Part 3

A WRITER'S DESKTOP – PART 3

In Part1, I gave an overview of why XFCE is a good fit for my writing desktop. In Part 2, I showed you how to add and manage panels. In part 3, I will show you the utility of Workspaces and the process of setting them up.

Playing With Workspaces

So far, we have added icons to the left panel according to our need. Now it is time to learn how to manage workspaces. XFCE comes with four workspaces by default. You can increase or decrease them according to your needs. I have found that six workspaces work the best for me, as I often multitask during writing. For example, I may be writing an article for one client. At the same time, I might need to access my emails, or refer some article on the net. I might also have to look at my finances, or refer to a spreadsheet to confirm payments received. I might also decide to make a presentation for another client. Often, it gets monotonous while writing, so I entertain myself with playing some games.

With several workspaces handling many applications, it is easier to work without distractions. Of course, it is also possible to do this on a single screen with many windows open. However, to work on any one application you must focus on it. You must first search for and select its window. Using many workspaces, I can leave all my applications always maximized. I also do not have to hunt for the one I want and switching takes only a single click. With many workspaces, I can move away from the current work for any duration. I can always come back to it again later without missing a step.

 

This is what the left panel looks like before we start modifying the workspaces. If you notice, there are four of them and we are on the first, shown as the darkest of the lot. Right-clicking anywhere within the Workspace Switcher icon brings up a menu. Here, you must click on Workspace Settings…, to bring up the Workspaces menu.

The Workspaces menu has two parts – Workspaces on the left and Margins on the right. Right now, we will work only with the part on Workspaces. Begin by increasing the number of workspaces to 6. For this, click on the up arrow besides the Number of workspaces and change the number from 4 to 6. When you do that, you will notice the Workspace Name will also change from four rows to six. Moreover, their numbering will increment as well.

At this point, you can assign individual names to each workspace. Try WS1 for the first, WS2 for the second and so on. For this, left click twice on 1, the first row under Workspace Name. Type in WS1 or anything else you want to call the first workspace. Do the same for the other workspaces. I prefer to leave the workspaces without any names. Click on Close to exit the menu.

Again, bring up the selection menu by right-clicking anywhere within the Workspace Switcher icon. Only, this time click on Properties, to bring up the Workspace Switcher menu.

Here, change the number of rows to 6 from the 1 shown. For this, click on the up arrow besides the Number of rows until the number displayed shows 6. As you increment the number, the left panel begins to change as well. When you reach six, the icon would have changed to look like six squares one below the other. This represents six workspaces.

Now look within the Workspace Switcher menu. Just below the Number of rows, there is a check-box named Show miniature view - check this box. Whenever you open applications, their miniature icons will appear within the Workspace Switcher icon. Click on Close to exit the menu. The panel will look like the image on the left.

We are now nearing the end of our journey in setting up the left panel on our XFCE desktop. There are still a few things we can do to make the panel look more attractive.

Finishing Touches for the Panel

1. Lock the Panel

Once you have placed the panel to a position of your liking, it is advisable to lock it in position. Start by right-clicking anywhere within the Workspaces Switcher icon in the left panel. This will bring up the Workspace Switcher menu - click on Panel. Panel Properties will open and allow you to select Panel preferences. Click on the Display tab. Look under the General category and you will find a check-box named Lock panel. Check the box to remove the top and bottom handles from the Left panel. That locks the panel in its current position. You can similarly lock the position of the top panel as well.

2. Show and Hide the Panel Automatically

This check-box lies immediately below Lock panel. Check the box to hide the left panel completely. However, the panel comes into view again as the mouse cursor hovers near the left edge of the desktop. To activate this effect, you must click on Close and exit the menu.

3. Make the Icons Float

For this effect, you need to turn on the XFCE windows compositor. Do this by clicking on the All Settings icon at the bottom of the Whisker menu. The All Settings menu will open - click on Window Manager Tweaks. This opens up a menu for fine tuning window behavior and effects. Select the Compositor tag and tick on Enable display compositing. You can also tick all the other boxes on this menu, according to your fancy. Click on Close to exit the menu.

Start by right-clicking anywhere within the Workspaces Switcher icon in the left panel. The Workspace Switcher menu comes up - click on Panel. This opens up Panel Properties and allows you to select Panel preferences. Click on the Appearances tab - set Style to None and Alpha to 0. As you move the Alpha slider to zero, watch the background under the icons of the left panel. The background grows fainter and finally disappears. In its place, the desktop background is visible under the icons. This makes the icons on the panel look as if they are hovering above the desktop. Click on Close to exit the menu. You can do the same for the top panel as well. I find setting Alpha to a figure between 50 and 60 gives the best effect for the top panel.

Finally, the left hand panel should look like the image shown on the right.

In the Part 4 of this series, I will show you how XFCE allows personalizing and beautifying windows, giving them a characteristic look, use good-looking fonts and set up the desktop to suit LCD monitors.

