An Options panel is a category of the Options window. The Options window is where the user defines settings, such as the location of the web browser used by the IDE. The category can be displayed as a primary panel (such as the "General" panel in the IDE) or as an addition to one of the other panels, for example, the Miscellaneous panel (such as the "Ant" or "GUI Builder" panel in the IDE's Miscellaneous panel).
You use the Options Panel wizard to create options panels.