(Solved) "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

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veganpete

(Solved) "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by veganpete »

Is there a way to add a "Places" or a "Home" menu/shortcut to the panel? :idea:

I've looked in synaptic and found an add-on for AWN but it's limited and doesn't show any mounted drives. :roll:
At the moment If I have open windows/programs, I have to minimize them and then click the "Home" icon before I can navigate where I want to.

Thanks :)
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
seppalta

Re: "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by seppalta »

veganpete

Re: "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by veganpete »

seppalta wrote:See Sections 4 and 11 in http://douwil7.100webspace.net/linux/Tuning.html#11.
Thanks, I read through it and couldn't see how to add a places menu - is that a tutorial just for adding .desktop aplications to the panel? It mentions using LXpanel (with tint to stop it crashing) instead of gnome-panel - does LXpanel have a places menu? I can already add apps to AWN, still strugling with a places menu on Gnome-panel :s
veganpete

Re: "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by veganpete »

I managed to add a directory to the Panel by right clicking the panel and selecting "Add Panel Item" and then clicking "+Add", then clicking Directory and navigating to my Home folder but it wont show mounted drives which is a shame.
seppalta

Re: "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by seppalta »

The necessary information is all there. If you look at the first image in section 11, you see the only way to the panel (taskbar) is via an application desktop file through the Main Menu. To get a desktop file, you need an exec. To get an exec for a place, you need a simple bash script, which is basically just identifying the launcher (pcmanfm, firefox, chromium-browser, lxpanelctl, etc). Once you create the desktop file and put it in one of the menu directories (for example, /usr/share/applications), you have it in the menu like an application (you can make it invisible there if you don't want places cluttering up your applications menu). Now add it to the panel in the usual way for adding applications (see section 4). I showed an example, places.sh, of a bash script for simultaneously launching 2 external hard drives named hitachi and freeagnt near the end of section 11. There I was illustrating a desktop link, so I put the desktop file in my Desktop Directory. I could just as well have placed it in /usr/share/applications to make it available to create a panel link. Or you can put it in both places and have 2 links. You can also link places to the Openbox (right click) menu described in Section 3 and have 3 links. Of course, you identify only 1 storage in your bash script if you only want one at a time to open. Anything Pcmanfm opens (for example, trash, applications 2-dimensional menu as in the picture, etc) can be linked to the panel, or desktop or openbox menu, in this way.

The last part of section 9 explains how to add new categories to the main menu. You could add a category called Places, point all the places desktop files to it and have a section of places in the Main Menu. It is all stable and really beautiful - only with LXDE! :D
veganpete

Re: "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by veganpete »

Thanks, thats really helped :)

...just one more thing please - it wont let me hide items on the main panel menu - I can uncheck the items but they remain in the menu after close (and log-out). Is there a way to manually open the menu as root to make sure it saves the changes?

Cheers, Pete.
seppalta

Re: "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by seppalta »

I'm not sure what you are asking. "...uncheck the items..." ? If you do not want an application to show in the Main Menu, but you do want its desktop file to remain in a desktop file directory, then simply add (as root) the line

Code: Select all

NoDisplay=true
to its desktop file. Not assigning a Category will also leave it out.
veganpete

Re: "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by veganpete »

seppalta wrote:I'm not sure what you are asking. "...uncheck the items..." ? If you do not want an application to show in the Main Menu, but you do want its desktop file to remain in a desktop file directory, then simply add (as root) the line

Code: Select all

NoDisplay=true
to its desktop file. Not assigning a Category will also leave it out.
...on the panel, if I click Applications Menu and go to "Preferences" and then click "Main Menu", it gives me the option to add or remove applications and locations to the menu and remove existing ones by unchecking them from a list. I added a places folder and tried to add all the locations (it loses them again when I save). I'm not Linux savvy - I did all my previous customizing on ubuntu using compiz, tweak-ubuntu, awn and various gnome-panel options and applets rather than delving under the bonnet and tweaking the code directly. This root/bash/.desktop is a bit over my head so I opted for the simpler option first (but it doesn't work as advertised for some reason) so I guess I'll fumble about a bit more. lol
veganpete

Re: (Solved) "Places" menu on panel? Mint 12 LXDE

Post by veganpete »

OK, sorted - right click the panel, select add item and click Add "Directory Menu" :oops:

* Also, in Avant Window Navigator (AWN), the "File Browser Launcher" Appelet is pretty good and you can add items using bookmarks in the file-browser :)
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