[Solved - kind of] Cinnamon Drawer ?

[Sydney]

MATE had a drawer - literally a yellow drawer icon that could hold other icons for program and accessory launchers. Clicking on it would open a vertical list of whatever was in it. I do not seem to be able to find this in Cinnamon ? Thanks a lot.

[Grayfox]

I am a LMDE nub but I would assume you're talking about this function.

Step 1: Right click task bar and click on + Add Applet

Screenshot from 2018-12-26 16-00-01.png

Step 2: Click on the downloads button in the applets window & Type in "Draw" in the search box

Screenshot from 2018-12-26 16-00-20.png

Step 3: Click the Down arrow to installit your PC.

Screenshot from 2018-12-26 16-00-40.png

Step 4: Click on the manage button and select the "Draw" applet and then click on the + Add button below

[Sydney]

Thank you, I had already found that, but it can only hold applets, not launchers, and it opens horizontally, thus takes up space on the taskbar again. "Hideable applets" at least opens vertically and comes a bit closer to the old drawer, but again: it can only hold applets, not launchers. I found "wmdrawer" via the software manager, which is supposed to work for launchers, and I can stick that on my taskbar, but I have yet to get it to work (no idea how to add anything to it, drag & drop certainly does not work) http://people.easter-eggs.org/~valos/wm ... tion=about
Then there is also "Custom applications menu" in the applets downloads, which is even more complicated and probably as far from a simple drag & drop drawer as one could get, although it looks really nice at least...

[smurphos]

Thank you, I had already found that, but it can only hold applets, not launchers, and it opens horizontally, thus takes up space on the taskbar again. "Hideable applets" at least opens vertically and comes a bit closer to the old drawer, but again: it can only hold applets, not launchers

Have you tried adding an instance of the panel-launcher applet to Hideable applets, and adding your launchers to that panel-launcher instance? Not sure if that would work and not at my Mint machine currently to check, but can't think of a reason it wouldn't.

[Sydney]

@smurphos: Great idea for a workaround, thank you. Unfortunately that does not work either as I cannot move the panel-launcher applet to Hideable applets.

[Sydney]

I invested some more time into wmdrawer - to no avail. It does not hold anything I try to drop into it.

Custom applications menu I still like but still can't get to work reliably. Maybe someone else could try ? E.g. with LibreOffice Writer or Character Map - just two examples that I can't get to show up. One program that does show is Shutter (from the repository) when I add { "desktopFile":"Shutter" }, but when I replace that with Screenshot, Character Map, LibreOffice Writer, Calculator (or their respective launch commands) or a ton of other programs: nothing happens.
(I don't care about icons, placeholders or any particular order. I just want a place for quick access to my programs).

[smurphos]

Possibly not the solution you are after but if you normally use a horizontal panel, an additional autohiding vertical panel dedicated to launchers makes a good 'drawer' in a literal sense.

Or switch menus for one that deals with favorites better than the stock menu. Both Cinnamenu and the Stark menu do.

[Sydney]

Thank you. That vertical panel workaround seemed like a good idea. Well, until one figured out that it's totally useless as there is no drag & drop to panels in cinnamon (WHY ???). The "add to panel" function drops launchers onto the horizontal panel exclusively, not onto the vertical one. And when triyng to add applets to the vertical panel, I get told that "this applet does not support panels of that type". In consequence the vertical panel has no function. Back to square one. Good heavens, this must be the most frustrating (and unstable) desktop environment that I have ever encountered.

[smurphos]

Make your vertical panel, add a panel launcher applet to it, drag your launchers to the new panel launcher applet. You may need to right click on the panel launcher applets to enable dragging in their settings.

If you delete the existing panel launcher applet from the horizontal panel the one on the vertical panel should default as the add to panel target.

Alternatively in panel edit mode just move the existing panel launcher applet to the vertical panel. In panel edit mode the drop zones for drag and drop are coloured.

Which applets won't it allow you to add to a vertical panel?

[Sydney]

Thanks so much, you have the patience of a saint.

- Make your vertical panel - o.k.
- add a panel launcher applet to it - o.k.
- drag your launchers to the new panel launcher applet - no dragging possible.
- You may need to right click on the panel launcher applets to enable dragging in their settings - how so ? I don't seem to find any options or settings of this sort.

- If you delete the existing panel launcher applet from the horizontal panel the one on the vertical panel should default as the add to panel target - I want to keep the horizontal one and use the vertical one for less important things.

- Alternatively in panel edit mode just move the existing panel launcher applet to the vertical panel. In panel edit mode the drop zones for drag and drop are coloured - no drag & drop possible at all, edit mode or not.



EDIT: I managed to fix it, but unfortunately I have no idea how. The vertical panel started to jitter between visible and invisible (in non-edit mode) and in this state (and only then) I was suddenly able to drop launchers from the horizontal panel (and only from there) to the vertical one. Thanks again for your help. I wish I could pass it on to anyone else who has this problem. But all I can suggest is: invest ample time and patience and hope for a miracle. I will now backup this thing and never touch it again. What a start to the New Year! Happy 2019 to everyone.

[smurphos]

No worries - any change of desktop environment is like driving a new manual car for the first time in a country that drives on the other side of the road from your native one. Initially unfamiliar and odd - once you driven it for a while it starts to become second nature. I've used Cinnamon now for a couple of years, and find Mate, XFCE and KDE 'odd', just because it takes me time to work out how to do something that takes me a few seconds in Cinnamon and certain aspects of work-flow irritate me as they are different from what I know. I know that other users of those desktops feel exactly the same way about Cinnamon when they try it for the first time and have to do things a little differently.

Gnome is just plain and simple end-user unfriendly.

[Sydney]

Something must have been wrong with my first install of cinnamon (though I have no idea why), but drag & drop worked on other installations. Lack of a general drawer still a problem, but at least the sidebar is workable.