There was a fairly severe bug that prevented vertical panels from honoring their configured size. This is fixed in 0.5.3, which I released a few minutes ago. With this fixed it is possible to configure a vertical panel as small as 16 pixels. We regret that this was not discovered sooner.
If you choose you can configure the taskbar as "icons only, tooltips" and access the window title by hovering over it to see the tooltip. I am skeptical that returning to the "text sideways" mode is helpful for the taskbar since this uses a considerable amount of height, which is also in short supply on small screens.
I have added a feature to the clock plugin that allows you to have it be represented only by an icon if you wish, and access the time by hovering over it to see the tooltip. This makes the minimum size of the clock as small as 16x16 pixels. You can also use the new \n feature in the clock format string to stack the time vertically as you see fit.
I have added a feature to the desktop number plugin that allows you to use the number rather than the name to make the required size fit in 16 pixels.
Hopefully this will alleviate most discomfort with vertical panels as they exist in 0.5.x for use on smaller screens. Please feel free to discuss further.
Rethink LXPanel 0.5.0+ ..please
Re: Rethink LXPanel 0.5.0+ ..please
Hello. I was a bit away lately. Thanks for the latest 0.5.3, I'll try it out ASAP (in few hours) and reply. Thank you really much (its just great when a dev listens to the "customers" 
)
)Re: Rethink LXPanel 0.5.0+ ..please
Okay..installed it. Vertical panel have only few things to be complete :
- Allow the panel to be changed. The orientation of the text, or/and the window list.. like it was in 0.4
- Allow to remove the icons from the window list, that way maybe I can read few chars which is enough. Only the icons..on linux..thats not enough. On Win its ok, since there are no app without icon ..at least one doesnt encounter with the problem so often..but if Isee only white windows like default X icon..its not usable.
Thanks for the new version again, and keep up the good work. This two, and the panel is 100% OK. (Digital clock should gain the orientation stuff too)
- Allow the panel to be changed. The orientation of the text, or/and the window list.. like it was in 0.4
- Allow to remove the icons from the window list, that way maybe I can read few chars which is enough. Only the icons..on linux..thats not enough. On Win its ok, since there are no app without icon ..at least one doesnt encounter with the problem so often..but if Isee only white windows like default X icon..its not usable.
Thanks for the new version again, and keep up the good work. This two, and the panel is 100% OK. (Digital clock should gain the orientation stuff too)
Re: Rethink LXPanel 0.5.0+ ..please
I must say, lxpanel 0.5.3 works relatively nice for me. I have been using vertical
panels since kde2....
It is a simple question of real estate space, you have more space in width than in height
whether you have a wide screen or not. There is no special reason to put the panel at the
bottom apart from inertia.
My own solution to the problem of the taskbar is to detach it to an horizontal, top left (dynamic
resizing), autohiding panel.
I am not sure yet if I like the few pixel sticking out when autohiding and which cannot be
used by my maximized windows. I would certainly keep it if my windows could go "under" it.
Mind you, I have used this kind of set up since 1999 - anything that cannot offer me the same kind
of arrangement without a good reason for the trade off goes to the bin.
My only grief at the moment is the pager which show the desktops on a line and which is curently
not configurable. I'd like to have a grid (I have 4 desktop so I'd like a 2x2 array).
I am personally OK with the way of setting the clock - using \n for stacking. I am used to do
something unusual on kde to make it both fit and be usable (24h clock for me and then %d/%m
on the second line - I believe I'll remember the year thank you...). I didn't notice it to be off center,
but I was careful not to put spaces. If it is off center that should be fixed.
panels since kde2....
It is a simple question of real estate space, you have more space in width than in height
whether you have a wide screen or not. There is no special reason to put the panel at the
bottom apart from inertia.
My own solution to the problem of the taskbar is to detach it to an horizontal, top left (dynamic
resizing), autohiding panel.
I am not sure yet if I like the few pixel sticking out when autohiding and which cannot be
used by my maximized windows. I would certainly keep it if my windows could go "under" it.
Mind you, I have used this kind of set up since 1999 - anything that cannot offer me the same kind
of arrangement without a good reason for the trade off goes to the bin.
My only grief at the moment is the pager which show the desktops on a line and which is curently
not configurable. I'd like to have a grid (I have 4 desktop so I'd like a 2x2 array).
I am personally OK with the way of setting the clock - using \n for stacking. I am used to do
something unusual on kde to make it both fit and be usable (24h clock for me and then %d/%m
on the second line - I believe I'll remember the year thank you...). I didn't notice it to be off center,
but I was careful not to put spaces. If it is off center that should be fixed.