Part 2

A Writer's Desktop - Part 2

In Part 1, I gave an overview of why XFCE is a good fit for my writing desktop. In Part 2, I will show you how to add and modify panels.

Modifying the Panels

If this is a fresh install of your distribution, I recommend you do an “Update” followed by an “Upgrade.” That will ensure you have the latest updates. The easiest way to do that is to open a terminal and type:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

This is a good time to install the XFCE Whisker Menu, if not already available by default. You can install the “xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin” by the command:

$ sudo apt-get install xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin

Reboot for all the updates to be effective.

We will shortly see how to replace the Applications Menu with the Whisker Menu.

A fresh installation of XFCE has two panels by default, Panel 1 on the top and Panel 2 at the bottom. Although XFCE allows you to make several panels, we are content with two. 

First, we will remove the bottom panel, as we will be replacing it later with another on the left hand side.

Making up the Top Panel

Right-click on the top panel, select Panel and then Panel Preferences. This will open up the Panel menu, where you can add or delete panels. Click on the triangle beside Panel 1 (this is the top panel), and you will be able to select Panel 2 (the bottom panel). Click on the adjoining Minus sign and delete Panel 2.

Click on the Items label. It lists all items within the top panel. We will arrange these to our advantage. First, select the Action Buttons and use the Down Arrow to move it to the bottom of the list. As all the functionality provided in the Action Buttons is already available in the Applications Menu, I choose to remove it – click on the Minus button (fourth from top). We do not want the Workspace Switcher button on the top panel, so we remove that as well. Next, we also remove the Applications Menu, and replace it with the Whisker Menu (use the Add button, third from top). The icon on the top panel will change.

Also, add a Separator button and position it just below the Whisker Menu entry in the list. Select the Separator entry and change its properties by selecting the Edit button (fifth from top) – tick on Expand and close.

At this point, you may also add a few useful buttons such as Weather Updates, Audio Mixer (Volume control), Network Monitor and any others you regularly use. Position them on the right hand side, before the Clock. Click on the Close button on the Panel menu. I prefer to display complete date and time information. Therefore, right-click on Clock and choose properties.

This opens the Clock dialog. Keep the Layout as Digital and the Tooltip format as “Tuesday 14 April 2015” and tick on Show frame. Select Custom Format for Clock Options Format and in the dialog box immediately below, enter -

%a %d %b, %I:%M %p

Click on Close in the Clock dialog.

At this stage, your panel will be looking somewhat clunky, but do not worry we will be taking care of that later. Your top panel should effectively look like -

 

Creating a new Side Panel

Right-click on the top panel, select Panel and then Panel Preferences. This will open up the Panel menu, allowing you to add a new panel. Click on the Add button beside Panel 0 (this is the top panel), and a small new Panel 1 will be visible.

Click on the label Display and under General Mode, select Deskbar. This will change the orientation of the new Panel 1 to vertical. Drag it by the handles on the top or the bottom of the Panel to the extreme left side of the desktop. For Measurements enter -

Row Size = 48 pixels

Number of rows = 1

Length = 10%

Add a tick for Automatically increase the length.

Click on the Items label. Click on the Add button (third from top), and add 7 Launcher buttons, 2 Separators and 1 Workspace Switcher button. Arrange these as shown.

Select the topmost Launcher button and click on the Edit button (fifth from the top). Within the resulting Launcher dialog box, click on the Add button. This opens the Add New Item dialog, where you need to search for Browser (type it in), and select your favorite browser from the list. Closing the Add New Item dialog box will add the selected browser label to the Launcher dialog box. Closing the Launcher dialog box will embed the Browser icon to the top of Panel 1.

Similarly embed the following icons to the balance six Launchers on the Panel 1, starting from the top (after the Browser):

Terminal Emulator

File Manager

Text Editor

Calculator

LibreOffice Writer

Oracle VM VirtualBox.

The new side panel, Panel 1 should now look like -

 

Adding More Icons

Some more work is required on the side panel to make it more effective for writers. At present, you can only launch LibreOffice Writer. However, you can have additional icon launchers within the panel without increasing its length. We will hide the additional icons beneath the LibreOffice Writer, but you can do the same with any other icon as well.

Start by right-clicking on the icon LibreOffice Writer and select Properties. This opens the Launcher properties dialog where you can add more application icons with the Add button or remove them with the Minus button.

Add icons for as many more applications as you like. On the left panel on my desktop, I have icons for LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Draw, LibreOffice Impress, GnuCash, Gnu Image Manipulation Program and Inkscape – these I use most. You can choose according to your requirements. Click to Close the Launcher dialog after you have finished adding your icons.

As soon as you add application icons below the first icon, you will see a small triangle appear below the LibreOffice Writer icon on the panel. To access the extra icons you just added, click on the triangle. Another panel opens up beside the left panel, showing all the newly added icons. You can add icons to any other application icon on the panel as well. This feature in XFCE provides a very convenient way of having large number of icons in the panel, but without extending the panel length.

In Part 3 of this series, I will show you how to use workspaces and beautify the panels.