What's the right terminology for Unity's UI elements?
Ubuntu 11.04
- Launcher
- Launcher Items
Workspace Switcher
Menu Bar:
- Window Title
- Application Menus
Status Menus (Indicators)
- Network Menu
- Sound Menu
- Messaging Menu
- Clock
- Me Menu
- Session Menu
And others
This region also contains the Notification Area, disabled by default.
Window Decoration
- Window Buttons
- Toolbar
- Status Bar
- Desktop
- Ubuntu Button (Home Button or BFB, "Big Freakin' Button")
- Dash
- Run Command (Alt+F2)
1. Panel
Is the bar at the top called "panel"?
Yes, the top bar is called the "unity-panel" or simply panel, the container for indicators and global menus.
2. Home Button
Does the Ubuntu logo at the top left corner have a name?
Since 11.04 it's called Home Button though it's jokingly referred to as the BFB by developers, for "Big Freaking Button"
3. Launcher
Is the left sidebar called "dock"?
It's called the Launcher.
4. Launcher icons / Launcher items
Are the coloured tiles with app icons on them called "launchers"?
Launcher icons or Launcher items.
5. Workspace switcher
Is the purple tile called "workspace switcher"?
As of 11.04, yes.
6. Dash
Are the fullscreen things that appear when you click the Ubuntu logo, the Places tile or the Apps tile, called "dash"? Do they all have the same name?
Right; Dash is the component name for the overlay that's used for Applications and Places. In non-technical contexts it seems to be used as the Applications Dash and the Places Dash.
Also consider:
The first thing you'll see when opening the Dash is the Dash Home. Without typing or clicking anything, the Dash Home will show you applications and files you've used recently.
Other Terms
- The menu is referred to as the Application Menu, not global menu. This is to distinguish it from the other Global Menu Bar project.
There seems to be no term decided upon for items kept on the launcher via the "Keep in launcher" function. The relevant dbusmenu functionality is named "pinning_item" in the code; "sticky" doesn't appear anywhere in the wiki and bug reports, and "Favorites" is used in the architecture document once and somewhat ambiguously to refer to what seems to be the "pinned" application items. So "Pinned" and "Favorites" seem both fine for now.
For further information, see the Unity Architecture document, and /Unity/Lenses on the wiki.
Ubuntu from 11.10 up
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- Windows Title
-
- Application Menu
-
- Dash icon
-
- Launcher icons
-
- Workspace switcher
-
- Launcher
-
- Trash
-
- Indicators