http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/1906/
There are several bugs/problems when using the panel vertically.

1. Window List is broken and unusable when used vertically. The text stays horizontal without wrapping, making it completely unreadable. In my opinion, the text should just stay vertical like the "Menu Bar" and clock. There is also an odd expansion problem. Vertically the Window List is set to fixed size and won't expand to fit the free space of the panel. See:

2. When aligned on the left, the submenu arrows point the wrong way when navigating menus.

3. Notification Area icons don't scale. Either the notification icons should scale properly to the size of the panel, or they should re-align into a grid. This is true for both vertical and horizontal panel use. Launchers should be able to be set in a grid as well.



[378 votes] Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #1906


[8 votes] Solution #2: The new "User Switcher" applet should be displayed vertically


]]> en-us Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:39:13 +0000 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:46:54 +0000 QAPoll module http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/1906/ Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:47:57 +0000
..but flexibility is good. *votes up*]]> Sun, 02 Mar 2008 09:10:53 +0000
For example:
Jason wants to make his friends Ubuntu desktop look a little like Windows so he can feel more at home during his transition to Ubuntu. He creates a picture of a little button that says "Start" on it. It is covered by an arrow and looks funny.

Joe's friend Mike happens to be a graphics artist. He asks Mike if he will make a really nice graphic to use for his menu. After weeks of hard work, Mike gives Joe his file. Mike had shown his artistic abilities and Joe loves it. Joe adds his new graphic as the main menu icon, only to discover that it is covered by a dumb little arrow that he cannot disable.

]]> Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:58:10 +0000
General:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=428943

Window List applet:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=86382
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=521478

Notification Area applet:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=531371

Quick Lounge applet:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=531358
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=531360]]> Wed, 07 May 2008 02:21:44 +0000
Please vote for the idea to help deliver this message to Gnome developers!]]> Wed, 07 May 2008 02:24:13 +0000 Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:31:21 +0000 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-panel/+bug/187540]]> Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:48:34 +0000
Overall i would love to see better vertical panel support.]]> Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:59:39 +0000 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:27:56 +0000
I use vertical panel only due to the fact that I have wide screen and for me vertical size of screen is more necessary.]]> Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:31:10 +0000
In this way, gnome panel is simple and decentralized, so that no applet needs to know about what other applets are doing. Each applet also does not need to retain its own orientation preferences (Although I assume that they could).

A key point is that certain preferred behavior seems to be particular to "wide" vertical panel versus "narrow" vertical panel. See "tstclair wrote on the 2 Dec 08 at 14:59" for this same important qualification on their preferred behavior.

An example difficult question: Should the Window List applet change the way it displays its window buttons based on the width it is given by its host panel?

This is a classic case of "just working" vs. "working the way I want it", and where providing sensible defaults is best, with the options to customize as necessary.]]> Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:28:12 +0000