I like my main panel to be on the top of the screen but I'm experiencing an annoying issue. When you set it to "Always Visible" the program windows do not move down to fit into the screen real estate that the panel doesn't cover. Instead the panel covers the top of the windows prohibiting access to menus, URL search bar, etc. The only way to prevent windows from staying behind the panel is setting it to "Auto Hide" or "Windows Can Go Below." When the panel is locked to the bottom of the screen and "Always Visible" the windows move UP and you never lose scroll arrows or window size adjustment buttons. They stay on top of the panel and never go behind it. Am I doing something wrong or have the developers not been told about this issue?

I should mention that I can adjust the window size and make it *snap* below the bar but I would like to have the capability of selecting Fullscreen for a window and not have it go behind the panel, instead have it snap below the panel.

KDE 4.8
Kubuntu 12.04

Are you using a multiscreen setup, with screens of different heights?

bcooksley YES!

Is the panel located on the screen which is shorter than the other?
If so - then you are seeing a long known issue with X.

Plasma Desktop and other similar applications inform the window manager of the areas occupied by their panels through a system called "struts". These struts however must be anchored to a screen edge - and occupy the entire length of that edge. With a multi screen system this is problematic - especially when the screens are of different heights - because as far as X is concerned the desktop is one big shape with four sides.

As such, there is nothing either Plasma or KWin can do about this - but it possibly may be fixed with Wayland.

Why don't Cinnamon, GNOME and other desktops have the problem? Ya gotta understand - it's the kind of issue that makes me want KDE...but not use KDE. There are just too many "we gave up" features in the desktop. And, that really sucks. Because, overall, the productivity of using KDE is stunning. Until, of course, you go to click a menu item on a window that's been buried beneath a panel that can't be moved.

Cinnamon, GNOME and any other desktop I've tried that offers a panel dockable at the top of the screen does not suffer from this problem. So, while struts may be a common thing, methinks you can find out the size of the screen you're on and use that information. Why are you considering the whole desktop? And, if that's really the case, why does the panel know the *width* of the screen and only draw itself across one screen instead of both screens? I mean, if it's just one big-ass box with four sides, how do you determine how *wide* to draw the panel?

Maybe use that meta source for height information?

Just a thought.

The limitations in this case are in X itself - not in Plasma, which is why it can draw panels which only cover one screen. I've no idea how the various other desktops workaround the issue i'm afraid.

output of "xrandr -q"?