# &appname; Applet

## Introduction

### &appname; Applet

The &appname; applet as text.

The &app; allows you to quickly change between user accounts without having to log out.

After your system administrator has installed &app;, no further configuration is necessary for most users. You may add the applet to a panel and begin using it immediately.

### Adding the &app; to a Panel

To add &app; to your Panel, simply right-click on the Panel to which you wish to add &app;, select Add to Panel..., and then select &appname; from the list of items presented to you, and click OK.

The exact appearance of the &app; depends on the size and type of the panel in which it resides, but you should now be able to use the &app; by clicking on the word Users.

## Using the &app;

Using the &app; is easy. You should see the word Users on your Panel. You use the Applet by clicking on that word, which does different things depending on the mouse button you are using.

### Left-Clicking on the Applet

#### The applet menu

The applet menu.

When you left-click on the &app;, a menu will pop up. This menu contains a list of users to which you can switch, as well as the option to simply go to the login screen.

To either log in as another user, or to resume another user's session, simply click on that user's name. If the user is already logged in, then you will switch to that user's session and you will have to unlock the screen. If the user hasn't logged in, then you will be sent to the login screen. Simply enter the user's name and password as requested, just as you do to log in normally.

When you switch to another user, your session will be locked. You will have to enter your password to finish resuming your session.

### Middle-Clicking on the Applet

As with any other GNOME applet, you can use the middle mousebutton to easily move an applet around on the Panel. Simply move your mouse over the &app;, and then press and hold the middle mousebutton. While holding the middle mousebutton, move your mouse. You should also move the applet. If the applet does not move, you will need to unlock the applet by releasing the middle mousebutton, and then using the right mousebutton to bring up applet options, as described in the next section.

Once you are satisfied with the applet's location on the Panel, release the middle mousebutton, and you're done! You may optionally lock the applet to this location, as described in the next section. Unfortunately, you cannot currently move an applet between Panels.

### Right-Clicking on the Applet

#### The Context Menu

The context menu

When you right-click on the &app;, a menu will appear. This menu lists the following things which you can do:

- Edit Personal Information

  This option is a shortcut into the GNOME control center's About Me configuration dialog, which allows you to change your name, password, photo, etc.

- Edit Users and Groups

  This option is a shortcut into the GNOME system utilites' user management system. In order to run the tool, you must have administrator privileges. When you are finished, click OK, and you can continue into the GNOME system utilities' user management system. Please refer to that manual for further information on managing users and groups. To exit the password request, click Cancel.

- Setup Login Screen

  This item, like the Edit Users and Groups menu item, requires administrator privileges, and lets you modify the appearance of the login screen. See the Edit Users and Groups and the login screen settings information in the GNOME system utilities manual for more information.

- Preferences

  The Preferences menu item will open the preferences dialog, which can be used to configure the &app;. See fusa-config for more information.

- About

  The About menu item will bring up a new window which will tell you a little bit more about the &app;. Here you can find out what version of the &app; you have, who made it, and where its home website is located. Additionally, by selecting the Credits and License buttons, you can find out who helped create it, and under what license it is distributed. Click the Close button to close this window when you are done.

- Remove from Panel

  The Remove From Panel menu item allows you to remove an applet from the Panel. You can later add the applet back again as described in the introduction. However, when an applet is removed from the panel, its settings will be lost. You will not be asked if you are sure before the applet is removed.

- Move

  The Move menu item provides another common way to move applets on the Panel. When you select this option, the applet may be moved simply by moving your mouse. Your cursor will change to illustrate the fact that you are moving the applet. When you have the applet where you want it on the Panel, press any mousebutton to drop the applet into place. Your cursor will change back, reflecting the fact that you are no longer moving the applet.

- Lock To Panel

  The Lock To Panel menu item lets you lock the applet into its position on the Panel. Once an applet is Locked, it cannot be moved accidentally. The Move menu item (discussed next) will be "greyed" and you will no longer be able to select it. To move the applet again, you must first unlock the applet by selecting the Lock To Panel menu item again. The Move menu item will once again be selectable.

