<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="task"
      id="unity-launcher-shapes">
  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="unity-launcher-intro#launcher-using"/>

    <revision version="13.10" date="2013-10-23" status="outdated"/>

    <credit type="author">
      <name>Jeremy Bicha</name>
      <email>jbicha@ubuntu.com</email>
    </credit>

    <desc>The triangles show you your currently running applications.</desc>
    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </info>

  <title>What do the different shapes and colors in Launcher icons mean?</title>

  <p>When you start an app, the Launcher icon pulses to let you know that
    Ubuntu is starting your application. This is useful because while some applications start immediately,
    others may take a minute to load.</p>

  <p>Once the application has finished starting, a set of small <em>white triangles</em> will show
    to the left and right of the Launcher square.
    Additional triangles will appear on the left of the Launcher square as additional windows of the same application are open (i.e. two triangles means that you have two windows of the same application open; three triangles means three windows).
    If you have more than three windows of the same application open, only three triangles will show.</p>

    <note style="tip"><p>Applications that aren't currently running have translucent Launcher icon squares.
    When an application is running, the Launcher icon square is full of color.</p></note>

<section id="launcher-notifications">
  <title>Notifications</title>

  <p>If an application wants your attention to notify you of something (like a finished download),
    the Launcher icon will wiggle and glow and the white triangle will become <em>blue</em>.
    Click the Launcher icon to dismiss the notification.</p>

  <p>Applications can also show a <em>number</em> on their Launcher icon. Messaging applications use the
    number to tell you how many unread messages you have. <gui>Software Updater</gui>
    uses it to tell you how many updates are available.</p>

  <p>Finally, applications can use a <em>progress bar</em> to let you know how long a process is
    taking without you needing to keep the application window in view.</p>

</section>

</page>
