MX Linux Forum

Posted: **Sat Oct 21, 2023 5:11 pm**

I would like to have a specific Writer document easily accessible for me to open at any time. Is there a way to do this by pinning it to the Panel or by any other means?

EDIT: I mark this as "Solved" but the answers are in the thread.

Posted: **Sat Oct 21, 2023 5:15 pm**

I set a hotkey and just press it. The command is the path, say: featherpad /path/to/thatfile.txt

Posted: **Sat Oct 21, 2023 5:24 pm**

Yep. I have my fish slapping stuff in a key that way.

Posted: **Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:13 pm**

ha! I would have thought you would have AutoKey setup for something like 'fishslap ' ... hahaha

Posted: **Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:27 pm**

@andymx if your only doing a document or two, then you can create a shortcut on the desktop or panel. OR, you can just put an entry into your favorites on the whisker menu.

And I have setup on my Cario-Dock a special folder where I put "Things I am working on now" ( Current ) and then symlink to them in this folder. This gives me hover ability and Cario-Dock shows all docs in this folder and one click I can open anyone. Then when I am no longer in need of this link, I just delete the sumlink.

I use several folders like this: Data, Clients & Current ... extremely useful.

It looks like this (This is my Data folder link to svn data )

Posted: **Sat Oct 21, 2023 8:04 pm**

Or you can do it this way.
viewtopic.php?p=730841#p730841

If you need any help on this method, just ask.

Posted: **Sat Oct 21, 2023 10:41 pm**

I did similar to what you asked. I opened the application, pinned it to the dock, edited the launcher on the dock to open the document I wanted most often.
The only problem I have now is, if I open another document, it opens the one on the dock also, so I have 2 documents open.
Not a big issue as I just close the default one, but it surprised me the first time.

Posted: **Sat Oct 21, 2023 10:59 pm**

Using the Terminal, create a symbolic link to the document on your Desktop:

Code: Select all

cd ~/Desktop
ln -s ~/Documents/nameoffile.odt NameOfFile

That second "NameOfFile" is what you will see on your desktop.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:05 am**

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I didn't think there would be so many alternative solutions! I thought about creating a Launcher for the document and tried to do so, but it was rather difficult for me. I installed LibreOffice from a flatpak and the path to it is /usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=libreoffice --file-forwarding org.libreoffice.LibreOffice --writer @@u %U @@. Too many characters and dashes to make sense to me! This I think kind of rules out a few of the other suggestions too.
At this stage I think the simplest solution would be to create a symbolic link to the document on my Desktop.

EDIT: I discovered that if I right click on the document in Thunar there is an option to send a link to the Desktop.

EDIT 2: Apologies for the continuous edits, but it may help some other user to read this. I thought about installing Cairo dock, but I think it may be too resource heavy and I decided to install Plank instead. It's simpler and less fancy, but I think it will cover the basics for me. One thing that I like is that now I can unpin Firefox and Thunar from the Panel where they appear at the top left of my screen and they are relatively far for me to point the mouse and open either of them. I pinned them to the Plank dock instead. As regards the document under discussion, I simply dragged it to the Plank dock and pinned it there. I notice that I can also pin entire folders to the dock too, which is useful for me as I have a folder of things that I'm currently reading.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 7:43 am**

Hi

rather than a keyboard combination, you can also have it autolaunch if you need it each boot.

for icewm...I have ~/.icewm/startup with contents

#!/bin/sh

pcmanfm --desktop &
/usr/local/bin/nl &
volumeicon &
nm-applet &
apulse /usr/bin/firefox &

The last line would be similar to featherpad /path2/file &

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 8:23 am**

@Charlie Brown
@towwire

Charlie Brown wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 5:15 pm I set a hotkey and just press it. The command is the path, say: featherpad /path/to/thatfile.txt

It's a LibreOffice document with an odt extension. I installed LibreOffice from a flatpak and the command in the Whisker menu is

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=libreoffice --file-forwarding org.libreoffice.LibreOffice --writer @@u %U @@

?

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 8:35 am**

The Recent Documents feature of the KDE menu is what I use for this.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 8:38 am**

CharlesV wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 7:27 pm @andymx if your only doing a document or two, then you can create a shortcut on the desktop or panel. OR, you can just put an entry into your favorites on the whisker menu.

And I have setup on my Cario-Dock a special folder where I put "Things I am working on now" ( Current ) and then symlink to them in this folder. This gives me hover ability and Cario-Dock shows all docs in this folder and one click I can open anyone. Then when I am no longer in need of this link, I just delete the sumlink.

I use several folders like this: Data, Clients & Current ... extremely useful.

It looks like this (This is my Data folder link to svn data )

@CharlesV
Given a problem that I have with Plank, I have to ask. How do I add a shortcut on the panel?
Also, does Cairo-dock work well with MX? It's quite an old program and that makes me uneasy to try it.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 8:41 am**

uncle mark wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 8:35 am The Recent Documents feature of the KDE menu is what I use for this.

I don't see that on Xfce.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 9:07 am**

andymx wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 8:23 am... ?

Now you see why they say "KISS" ? :D

With the normal installation it would be just:

Code: Select all

libreoffice --writer /path/to/that.odt

But since it's just a copy-paste, you can replace just the %U with the path (I haven't tried but I just guess):

/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=libreoffice --file-forwarding org.libreoffice.LibreOffice --writer @@u /path/to/that.odt @@

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 9:33 am**

andymx wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 8:38 am
@CharlesV
Given a problem that I have with Plank, I have to ask. How do I add a shortcut on the panel?
Also, does Cairo-dock work well with MX? It's quite an old program and that makes me uneasy to try it.

You would create a launcher on the xfce panel That launcher would contain the libreoffice application with the document link you wanted to open.

