hoary bottom gnome-panel

[Senectus .]

I'm playing with hoary at the moment (sooooooo sweeeeet), one thing
that I'm not sure is a bug or if it's a feature.. but when you start
an app it places the app in the bottom panel, but when it does it
shrinks the viewable size of the little bar down to so you can only
see the icon and maybe the first one or two letters of the name of the
application..
Is there any way to alter this activity?

Also it appears to be "stacking" similar applications on top of each
other, even if there is HEAPS of panel left for it to populate.. can
this to be changed with a setting?

-- 
Ubuntu Warty 4.10