers new folders, a terminal and the background. Icons are moved with the pointer; with “Keep Icons on a Grid” off they stay where they are put. Settings > Appearance turns the icons off, sets their size and chooses the background.
Super+D puts every window away, and brings the same ones back.
File dialogs
The shell is the desktop portal’s file chooser: “Open” and “Save” in browsers, Electron, GTK and Qt programs come up as etyDE Files, with the program’s file-type filters.
Bluetooth audio
The shell reconnects paired headphones and speakers at login and after a lost connection. It does not scan, and does not turn a powered-off adapter on. Disconnecting in Settings pauses reconnecting for that device until Connect or the next login. Volume for Bluetooth is done in software, so the slider and the media keys work with headphones that ignore volume commands.