The number of possibilities here are infinite, however there are some basic things you can change to make the desktop more appealing and usable.

Changing the wallpaper

The wallpaper is effectively the desktop's background. By default this is a dark green colour, but you can change this to either another (solid) colour, or you can decorate the background with an image.

• Step 1 - Select Applications -> Desktop Preferences -> Desktop Background from the menu in the top left
• Step 2 - Click on the Add Wallpaper button
• Step 3 - Navigate through Filesystem -> usr -> share -> pixmaps -> gentoo -> 1024x768 , click on the file listed and click on Open
• Step 4 - Click Close and you should have a new desktop wallpaper in place

Adding a Notification Area

Some applications (once started) will keep running in the background for as long as you stay logged in. One example of such an application is the Instant Messenger - "gaim". If you install a notification area on one of your panels, when gaim starts up it will place an icon in the notification area to show that it's running. When you "close" gaim , the icon will remain in the notification area (and will still be running) and you can access it by clicking on this icon. [see the section on setting up instant messaging for more details on gaim]

• Step 1 - Right click on an area of blank panel (for example the grey stripe along the bottom of the screen)
• Step 2 - Click on Add to panel
• Step 3 - Select Notification area, then click Add
• Step 4 - A new "grip" (small vertical bar with four dots) should have appeared on the panel. If you place the mouse pointer over the grip and hold down the right mouse button, the cursor shape should turn to a four headed arrow. While the button is held you should be able to move the grip either left or right. Try moving it as far to the right as possible, then let go of the button. (other panel items can be moved in the same way)

Adding items to the panel

Different types of item can be added to the panel (Gnome gives you two panels by default, one across the top and one across the bottom of the screen) including applications. You can add any applications from the menu to the panel as follows.

• Step 1 - Navigate through the menu system and locate the desired application, highlight it with the mouse pointer
• Step 2 - Right click on the item to activate the drop down menu
• Step 3 - From the drop down menu, click on Add to panel
• Step 4 - Click "off" the menu (i.e. anywhere else, for example the desktop background)

TIP: once you're happy with the location, you can right click on the icon and select lock to fix it in place