GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 53420
Feature Request: Ability to move launchers within QuickLaunch
Last modified: 2006-02-13 07:28:36 UTC
It would be great if one could control/rearrange the location of the launchers in the quicklaunch applet. There are a few things that might be able to be done here: 1) Launchers get inserted at the location a user drops the launcher instead of at the end. 2) One can drag launchers around inside the applet. For example, perhaps one could right-click on the launcher, select "Move", and then as they move the cursor the launcher swaps positions with its neighbors similar to how applets switch position in the Panel. 3) Same as #2 except middle clicking instead of right clicking and selecting "Move" (ie. just like with the Panel) A seperate question - I wonder if the QuickLaunch applet should not really be an applet and should just be integrated into the Panel? From a usability point of view, it seems to just be one mode of the Panel (or even a Panel within the Panel, sort of like a drawer), and not a seperate application. CC'ing George for his thoughts on making it part of the Panel, and Calum for his usability thoughts.
For the quick launch applet, duplicating/extending the whole panel move mode thing would probably be overkill... perhaps just implementing 'switched movement mode' when you dragged an icon would be enough. Your second question is interesting... the 'general' solution you're driving at would probably be a grid-based panel, with the ability to resize the objects on it (probably snapped to grid units, by default, but that could be optional): . .___.___. .___.___.___.___.___. .___.___.___. . | | | applet | | m | m | m | . . L . .___.___.___.___.___. .___.___.___. . | | | applet | | m | m | m | . .___.___. .___.___.___.___.___. .___.___.___. . where L is a regular-sized launcher icon (2x2 grid units, in this example), the two applets might be something like stock ticker and xchat, arranged to be each 5x1 grid units, and the m's are launcher icons that have been shrunk down to 1x1 grid unit each, much like you might find in the quick launcher applet now. Sounds like a cool idea to me, but I don't fancy implementing the keynav for the answers to either of your questions :)
Temporary workaround: For, at least, version 1.2.1 of the quicklaunch applet it's possible to reorder the items manually: * Change to your ~/.gnome/quicklaunch directory (assuming you've already run quicklaunch). * The order of the mini-launchers is determined by the order of the "Applet_<id>.desktop" files in this directory. The order is the order they are returned by the 'scandir' function in C. This order appears to be the same as that displayed by 'ls -lU'. * The easiest(?) way to change the order is to move the files into another directory (I used 'tmp' below the current directory) and then copy them back one by one. The order they are copied back determines the order they appear on the quicklaunch bar. (I also renamed "Applet_<id>.desktop" to "Applet_<name>.desktop" as I copied them which should make it easier to reorder them again.) * Finally, restart the applet (by removing and then re-adding quicklaunch from the panel (or login again...)), the quicklaunch bar should reflect the new order. * This is a kludge but it works, and I think it's better than not being able to do it at all.
Not in GNOME2 and I doubt someone will spend time implementing new features for 1.4.1 so...WONTFIX.
Moving reports from obsolete component 'quicklaunch' to 'general'.