# &applet; Applet Manual V&manrevision;

## Introduction

### &applet; Applet

Shows &applet; applet.

The &applet; applet provides a command line that you can use within any panel on the desktop.

To add &applet; to a panel, right-click on the panel, then choose Add to Panel Utility &applet; .

&applet; contains the following interactive elements:

Entry field

- You can enter commands, macros, and programs in the entry field.

Browser button

- You can use the Browser button to look through your file system for programs. A solid circle icon identifies the Browser button.

History button

- You can use the History button to recall previous commands. A down-arrow icon identifies the History button.

&applet; provides the following features:

History list of previously executed commands

- You can execute commands directly from the history list display. You can also cycle the history list contents through the entry field to display and then execute a command. A vertical scrollbar appears when more than 20 commands are in the history list.

History-based autocompletion function

- &applet; uses the history-based autocompletion function to complete commands in the entry field. This function compares the contents of the entry field with the history list. If &applet; finds a match then the applet completes the command.

User-requestable command completion function

- This command completion function compares character strings in the entry field with commands in the user path. The command completion function is useful if you do not know the exact character sequence or spelling of a command. After you type the first few letters of the command name, press the Tab key. If &applet; recognizes the character sequence as unique, then the applet completes the command name.

Macro facility

- The macro facility provides up to 99 shortcut commands. In addition to predefined commands you can create your own commands for use with &applet;.

## Usage

### To Run a Command From the Entry Field

To run a command from the entry field, perform the following steps:

1. Type the command in the entry field.

2. If you want, you can instruct &applet; to try to complete the command name. Press the Tab key to give this instruction.

3. Type any options that you want to run with the command in the entry field.

4. Press Return.

If the autocompletion option is selected then during steps 1 to 3, &applet; searches for a match in the history list. If there is a match in the history list, &applet; completes the command. To accept the command, press Return. Alternatively, if you do not want to accept the command, type more characters in the entry field.

### To Run a Macro From the Entry Field

To run a macro that is defined in the &applet; command-line-prefs-2 list, type the macro in the entry field, then press Return.

The autocompletion function also works for macros.

The following list shows some examples of &applet; macros:

`t` | Starts a GNOME terminal.
`n` | Starts a Netscape browser.
`dictionary` | Starts a Netscape browser displaying a dictionary search page.

### To Run a Program From Your File System

Click on the Browser button to display the file system, then double-click on the program you want to run.

You can use &applet; to run scripts, executable files, or other programs from your file system.

### To Run a Previous Command, Macro, or Program From the History List

You can run a previously executed command, macro, or program from the history list in one of the following ways:

- Click on the History button to display the history list. Click on a history list item to run the command, macro, or program that you require.

- Click on the entry field, then use the keyboard up and down arrows to cycle through the history list. Press Return to run a specific command, macro, or program when the history list item you want is displayed in the entry field.

## Preferences

To configure &applet;, right-click on an area of the applet outside the interactive elements, then choose Preferences.

The Preferences dialog contains the following tabbed sections:

- command-line-prefs-1

- command-line-prefs-2

### General

Show handle

- Select this option to attach a handle to the edge of the applet. You can use the handle to drag the &applet; display to any location on your desktop.

Show frame

- Select this option to show a frame around the &applet;.

Enable history-based autocompletion

- Select this option to instruct &applet; to compare the entry field with the history list, and complete commands when there is a match.

Width

- Use this spin box to specify the applet width in pixels.

Use default theme colors

- Select this option to use the colors from the default GNOME theme.

Command line foreground

- Click on this button to select a color for the command line text. This button is unavailable if the Use default theme colors check box is selected.

Command line background

- Click on this button to select a color for the entry field background. This button is unavailable if the Use default theme colors check box is selected.

### Macros

This tabbed section contains a list of macros that you can use with &applet;. The list contains the following information:

- A list of UNIX regular expressions in the Pattern column.

  A regular expression is a pattern of characters or numbers that you use to match strings. See the `regex` man page for further information on how to construct a regular expression.

- A list of commands in the Command column.

  A command executes if the corresponding pattern successfully matches the text that you type into the &applet; entry field. The macros are commands that can take parameters parsed by the regular expression.

To add a new macro, click on the Add Macro button. To delete a macro, select the macro, then click on the Delete Macro button.