How do I edit drop-down menus? Lucid 5.2.0 with xfce

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disciple
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#16 Post by disciple »

If I were to simply dump jwm, would xfce use it's own list?
Removing JWM won't help anything - JWM has no influence on the menus shown by other software.
I think the problem is that XFCE is using its own (i.e. different from the standard Puppy one that JWM would use) menu structure. And I think lxmed is using its own menu structure too (from memory I think what it shows in your screenshot is the standard LXDE menu structure, not the standard Puppy menu structure).
I have seen references to using lxmed with XFCE, but I'm not sure how to make it look at a particular structure. Looking at this I'm wondering if maybe it isn't even possible (without modifying lxmed): http://lxmed.sourceforge.net/help.html#category
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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Eathray
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#17 Post by Eathray »

Disciple and Smokey,

Okay, I had a little success with xmenumaker. I couldn't figure out at first how to do a symlink in thunar (the xfce file manager) because all the directions I found were crazy/nuts/complicated.

Then I found something somewhere that said to drag a file to desktop/symlink option, which I found in right-clicking gtkdialog3. So I moved/symed gtkdialog3 to desktop, renamed it 'gtkdialog' then moved it back to /usr/sbin, and sure enough, it's now a symlink to gtkdialog3.

I clicked xmenumaker, and i'll be, it opened for the first time :shock:

I have no idea how to use it yet, but knowing I can is awesome :!:

More to come 8)

Eathray

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Eathray
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#18 Post by Eathray »

I'm making progress on the sub-menu icons. Below is an example:

[img]file:///root/my-documents/clipart/sub-menu-icons.png[/img]

I've got a section done and bits and pieces throughout the sub-menu selections, but wow... this is a really slow process. I've been copying the name of the icons I want to use, then opening the desktop files in Geany, and replacing the line that says Icon=whatever.pic-of-my-choice.

It works, but it's really time consuming. I thought of just replacing everything, but I don't think I can do that because the new icons I downloaded will not match up with the names of the icons in the desktop folder, so as far as I know, it's a manual gig.

If anyone knows a faster way, I would mucho appreciate hearing about it.

Thanks, and any input is always welcome on this project. I've never done this before, remember.

Thanks all, and more to come.

Eathray
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disciple
Posts: 6984
Joined: Sun 21 May 2006, 01:46
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

#19 Post by disciple »

If you're just trying to change the icons, I think you're going about it the "wrong" way. Instead of editing the .desktop files, find out how to create an icon theme. That way you can share it, or reuse it on another system, and it won't be destroyed when you update puppy or individual programs. But you can probably find an existing theme that you like and save yourself a lot of work...
Or are you saying you have found a theme, but it doesn't work with Puppy? I think Puppy icon themes might be slightly incompatible with normal ones, but I don't know.
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

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ROOT FOREVER
GTK2 FOREVER

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Eathray
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#20 Post by Eathray »

disciple wrote:If you're just trying to change the icons, I think you're going about it the "wrong" way. Instead of editing the .desktop files, find out how to create an icon theme. That way you can share it, or reuse it on another system, and it won't be destroyed when you update puppy or individual programs. But you can probably find an existing theme that you like and save yourself a lot of work...
Or are you saying you have found a theme, but it doesn't work with Puppy? I think Puppy icon themes might be slightly incompatible with normal ones, but I don't know.
It definitely feels like the LONG way :lol:

I found an 'icon set' which is just a collection of icons, not a pet, but it matches the theme I've been creating. The truth is, I don't really know how to create a .pet. I've been planning on trying to learn, and have read through some directions I found, but it's new territory. I suppose I could get a pet, replace my icons into it, then rename it accordingly... Hadn't really thought of that approach. Most of the pets though seem to be focused on the desktop icons, and my desktop doesn't have any icons. I'm using them in the drop-down menus and in my panels; I have a stationary panel above and below, and two hidden panels for the sides.

K, I shall look into it. Thanks :wink:

Eathray

disciple
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Joined: Sun 21 May 2006, 01:46
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

#21 Post by disciple »

The truth is, I don't really know how to create a .pet
Most pets are created when someone compiles a program, by running `new2dir make install` (instead of `make install`), and then `dir2pet`.

If you are manually creating something like an icon theme you need to create a directory somewhere with the name you want the pet to have e.g. "/crazy_icon_theme". (It might need a version number at the end of the folder name - I can't remember)
Inside that folder you put everything that needs to go in the pet, in a folder structure that matches the main file system. So if something needs to go in "/usr/share/pixmaps", then you put it in "/crazy_icon_theme/usr/share/pixmaps". Once everything is in there, open a terminal, run `cd /` so you're in the same directory as /crazy_icon_theme, then `dir2pet crazy_icon_theme`. It will ask you some questions and then create the pet.
I suppose I could get a pet, replace my icons into it, then rename it accordingly...
If you're thinking of opening it with xarchiver or something to do that: well, you could, but it would be a corrupted pet. A pet is a .tar.gz with an md5sum or something on the end, to provide a check when you install it that it downloaded correctly. If you replaced files in an existing pet then the md5 would no longer match. You need to use dir2pet.
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

Classic Puppy quotes

ROOT FOREVER
GTK2 FOREVER

disciple
Posts: 6984
Joined: Sun 21 May 2006, 01:46
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

#22 Post by disciple »

I'm afraid I've never looked at how the menu icons work with themes.

I do know that with a normal distro when you change the icon theme a lot of the menu icons change, but not quite all of them. e.g. the icon for a number of browsers will change, but I think the icon for firefox won't. I'm not sure if that's because some .desktop files specify an icon with its path (and only the ones with no path use theme icons), or because a lot of .desktop files use a generic icon that is usually included in a theme (but others use their own special icon that isn't).

I have a feeling a lot of indigenous Puppy apps use icons that aren't included in most themes. I think theming works using symlinks, in which case if there is a suitable replacement icon in most themes your best option might be to overwrite the icon the .desktop file refers to with a symlink to the suitable theme symlink. But if you wanted to keep the theme after updating puppy, the easiest way might be to put that symlink in a pet, and reinstall it after the update.
Do you know a good gtkdialog program? Please post a link here

Classic Puppy quotes

ROOT FOREVER
GTK2 FOREVER

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