Tray buttons - Icon and text.

[viking777]

Is it possible to change either the icon or the text (or both) that appears in a tray button ?

This relates to the Xfce desktop in my case but is probably the same in other desktop environments as well. In particular I would like to change either the icon or the text for Chromium. It is easy enough to change the icon for Chromium in a menu, but even if you do that, the default icon is still shown in tray buttons. It seems virtually impossible to change the text. In my case it shows the search term or window title in the button (ie whilst on this page it just shows Linux Mint Forums etc. etc) This annoys me, all I want it to show is the word 'Chromium'. Of course if I could change the icon then I wouldn't need to change the text and vice versa, but at the moment I can't do either.

If there isn't a way to do this then there certainly should be.

[GeneC]

Viking.
Not sure if I understand you correctly.
(tray = panel)??

If you are asking about changing the icon on an app you put in your xfce panel. That can be done.
Its all about finding the proper icon file that you want to change.
In my case I wanted to change the 'synapse" icon (colorful and BUSY) that showed up in my xfce panel to the 'synapse symbolic" type so it would match my other icons.
After a little 'playing' I was sucessful.

(click to enlarge)

The icon you want to change is in the 24 folder.
I renamed the icon I wanted to change to xxx.old
Placed the new icon in the folder and renamed IT to the name of the original icon.

In my case, I renamed 'synapse.png' to 'synapse.png.old' then added 'synapse-symbolic.png' to the folder, and renamed it 'synapse.png'

If your talking about changing icon in the menu's. I beleive its the same process, but a smaller icon (22 or 16? you have to experiment)

[wyrdoak]

If I understand correctly. I usually make a panel launcher for each program a want on the panel after I select the program for that launcher the button above the close button to the right is an edit button, in the edit launcher window you will see the icon, click on it and navigate to the icon you wish it to show.

Screenshot.png (41.71 KiB) Viewed 745 times

[GeneC]

wyrdoak is correct.
I should have been more clear.

For a panel launcher that is the correct approach and you can add most any icon you want.
In the case of 'synapse' or 'tomboy notes' both of which put icons in the notifications area from being launched in start-up applications. The only way I have found to change those, is the way I described. If there is an easier way.. 'Im in"....

[viking777]

Sorry guys, it looks like it was me that wasn't quite clear enough. Panel/tray? to me that is the same thing - the panel that sits at the bottom/top of your desktop and usually has a clock in it (amongst other things). But launchers and buttons are not the same at all. A launcher stays in the panel/tray all the time and 'launches' some program or other, these are easy to change icons for. A button is what appears in the tray once a program has been launched, it allows you to minimise/maximise/close the associated window. These are the things I can't change the icons for.

Maybe it is a size related thing as GeneC suggests, I will have a look at changing the 24x24 icon and see if that does it. Don't have time right now, I will let you know later on.

Edit. I tried it with 24x24 and 16x16 icons, but it makes no difference, I still get the default icon in the window button on the tray - I think it must be hard coded into the program.

Don't worry about it, it is not a big deal.

[wyrdoak]

The icon themes seem to be the only way I've seen to get the tray icons to change, but still many are just the system icons that change, program icons rarely change even then.
Don't mind me though I just realized you could put more than one program in a launcher in Xfce and have it scroll up and down the launcher to the program you wish. So I'm slow.

[viking777]

Well, wyrdoak et al, little did I realise when I asked what I thought would be a fairly simple question, that I had opened such a can of worms. I have found a way to change the icons for an existing window, the command line utility 'xseticon' - it works beautifully, but as soon as you shut down the window again it reverts back to the original icon, and as far as I can see it is not available in Ubuntu/Mint, so it is not worth trying to find it. Basically then it is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

I am amazed this simple process is so difficult, but it seems to tie in with the general 'dumbing down' of linux - an endless pursuit of making things happen automatically for newbies which results in less and less being possible for those with a little more knowledge - just wait until you experience the delights of 'systemd' startups and you will see what I mean