Java Desktop for X Window

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How To Configure The Desktop Background.
Desktop background customization for the default desktop is done through the Background Editor. The background editor allows the user to configure their own wall paper on each separate desktop workspace. As we have explained in our introduction section, the background editor can only reside in one workspace at any one time and therefore you need to remember to close the backgound editor after you have finished your configurations before trying to configure the next workspace background.

Background Editor
Background Editor screenshot.

The background editor consist of two panels. The first panel is the Preview screen. The Preview screen allows you to look at what the new configuration will be like before applying the new setup to the actual background. The Preview screen will only adjust the size of the actual image if the image is larger than the Preview panel. If the image size is smaller than the Preview panel, then the image will be displayed as its actual size. The second panel is the configuration panel, which will allow you to select the desired image file, Display type and Background Color of the default desktop workspace. When the user configures a new setting in the editor, it does not directly take effect in the actual desktop background until the user clicks on the Ok or Apply button to finalize the changes. If the Ok button is clicked, the changes will take effect on the desktop background and the background editor will be closed. The Apply button allows the changes to take effect but the background editor will not be closed. When the user clicks on the Cancel button, no changes will occur to the actual desktop background, however, the editor's Preview panel will retain its current changes. The Preview button will display the current configuration setting in the Preview panel for viewing without committing the new changes to the current desktop background.

Configuration Parameters
There are three Display Types that you can choose from. The first Display Type option is Scale to fit. It will adjust the selected image to fit into the actual screen size. Depending on the image file, the richer the colors used in an image, the larger the file size and therefore the longer the Background Editor will need to take to scale the image to the screen size. For good performance during desktop startup, the image selected for the background should be edited to use a reasonable amount of color so that it can be loaded fast. One possible example is to use only 256 colors or just use the gray scale and etc.

Scale to fit Option
Display Type: Scale to fit screenshot.

The second Display Type option is Center. The Background Editor will retain the original image size and position the image to the center of the actual desktop screen. This option is good when combining a logo with a desired background color.

Center Option
Display Type: Center screenshot.

The third Display Type option is Tile. The Background Editor will retain the original image size and tile the image across the entire screen until it covers the actual desktop screen. This option can produce good texture backgrounds without sacrificing any performance during desktop startup.

Tile Option
Display Type: Tile screenshot.

Selecting A New Background Image File
If you want to find a desired image file without having to type the entire path of the file name, you can click on the Browse button. It will produce a JD4X system file chooser for you to browse through your file system and select the desired file. Once the desired file has been selected, click on Accept to finalize your selection.

System File Chooser
System file chooser screenshot.

Setting A New Background Color

To select a new background color, click on the Background Color button and a JD4X system color chooser will be activated to allow you to select a desired color. Click on any of the color configuration tabs to adjust to the desired color you want and click on Ok when you have finished your selection. If you require more help on using the color chooser, refer to the Java documentation from your Java toolkit for more details on how to use a JColorChooser.

System Color Chooser
System Color Chooser screenshot.

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