Window placement in xfce

[Holger_Gehrke]

So either the menu is ignoring the .desktop file or I have edited the wrong file ... or something else is going awry.

The desktop file I edited is /home/john/.local/share/applications/xfce4-terminal.desktop

I think it's "something else", probably the name and the categories set for your desktop file; you probably have an additional entry for the Terminal somewhere in the menu now which does what you want and two or three generated from the old desktop file which don't. The name-field inside the desktop-file gives the applications an identity and the categories define the app's place in the menu. The .desktop-file that's installed by XUbuntu is /usr/share/applications/exo-terminal-emulator.desktop and has an Exec-line "exo-open --launch TerminalEmulator". I just right-clicked on the item in the menu and selected "Edit Application" (well, actually it said "Anwendung bearbeiten"; my system is set up in German ...) and got a small dialog in which I changed the command by just adding the option. That resulted in a new .desktop file which overruled the default one being written to ~/.local/share/applications with the change I made.

Holger

[amanchesterman]

As you say, I've now got a launcher in the menu which makes Terminal behave as I want -- thank you for all your help.
Now I just need to puzzle out how to do the same with Thunar. But I'm marking this as 'solved'.

[vanadium]

You can add the desired options after the "exo-open --launch TerminalEmulator" command, i.e., make that "exo-open --launch TerminalEmulator --geometry=+0+30". The --geometry option will be passed to your favourite terminal emulator, which in your case (and in a default Xubuntu install) is xfce4-terminal.

Are you aware of the "Placement" tab in "Window Manager Tweaks? The slider determines the minimum window size for which "smart placement" will be applied. Setting this to a minimum will apply smart placement for any opened window, setting it to max will revert to one of the default options listed further down, either opening centered, or placed under the mouse cursor. This will, however, only be in effect for applications that do not restore their own window settings.

Your best bet to take full control on window placement yourself may be using a tool such as devilspie and its successor devilspie2. That tool stays in memory and watches all windows that are created. When a window meets certain criteria, it is acted upon according to rules you define in a config file. Thus, you can automatically place windows on a certain position of the screen, on a certain workspace, have them automatically maximized, minimized or sized.

[amanchesterman]

Thanks for your post Vanadium!

I had looked at 'Window Manager Tweaks' but I couldn't see that it would do what I wanted. If only it offered the default option to open all windows 'aligned top left' it would be perfect.

I wasn't aware of devilspie2, thank you for pointing it out. As you say it offers total control of window placement. I may experiment with it when I have more time. Thanks again!