Configuring Gnome Panel Applets to have Relative Positioning

Gnome applets are set up so that there are a few applets with absolute position on the left side of the panel and a few applets with relative position on the right side of the panel. It is set up this way so that when the panel resizes the right-side applets will move relative to the right edge. The problem arises when you try to move any of the right-side applets. Once you try to move an applet it assumes you want it to have absolute positioning.

Instead of moving it visually on the panel follow the following steps.

1. In a shell run the command: gconf-editor
2. In the dialog navigate to apps/panel/applets
3. Going by the names you should be able to tell which applets are on the right side of the panel. For each one make sure that panel_right_stick is checked.

The position value is a 0-based index of the position from the right of the screen. So the right-most applet will have 0 position, second right-most will have 1 position, and so on.