XFCE menu appearance

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pacman67

XFCE menu appearance

Post by pacman67 »

Hiya,

I have searched but cant find the answer - but apologies if this has been asked before.

I was running Mate on my desktop but wanted to move to XFCE. mostly so as I can have the same user experience as my almost completely blind father. Mostly I got the changeover process right, except for the menu (the bottom left application that opens from the bar).

[I get so confused as to what the correct name for things are, Exactly what is the menu, a docker,a panel, a 'top' container, the whisker menu (is that just the menu?) seems that each time I get a handle on what the {say} menu is, I am mistaken...]

On my machine, the menu (as I call it) when opened has two columns, on the left is an expanded view of the sub category on the right. This (to me) is in error I want a category list on the left, and expanded view on the right [like the standard mint XFCE menu is?].

Have I installed the incorrect package(s)?
is there a config file I should edit?
What other information should I have told you to make any help you offer easier?

Thanks in advance.
Paul
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
richyrich

Re: XFCE menu appearance

Post by richyrich »

The best way to ensure ALL of Mint's Xfce packages are installed is to use the following terminal command: (if some are already installed, it will skip them)

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mint-meta-xfce
pacman67

Re: XFCE menu appearance

Post by pacman67 »

Thanks richy

I must have done something correct (which is _becoming_ more common for me in linux) as I get

mint-meta-xfce is already the newest version.
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 42 not to upgrade

So it's a .config issue?
Or I'm running the wrong version of the menu (is there a specific mint menu version I should be running from the bottom panel?)

Any further help appreciated...
richyrich

Re: XFCE menu appearance

Post by richyrich »

Okay, you've probably added the standard Xfce "Applications Menu" to the panel, rather instead, add the "Whisker Menu" to the panel. (then you can delete the other from the panel)
BlackVeils

Post by BlackVeils »

if you right-click the panel (taskbar), go to panel settings, then items tab, use the add button on the right, find the mint menu, add it.

you now will have 2 menus, so highlight the whisker menu item and then use the delete button on the right.

drag the mint menu to the appropriate location (top equals left). but understand the mint menu being used in xfce may or may not be reliable, as far as I know, as it doesn't really belong there.

if there is no menu item with mint in the name, then I must be confusing desktop environments.

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Quexos
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Re: XFCE menu appearance

Post by Quexos »

I'm not sure if I understood the question exactly, but just in case...

You can reverse (flip) the column layout of the Whisker Menu if that is the problem: Right click the 'menu button' > Properties. Whisker Menu options pop up. Under the 'Behavior' tab, check (default) or uncheck the box "Position categories next to panel button".
whisker.jpg
menu.jpg
MtnDewManiac
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Re: XFCE menu appearance

Post by MtnDewManiac »

If your pop has very poor vision, if he only really uses a few applications, and IF you or someone else is available to configure his system if/when he needs it, he might be happier not even using a main desktop applications menu. I still have mine because, well, just because, lol. But I mainly use seven applications, so I created a double-sized (would be double-height except that it's in a vertical orientation) panel on the upper part of the left border of the screen that is just big enough to hold seven application launchers. Their icons are actually 4x bigger than "standard" because, since they remain to scale, they grew in both directions when added to a double-size panel (if that makes sense). I would assume that I could increase the size of that panel even more and those icons would increase further. It really doesn't matter how big one chooses to make a panel, since simply setting an option will cause that panel to auto-hide when it isn't being accessed.

One good thing about the Whisper menu, now that I think of it, is that you can press your linux key(*) to bring it up and just start typing the name of the application you wish to run. It'll bring up a list of choices that narrows as you continue typing (for example, when I type s I see (X)Screensaver, Screenshot, ScummVM, SDL Slash'Em, et cetera, and when I then type d, SDL Slash'Em becomes the entry at the top of the list and I can, at that point, press Enter to run it). That may (or may not, I suppose) be helpful.

IDK about your financial situation, but investing in the largest display device that will comfortably fit in front of where your father sits to use his computer might be a wise move. There are "magnifier/zoom" methods, of course - but they will by their nature cause only a portion of the screen to be displayed at one time. Viewing that desktop in the normal fashion on an 84" display, OtOH...

(*)I think it might have been called a "Windows key" before I stuck a little penguin sticker on it, lol. It had an icon of a piece of four-way window pane on it...

Regards,
Mint 18 Xfce 4.12.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat.
pacman67

Re: XFCE menu appearance

Post by pacman67 »

@ Quexos

That was it - thanks.

For some reason when adding the whisker menu to the bottom panel (it gets added to far right), it would behave 'properly' but when moved to far left it would change to the "wrong" way.

I didn't equate "Position categories next to panel button" to mean swap the sides of the two columns....

Still - HUGE thanks...
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