Can I only keep system tray icons on panel/taskbar, resize it and not occupy space on screen?

[xues7]

Could I just make the system tray icons stay over the screen (and remove everything else from panel/taskbar) and not occupy space on screen, just make it stay on top of everything being displayed instead (and not an entire full side and center empty occupying space for nothing)?
I'm using the Cinnamon edition and I'm enjoying it a lot, but this is bothering me since I find it annoying at times to have to use mouse just to switch/open things when ALT+TAB is already a thing and I could use an application launcher to rely on keyboard only for opening anything, or even so, occupying needless space on my screen, my best solution so far is to move to the side of my screen since the height of my monitor is lesser than the length, but it still bothers me.
In fewer words what I'm describing: how do I make my taskbar/panel background transparent (I guess that would involve editing the theme, what file name should I look up to edit to do that) and stop it from occupying space that could be used by other opened programs and instead just stay on top of it without occupying space (I guess it'd be simpler than resizing bar to only the system tray icons area and do what I described?)

[billyswong]

If one right click on the panel > applets > manage, one can select each individual item then remove("-") them one by one.

For panel transparency, see viewtopic.php?t=407632
But be aware that making the panel transparent doesn't mean you can click through it and access the application window below.

[spamegg]

and stop it from occupying space that could be used by other opened programs and instead just stay on top of it without occupying space

I definitely don't understand this. Can you illustrate with some screenshots / pictures?

[xues7]

If one right click on the panel > applets > manage, one can select each individual item then remove("-") them one by one.

For panel transparency, see viewtopic.php?t=407632
But be aware that making the panel transparent doesn't mean you can click through it and access the application window below.

Thanks!!!!

and stop it from occupying space that could be used by other opened programs and instead just stay on top of it without occupying space

I definitely don't understand this. Can you illustrate with some screenshots / pictures?

If you're on Cinnamon and right click the panel and select Panel settings, under Panel visibility you can choose between three options in the dropdown:
Auto hide panel, Always show panel, Intelligently hide panel.
All of them except for Always show panel does not occupy space that a program could be using on the screen, the panel just pops over it without limiting the resolution size of the programs opened, I want to do that but I also want for the panel to be always showing, I just don't want it to limit the resolution capacity for others programs to display on screen since all I want to keep is the system tray icons so it'd be really needless to occupy an entire bar size across the screen just for that.

[spamegg]

All of them except for Always show panel does not occupy space that a program could be using on the screen, the panel just pops over it without limiting the resolution size of the programs opened,

That is not the case for me. Here I have Firefox maximized, and my Panel is set to "always show", and I have manually applied transparency by editing CSS files:

Through my transparent panel, you can see my desktop wallpaper. So Firefox is not occupying that space.

Maybe I'm still not understanding what you are saying...

[xues7]

All of them except for Always show panel does not occupy space that a program could be using on the screen, the panel just pops over it without limiting the resolution size of the programs opened,

That is not the case for me. Here I have Firefox maximized, and my Panel is set to "always show", and I have manually applied transparency by editing CSS files:

Screenshot from 2024-03-25 17-10-47.png

Through my transparent panel, you can see my desktop wallpaper. So Firefox is not occupying that space.

Maybe I'm still not understanding what you are saying...

If you set the panel visibility to Auto hide panel or Intelligently hide panel, you'll see the panel visually seems to behave like just a window checked on with "Always on Top" property (visually at least), but if you have set it on Always show panel, it'll limit to where opened programs resolution can extend to. Maybe I was confusing on how I explained it before? (sorry for that)
In your screenshot, your panel is transparent and I can see your desktop background, but your Firefox resolution size is limited to going down at a certain point not to trespass the panel region (visually at least), which does still occupy space that opened programs could be using (in your case in this screenshot, Firefox, as you clearly can't see Firefox going behind your panel, only the desktop background)

[spamegg]

I definitely don't understand, sorry...

you'll notice it's like the panel is a window opened with "Always on Top" checked on

That's not how the Panel works. It's not a window. It doesn't have that kind of property.
The only way to make programs take up the space occupied by the Panel is to use auto-hide.

It seems like you want "simultaneously auto-hide and NOT auto-hide" or something. That's not possible.

Or you want "auto-hide, but always show System Tray". That's not possible either.

Even if it was possible, the programs and the System Tray would clash with each other.
When you tried to click on the program, you would end up clicking on the system tray, or vice versa.

It's not possible for something to be both on top and not-on-top simultaneously depending on when you want. That's like mind-reading.

Just use auto-hide! And live with the fact that you can't see the tray.

[xues7]

I definitely don't understand, sorry...

you'll notice it's like the panel is a window opened with "Always on Top" checked on

That's not how the Panel works. It's not a window. It doesn't have that kind of property.
The only way to make programs take up the space occupied by the Panel is to use auto-hide.

