putting desktop icons in specific places

[Skaperen]

when i create new icons for my desktop, it packs them to the left. when i login, it repacks them in the order sorting the file names in ~/Desktop. i would rather put each icon in a specific place around the desktop display and have them stay in that position. how can i do that? which desktop environments can do this?

[TheFu]

fvwm can. every icon can be specifically placed on any workspace, and position.

[Skaperen]

any way to do it in xfce?

[tea for one]

any way to do it in xfce?

Which version of Xfce are you using?

Version 4.14 holds the icons in place after rebooting.

[Skaperen]

Which version of Xfce are you using?

Version 4.14 holds the icons in place after rebooting.

*sigh* 4.12

[ajgreeny]

I used to have this problem when I used desktop icons and solved it by making the text files in /home/<user>/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons* immutable.
Use

sudo chattr +i /home/<user>/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

Should you want to change anything you will have to remove that immutable flag with

sudo chattr -i /home/<user>/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

I haven't used desktop icons for a long time now as I have a vertical panel on the left side of my screen full of launchers; much tidier and easier to manage.

[Skaperen]

I used to have this problem when I used desktop icons and solved it by making the text files in /home/<user>/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons* immutable.
Use

sudo chattr +i /home/<user>/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

Should you want to change anything you will have to remove that immutable flag with

sudo chattr -i /home/<user>/.config/xfce4/desktop/icons*

I haven't used desktop icons for a long time now as I have a vertical panel on the left side of my screen full of launchers; much tidier and easier to manage.

tell me more about the vertical panel. that sounds like something i gave up on a while back. can i put text there instead of icons? can i make it slide out only when the mouse point approaches or hits the left side?

edit:

can i have one one the left and a different one on the right at the same time?
can i set the font and/or font size?
does it handle Unicode/UTF-8?

[ajgreeny]

1- Can i put text there instead of icons? can i make it slide out only when the mouse point approaches or hits the left side?
2- Can i have one one the left and a different one on the right at the same time?
3- Can i set the font and/or font size?
4- Does it handle Unicode/UTF-8?

1- You can choose to use a label instead of an icon for launchers but the panel will then need to be wide enough to show the labels which may be a lot wider than you want, but the panel on the side, just like that at top or bottom can autohide (show only when the mouse pointer goes into it).
2- You can put a panel at any one, two, three or all of the four sides of the screen if you wish.
3- Not sure about that; I use all icons.
4- No idea, nit sure exactly what you mean, but not applicable for me as I use icons.

See screenshot for the way I use this.

[Skaperen]

what needs to be done to set this up? is it an application program that runs? if it is written in python that would be super awesome. if it is written in nodejs that would be fine.

the problem i have is that many of the things i would have are like things, close enough to use the same icon. i have the same terminal icon and have named if (the words that show up under the icon) according to which user it switches to. so the icon i useless. it is the words that matter.

[webaake]

Xfce4-panel supports UTF8 and you can have as many panels on screen as you like. And place them almost where you like. You can either go to Settings -> Panel -> click on the plus sign besides "Panel 0" to add a new panel. Or just right click on your present panel and go to Panel settings (you'll end up in the same settings window). Panels are numbered 0,1,2 and so on.