The island

The island is one object that changes shape. A black capsule in the middle of the bar rests on the time and becomes everything else: a glance under the pointer, the control centre, the launcher, the overview, a notification, a game. Each shape is the size of what is in it, with no title and no close button.

At rest, the glance, the control centre, the launcher, a notification.

At rest

The island rests on the time. Under the pointer it lights, and a click opens the control centre.

What is running sits either side of the time: a recording, a countdown, a track — in that order, two at most. One running thing splits across both sides, its mark on the left and its figure on the right; two take a side each.

• A recording is a red dot and the minutes. A click on the dot stops it; under the pointer it squares off to say so.
• A countdown is a ring that drains and the time left. A click opens its detail.
• A track is its artwork and a spectrum that follows the sound. A click opens the player.

The glance

Rest the pointer on the time and a glance opens at once; it closes a moment after the pointer leaves. It holds the time large, the weekday and the date, what is playing, and a line of readings: the battery, the volume, how many notifications are kept, a recording, a countdown. The weather is on it when the weather is already on the bar or on the desktop.

The glance: the time, what is playing, and a line of readings.

Nothing on it is pressed: a click anywhere opens the control centre. It does not open while a notification or a reading holds the island, or over a running thing’s mark. Turn it off with A glance on hover (see Settings).

What it becomes

Shape	Opens with
The control centre	SUPER A, or a click on the island
The launcher	SUPER Space
The clipboard history	SUPER V — the launcher in its clipboard mode
The overview	SUPER TAB
Wallpapers	SUPER T
Palettes	SUPER SHIFT T
System statistics	SUPER U
The session menu	SUPER X, CTRL ALT Delete, or the power button
The games	SUPER G
The pet	SUPER SHIFT P
The notes	SUPER S
The task board	SUPER K
Every key	SUPER H
Packages	SUPER I
A module’s detail	a click on its piece on the bar
The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth lists	their pieces on the bar, or the arrow on their control-centre tiles

These are the default keys. Every key belongs to a profile and can be changed in Settings → Keys; the full list is in the keybindings. Settings itself, SUPER ,, is the one panel that is not the island: it opens as a window.

The session menu is five tiles — Lock, Suspend, Log out, Restart, Shut down — moved through with the arrows or the pointer. Lock and Suspend run at once; the other three turn red and read Confirm on the first press, and run on the second.

The session menu.

Appearance, on SUPER + T.

System statistics, on SUPER + U.

The pet, on SUPER + SHIFT + P.

The overview, the capture surface, the dock's menu, system statistics and the pet.

Opening and closing

What opened a shape closes it: the same key, the same click, Escape, or a click anywhere off the island. Opening another shape replaces it. While a panel or a detail is open it holds the keyboard, and the pointer can cross the windows without taking it back.

Every module on the bar opens into the island.

Every piece on the bar opens into the island rather than into a popup of its own, one at a time. A click on the same piece closes it; a click on another swaps it. What each one shows is in the module catalogue.

When several things want the island at once, a panel you opened comes first, then a notification, then a passing reading, then the glance. A reading that arrives while a panel is open is dropped rather than shown late, and opening a panel sends a notification on screen away — it stays in the list.

Notifications

The shell is the notification daemon, and a notification arrives in the island: its picture or a bell, the summary, the application’s name, the first line of the body, and a close mark.

A notification, in the island.

• A notification with no timeout of its own stays as long as Bar & Island → Notifications → How long one stays says: two to fifteen seconds, five by default. One that asks for longer is held to fifteen. A critical one stays until you close it, and a newer ordinary one does not replace it.
• The close mark closes it and tells the application. A click anywhere else on it opens the control centre.
• Every notification is kept, newest first, up to fifty: in the bell’s detail on the bar and in the control centre’s notification block. Under the pointer a row shows a close mark that removes it, and Clear empties the list.
• The list is kept in memory, so restarting the shell empties it. Actions and inline replies are not shown.

Do not disturb keeps notifications off the island and still keeps them in the list; a critical one comes through anyway. The bell is crossed out while it is on, and it stays on across a restart. Switch it with the Focus tile in the control centre, or in Settings → Bar & Island → Notifications.

Note

If another notification daemon is running — mako, dunst, swaync — it holds the name first, and the island shows nothing. Stop it, and the shell takes over by itself.

Passing readings

What you change shows as one passing capsule: the volume, the brightness, and the charger plugged in or out, each as a symbol, a level bar and the reading. Holding a key gives one smooth reading rather than a flicker of them, and it falls away after under two seconds. With the volume or brightness detail open, its own slider shows the change instead.

The volume, passing.

The same capsule carries messages with no level: what a capture did, the colour picked, a recording starting and stopping, a new best in a game, a new egg for the pet, a profile switched.

The overview

SUPER TAB shows every workspace at once, five to a row, up to the number set under Settings → Bar & Island → Workspaces → Workspaces available. Each cell is a scale model of the screen: every window is drawn live, at its own place and size. The workspace you are on has a thin outline, and the one Enter goes to a thick one.

Do	And
Arrow keys, or move the pointer	move the outline; it wraps at the edges
Enter, or click a cell	go to that workspace
Escape	close the overview
Click a window	focus it
Right-click a window	close it
Middle-click a window	float or tile it
Drag a window onto another cell	move it to that workspace; you stay where you are
Drag a window within its own cell	a floating window is put where it lands; a tiled one swaps with the tiled window under it

Settings

Under Settings → Bar & Island → The island:

Setting	What it does
Style	Grouped, Spread or One island — see the bar
Island	Floating below the top edge, or Notch, cut into it
Span the whole screen	One island only: the band runs the width of the bar
A glance on hover	Off, only a click opens anything
Clock format	24-hour or 12-hour
Show the date, Show seconds	What the time carries
Beside the time	Media, Timer and Recorder, each on the island while it runs or only where its piece is put

On a second screen

The island is on one screen. Every other screen gets a bar with its two sides and nothing between them, and a detail asked for there opens in the island on the main screen. Which screen is the main one is set in Displays.