Xfce Forum

julie

Member

Registered: 2009-03-22

Posts: 1

Gnome to XFCE; panel annoyances

Hi there,

I just switched from Gnome to XFCE to lighten my load -- I've only got 256MB RAM.

So far I find it a little less resource-intensive, but I'm finding it hard to adjust to the aesthetics. Mostly it's the panel. I'll list a couplefew issues in case anyone has advice for me.

1. The panel icons are, in some cases, insanely small. The speaker-volume one, which I think was there by default, it so tiny it's just a little blob. You can't tell it's a little speaker at all. Same with the trash bin. I had the same problem with the mail-checker applet and the weather applet. The little envelope icon for the former, and the sun/cloud/etc icon for the latter, are so small you can barely tell what they are. My panel is sized around 24, but I have to increase it to at least 60 for those icons to be easily distinguishable, and I find that annoying. I did not have this issue on Gnome, which I ran on the same screen resolution (1600x1200). I don't understand why the icons don't fill up the vertical space they have.

2. The weather applet is very useful for me, but I find it far inferior to Gnome's. With the temperature label stacked vertically on the icon, the icon (as mentioned above) becomes useless. Is there any way to change its layout? I only took one course in C, but I think I could manage editing the source code if someone could point me in the right direction.

3. Is there a way to put a launcher to a specific folder in the panel? I set up the "Places" one, but I'd really like to have a link directly to my home folder in the panel. (I like to have a few icons in a similar setup to the Windows "quick launch" icons, bottom left corner.)

If anyone has advice, I'd really appreciate it. I really want to make XFCE work for me, but the aesthetics and small conveniences are important enough to me that right now I'm tempted to go back to Gnome and just put up with waiting for things to load all the time.

Thank you!!!

jarnos

Member

From: Finland

Registered: 2009-03-22

Posts: 50

Website

Re: Gnome to XFCE; panel annoyances

Which version of Xfce you are using? In Xfce 4.6 the panel item for volume control has been re-desinged. As for #3, you can add a launcher to your panel. Make it run thunar command. If the launcher properties do not contain working directory, you could add your home directory as an command line argument for thunar.

crimesaucer

Member

Registered: 2007-05-21

Posts: 103

Re: Gnome to XFCE; panel annoyances

1. The panel icons are, in some cases, insanely small.

3. Is there a way to put a launcher to a specific folder in the panel? I set up the "Places" one, but I'd really like to have a link directly to my home folder in the panel. (I like to have a few icons in a similar setup to the Windows "quick launch" icons, bottom left corner.)

For number one I know there is a setting in your gtk theme that will adjust the padding of your icon in the gtk button..... so that your 24pixel icons can show in a 24pixel size button as full size (instead of 16x16 in a 24x24 button which is a small icon in a big button)..... it's been a while since I made an engine-xfce4 theme so I forget the exact place in the gtkrc..... but I know it is in the top section so just mess around with some of the settings on a trial theme..... also make sure your icon theme has the correct icon sizes.

This top section here is from a very old xfce4 theme of mine that had the icons as large and as close together as possible in the buttons and menubar. Just mess with one of your themes and adjust it to find which setting works for the panel buttons:

style "default"
{
    GtkButton::default_border         = {0, 0, 0, 0}
    GtkButton::default_outside_border = {0, 0, 0, 0}
    GtkButton::child_displacement_x   = 0
    GtkButton::child_displacement_y   = 0
    GtkButton::default_spacing        = 0
    GtkButton::focus-line-width       = 0
    GtkButton::focus-padding          = 0
    GtkCheckButton::indicator_size    = 10
    GtkMenuBar::internal-padding      = 0
    GtkMenuBar::shadow_type           = out
    GtkMenuItem::selected_shadow_type = none
    GtkPaned::handle_full_size        = 0
    GtkPaned::handle_size             = 24
    GtkRadioButton::indicator_size    = 10
    GtkRange::slider_width            = 14
    GtkRange::stepper_size            = 14
    GtkRange::stepper_spacing         = 0
    GtkRange::trough_border           = 0
    GtkScrollbar::min_slider_length   = 24
    GtkToolbar::shadow_type           = out
    GtkWidget::focus-line-width       = 1
    GtkWidget::focus_padding          = 2
    GtkWidget::interior_focus         = 5
    GtkWidget::internal_padding       = 0

    xthickness = 1
    ythickness = 1

    fg[NORMAL]        = "#000000"
    fg[ACTIVE]        = "#000000"
    fg[PRELIGHT]      = "#b04402"
    fg[SELECTED]      = "#E06313"
    fg[INSENSITIVE]   = "#4b4440"

    bg[NORMAL]        = "#ECEDE5"
    bg[ACTIVE]        = "#D0D2C1"
    bg[PRELIGHT]      = "#E1E2DC"
    bg[SELECTED]      = "#ECEDE5"
    bg[INSENSITIVE]   = "#E1E2DC"

    text[NORMAL]      = "#000000"
    text[ACTIVE]      = "#FFFFFF"
    text[PRELIGHT]    = "#b04402"
    text[SELECTED]    = "#FFFFFF"
    text[INSENSITIVE] = "#4b4440"

    base[NORMAL]      = "#ECEDE5"
    base[ACTIVE]      = "#6E6E6D"
    base[PRELIGHT]    = "#ECEDE5"
    base[SELECTED]    = "#474849"
    base[INSENSITIVE] = "#ECEDE5"

    engine "xfce"
    {
        grip_style = none
        smooth_edge = true
    boxfill
        {
            fill_style = gradient
            orientation = vertical
            shade_start = 1.24
            shade_end = 1.00
        }
    }
}

For number 3 the command you want is:

exo-open

Just make a launcher and use the exo-open command and then put the folder you want it to open like this for the root folder:

exo-open /

you can also use the exo-open command to have a launcher that opens up a web address in firefox (or your default browser):

exo-open http://forum.xfce.org

jarnos

Member

From: Finland

Registered: 2009-03-22

Posts: 50

Website

Re: Gnome to XFCE; panel annoyances

For #3 there is even a guide in the wiki:http://wiki.xfce.org/howto/add_simple_s … _to_folder.