When you first start KDE, kicker displays some icons next to the K menu. These can be used to start the applications that they represent. To see which application is launched by each icon, hold the mouse cursor over the icon until a tooltip (a small popup label) appears telling you the name of the application.

These default icons might not represent the applications you use most often, so you can remove the ones you do not want and add icons for other applications that you use. To remove an icon, right mouse button-click on the icon, and select Remove application name Button in the popup menu that appears. To add a new icon, right mouse button-click on an empty space on the panel, and follow the menu entry Add Application to Panel . This leads you to a copy of the K menu, where you can find all of the KDE applications. For example, to add an icon for the JuK music player, follow through the menus to Add Application to Panel->Multimedia->JuK (Music Player). The icon will appear on the panel in the space that you right-clicked on.

Kicker can add many types of items as well as application launch icons. You can find these items using the same menu as before, but this time selecting Add Applet to Panel... or Add New Panel. The items in the Add Applet window are small programs that can reside on the panel. An example of an applet is the Desktop Preview & Pager, which shows a small image of each of your virtual desktops. (For more information about virtual desktops, see the section called “Using Multiple Desktops”). You can switch to a different virtual desktop by clicking on its image in the desktop pager.

You can find information about the other applets available for Kicker in the Kicker manual. Just enter help:/kicker in the Location bar in Konqueror.

The system tray is where programs that are run, but not directly needed are kept. Some programs (like music players) are shown there, because you probably want to keep them open, but so that it does not take too much space on your screen, it will put an icon in the system tray.

When you right click on such an icon, a popup menu will appear where you can see some options of the program (like play, pause, stop, ... in a music player).

When you left click on it, the main window of the program will appear. If you hover your mouse above the icon, a tool tip will appear with some information (in the music player case information like the current song). Programs that normally support system tray icons are music players, IRC clients, organizers, ...

In most of these programs you can configure if you want an icon to be shown or not. For other tricks and tips with the system tray see the section on the section called “The System Tray”.

You can remove applets and other special items from the panel using the arrow on its handle on the applet's left. Right click on the arrow, and choose Remove applet name.