## Configuring the &app;

### Preferences dialog

The Preferences dialog.

The "Preferences" menu item brings up window where you may change the &app;'s behavior and appearance. There are two major sections in it: "Appearance" and "Options".

### Appearance

The Appearance option group changes the way the &app; applet is displayed on the panel to match the selected option.

The first option, which should appear as your name, will make the applet appear as your name on the Panel. That is, the word Users will be replaced by your username. In the example above, the user's name is "Tyler Durden". If the name which appears here is not your name, you may change it using the Edit Personal Information item in the context menu.

#### The applet in username mode

The &appname; applet as the current user name.

The second option is the word Users and is what is in use if you don't change your Preferences. The word Users will appear on the Panel to represent the &app;.

#### The applet in text mode

The &appname; applet as text.

The third and final option is a picture (see the example above). If you select this option, this picture will appear on the Panel to represent the &app;.

#### The applet in icon mode

The &appname; applet as icon.

### Options

The Options preference section provides options which control the behavior (as opposed to the appearance) of the &app;.

#### Lock the screen after switching users

This option determines whether the &app; will attempt to lock the screen after switching to another user or login screen. If this option is enabled, your password must be entered to regain access to your desktop. If this option is disabled, then anyone on your computer may access your desktop without any passwords by switching back to your desktop.

When disabled, this option will disable security when switching users, so unless you explicitly trust everyone with access to the computer, it's better to leave it enabled.

#### Create new logins in nested windows

When this option is active, you will not actually switch screens when you log in as another user with the &app;. Instead, each new login will appear inside a window on your current screen. For obvious reasons, the current screen will not be locked when creating a new logins inside windows.

This option exists primarily to aid development of various desktop technologies, so most people won't have cause to enable it.

## Notes for Nerds

### Common Problems

User "faces" are not appearing in other users' menus.

In order for user faces to be visible, they must be readable by all users. Currently, faces are stored in image format in the file called `~/.face`. As a result, the `~/.face` file must have permissions which allow other users to read it (typically, a permissions mask of `0644` or `-rw-r--r--` will suffice), and the users home directories must allow listing by others (at minimum, `0711`, or `drwx--x--x` will suffice).

The &app; does not appear in the Add to Panel dialog.

The &app; must be installed to the same prefix as the Panel. That is, if the Panel is at `/usr/bin/panel`, the applet should be installed to the /usr prefix. If the applet was installed properly (for example, via your distribution), then try logging out and back in to refresh the Add to Panel list.

### Hidden Options

The &app; applet contains some useful hidden options for geeks, nerds, administrators, and other misfits. These options require modifying the configuration using special tools like the Configuration Editor or `gconftool-2`, but they can cause some unexpected or undesired behavior. These options affect every instance of the &app; for a particular user, and can be locked by administrators.

#### Show Active Users Only

This key, in `/apps/fast-user-switch-applet/show_active_users_only` determines whether to show only those users who are currently logged in (when enabled), or all legal users (when disabled).

#### Show Login Screen Menuitem

This key, in `/apps/fast-user-switch-applet/show_screen_item` determines whether to show the Login Screen menu item at the bottom of the left-click menu (see fusa-usage-left for more information on this menu). This item is used to create a new, empty login screen. If this option is set to `always`, the item will always be shown. If this option is set to `auto`, then the item will be shown if the applet is configured to not use nested logins (see fusa-config-options-nested for more information). If this option is set to `never`, then the item will never be shown.

#### Show Login Window Menuitem

This key, in `/apps/fast-user-switch-applet/show_window_item` determines whether to show the Login Window menu item at the bottom of the left-click menu (see fusa-usage-left for more information on this menu). This item is used to create a new empty login screen inside a window on the current screen. If this option is set to `always`, the item will always be shown. If this option is set to `auto`, then the item will be shown if the applet is configured to use nested logins (see fusa-config-options-nested for more information). If this option is set to `never`, then the item will never be shown.