Xfce Forum

attila123

Member

Registered: 2016-12-16

Posts: 2

Launcher in Panel - why does not it show icons in a row?

Hi,
XFCE is fantastic, but...
When I put a launcher (http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/launcher) to the panel it is possible to add items to it.
By default the icon of the first such item appears, but the further elements are available only via an arrow, which is very inconvenient (first have to click the arrow), and unnatural.
Instead I would like an option to have the other icons in line with the first icon, e.g. from left to right (for example the 'Notification Area' panel add-on shows icons in this way in a line).
Also if all the icons do not fit into one row (for example I use my panel vertically in Deskbar mode with row size: 32 px, # of rows: 3, so it could accomodate 3 icons in a line by default), then in this specific case of vertical panel the icons of the launcher could take multiple rows. One could also limit the number of icons shown, then there would be the arrow, if needed.
How comes this natural and more convenient way of placing the icons of the launcher was not implemented like this?
Was it ever in the plans to support this natural icon placing algorithm?
Is there a plan to support it?
Is there some code patch for the launcher to support it?
Of course one can use alternatives like launching apps from Whiskers menu, or with the "Alt + F2" program (such as the default one or e.g. gnome-do) or docky, etc., but still I feel the Launcher was left quite useless in its current form and I would like to use the screen estate taken by the XFCE panel anyway to host the icons of the programs/scripts I want to start from there.
What do you think?
Cheers,
Attila

Last edited by attila123 (2016-12-16 15:26:03)

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: Launcher in Panel - why does not it show icons in a row?

I'm not sure if I understood, but wouldn't you accomplish that by creating one launcher per item?

attila123

Member

Registered: 2016-12-16

Posts: 2

Re: Launcher in Panel - why does not it show icons in a row?

Thx, you are right!
Somehow I did not think about that. I had two launchers already in my panel, but there was another item between those two, so I had the false impression that the launchers take the whole row (remember I have horizontal panel).
Anyway it is solved now.

alcornoqui

Member

Registered: 2014-07-28

Posts: 832

Re: Launcher in Panel - why does not it show icons in a row?

Great, keep it simple!