It seems like you want "simultaneously auto-hide and NOT auto-hide" or something. That's not possible.

Or you want "auto-hide, but always show System Tray". That's not possible either.

Even if it was possible, the programs and the System Tray would clash with each other.
When you tried to click on the program, you would end up clicking on the system tray, or vice versa.

It's not possible for something to be both on top and not-on-top simultaneously depending on when you want. That's like mind-reading.

Just use auto-hide! And live with the fact that you can't see the tray.

That's why I said it's like, not that it is, I don't know how it works, just described the behavior

It's not possible for something to be both on top and not-on-top simultaneously depending on when you want. That's like mind-reading.

All of them except for Always show panel does not occupy space that a program could be using on the screen, the panel just pops over it without limiting the resolution size of the programs opened, ...

I don't understand why you say it'd clash or it's not possible, when if you do the below, it does this. If you set those two other options, you'll see even when you make the panel pop up, it still does not occupy space, maybe you misunderstood me and sorry if I'm not being any clearer.

If you set the panel visibility to Auto hide panel or Intelligently hide panel, you'll see the panel visually seems to behave like just a window checked on with "Always on Top" property (visually at least), but if you have set it on Always show panel, it'll limit to where opened programs resolution can extend to. Maybe I was confusing on how I explained it before? (sorry for that)

[PaulL]

So if you want to maximize Firefox and have it take up the full screen, set the panel to Auto-hide. Then the panel can very easily be displayed when you need it. There is no way to have the panel always visible and still be able to maximize underneath it. What would be the point? The part of the Firefox window under the panel would always be inacessible, because the panel would always be on top.

It's simply not possible to have the panel visible and simultaneously have it be underneath the maximized Firefox window. Nor is there any way to display only the system tray part of the panel; displaying the panel is all or nothing. It appears to me that you haven't thought things all the way through.

[billyswong]

Nor is there any way to display only the system tray part of the panel; displaying the panel is all or nothing.

In Xfce, one can shrink the panel to arbitrary length as long as it is long enough to show all contents on that panel. In theory Cinnamon can implement such feature too.

Personally I am uninterested in that as those extra space is hard to use. If the DE let a maximized window expand to cover the panel region without the panel being auto-hide, there will be a section of the maximized window becoming unclickable. If the DE don't let a maximized window expand to there, than there is almost no difference from simply making the panel transparent. So the use case of such design is for people who use the DE with a bunch of windows NOT maximized, with some of them occupying the empty space of the panel region. Too niche.

[PaulL]

In Xfce, one can shrink the panel to arbitrary length as long as it is long enough to show all contents on that panel. In theory Cinnamon can implement such feature too.

Really? I had no idea. I wonder if the OP would be happy with that.

[xues7]

The part of the Firefox window under the panel would always be inacessible, because the panel would always be on top. It appears to me that you haven't thought things all the way through.

I think you clicked to read last reply before making this comment and didn't notice by mistake (and it's ok) the previous replies or the title at all, how would

the panel would always be on top

Topic title: Can I only keep system tray icons on panel/taskbar, resize it and not occupy space on screen?

Could I just make the system tray icons stay over the screen (and remove everything else from panel/taskbar) and not occupy space on screen, just make it stay on top of everything being displayed instead (and not an entire full side and center empty occupying space for nothing)?

make my taskbar/panel background transparent

Which basically would look like just the system tray icons floating on the screen on top of everything (which isn't really many icons and I can change size to bit very small on settings - at least on Cinnamon), when you say "inacessible, because the panel would always be on top" then you missed all of this above or maybe you're not being specific enough, you're probably more experienced than me and if you mean that in a way of how the panel works, then that'd explain and sorry for that, although when I keep saying those things, as I said i'm not experienced nor now how they work, I just mean about their appearance/visual behavior, not the programming or underlining of how it exactly works since I really don't know how panels work in a low-level (not even a bit and don't know where I'd even start to get to know it if I wanted to due to my lack of knowledge yet)]

Nor is there any way to display only the system tray part of the panel; displaying the panel is all or nothing.

In Xfce, one can shrink the panel to arbitrary length as long as it is long enough to show all contents on that panel. In theory Cinnamon can implement such feature too.

Personally I am uninterested in that as those extra space is hard to use. If the DE let a maximized window expand to cover the panel region without the panel being auto-hide, there will be a section of the maximized window becoming unclickable. If the DE don't let a maximized window expand to there, than there is almost no difference from simply making the panel transparent. So the use case of such design is for people who use the DE with a bunch of windows NOT maximized, with some of them occupying the empty space of the panel region. Too niche.

Interesting, sadly I'm on Cinnamon but I'll keep in mind to maybe give it a try on Xfce if I don't find a way to do it on Cinnamon, thank you billyswong