Launchers and symlinks are going to be several things that work well for you, once your comfortable with them. One of the big reasons for Cario-Dock (besides the eye candy :-), is that ability to just put a symlink into a folder Cario-Dock os already looking at - or just delete the symlink when done! ( quick, easy, painless! )

I use Cario-dock on MX21 and MX23 and have never had issues with it. It's base is a little older, ( github shows source core of 2rs on the last update), but I have never had a problem with it. Yes, it is much heavier than plank, ( 140mb when you kick up all the bells and whistles. ), but it also has FAR more it can do as well.

I cannot say enough good about cario-dock. Once your setup, which is almost automated btw, its an amazing program. There are all types of applets for it, but I only run one - Folders. And the integration with xfce is VERY nice.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 9:40 am**

@CharlesV Thank you for the information. I came across symlinks in Windows, but thanks to your recent comments to me, I've realized how very important they are to me in Linux in my file organisation system which I finished a few days ago. You have been of great help to me in this respect. I'm going to try Cairo-dock because it's in my blood to experiment and even though I have solved the original problem that I have as mentioned below!

@Charlie Brown
I am the very definition of the second "S" in "KISS"

.
Well, the good news is that I followed your suggestion and I managed to add the file name at the end of the command string. I deleted the @@...@@ part and replaced it with the path to my file.
Not only that, but I actually added the Launcher to the panel and created a keyboard shortcut for it.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 9:42 am**

... Then: the ... --writer @@u /path/to/that.odt @@

didn't work at first ?

And you did as --writer /path/to/that.odt

?

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 9:43 am**

No it didn't. I deleted the whole section and replaced it with the path.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 9:45 am**

Ok, glad you solved it and thank you for the feedback :)

The good side of hotkey(s) is that you can do (adapt) the same in other DEs / WMs (say, if you have Fluxbox, too, into the relevant file)

It starts blazing fast on mine that way :)

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 9:52 am**

@andymx Glad to be of help :-)

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:05 pm**

I made something similar to the "Favorites" function that the Cinnamon desktop has.
Here is how to do it.

Make a ~/Favorites folder.

Add Directory Menu to the panel. Set the base directory to the Favorites folder. Change the icon to something favorites related (If I remember right the default icon is the same folder icon that Thunar uses). Add file pattern *. To keep it simple you can uncheck all the menu items so only the favorite files appear when you click on the panel icon.

Now you have to make a Thunar custom right click action that makes symlinks of selected files or folders in your Favorites folder.
To do this you need to create a desktop file in a folder that normally doesn't exist.
Create the folder ~/.local/share/Thunar/sendto/
Creat the file send-to-favorites.desktop
Put the file in the folder you just created.
Edit the file with your text editor. The contents of the file should be:

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
# Thunar custom Send To menu item
# Creat the folder: mkdir -p $HOME/.local/share/Thunar/sendto/
# then copy this file to it
Type=Application
Name=Favorites (Create Link)
Comment=Makes symlinks in Favorites folder to selected files.
Exec=sh -c "for file in %F; do ln -s -t \"\$HOME\"/Favorites \"\$file\"; done"
Terminal=false
Icon=emblem-favorite

Instead of "Icon=emblem-favorite" you can use another icon or remove that line if you don't want an icon in the right click menu.

To remove favorites you have to open the ~/Favorites folder and delete the symlinks. Deleting symlinks does not delete or change the original files. I don't know how to make adding/removing favorites a toggle function from the menu.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:51 pm**

@BV206 Thank you. I'll try your suggestion for something that I'm thinking about and I believe it will be successful.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 2:43 pm**

andymx wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2023 5:11 pm I would like to have a specific Writer document easily accessible for me to open at any time. Is there a way to do this by pinning it to the Panel or by any other means?

I've read that Cairo Dock isn't being maintained any longer, but I've installed it on all my distros without problems for years, including MX up to and including MX 23, and in fact its functionality seems to have improved; certainly hasn't deteriorated. Okay, don't try the weather app, it's dead, but if you run XFCE, that has a nice simple one for the panel which works flawlessly.

Anyway, Cairo Dock includes an applet called "Stack". Simply add it to the dock - then, go to your file manager, find the icon of whatever document(s) you want to have easy access to, pull the icon into the Stack in your dock, drop it there - and that's it From then on, just click on the icon(s) in the Stack, and the associated document opens. I have quite a few LibreOffice documents, both writer and calc ones, in my stack, it saves an awful lot of time - and it's an easy solution provided you are comfortable with using Cairo Dock.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 2:54 pm**

@hebelwirkung Thanks. It's reassuring to learn that there are no problems with Cairo Dock. @CharlesV also confirmed this based on his experience. I was going to install it, but before I did that a solution was found with Plank which I tried first, but had a problem with it. So I decided to postpone installing Cairo Dock and I'll use Plank for a while.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 3:08 pm**

andymx wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 2:54 pm ... a solution was found with Plank which I tried first, but had a problem with it. So I decided to postpone installing Cairo Dock and I'll use Plank for a while.

If Plank solves it, that's great. It's a much more straightforward dock than Cairo, doesn't drive you crazy with tons of customization options and, out of the box, looks better :-) Actually, I have a specific configuration for Cairo Dock which I simply copy into whatever distro I might be playing around with - otherwise, it would probably drive me crazy.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 3:26 pm**

Same here, it takes a little to get cairo all the way I want it, but then just copy the config and keep on truck'n!

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 3:31 pm**

I'm greatly attracted to program settings tweaking. In Windows if I read that a program was too complex because it had many settings and options, I would go straight to installing it. I'm still like this, but with Linux I've spent so many weeks trying to get everything set up properly and working that it made me a bit tired.

I saw videos about Cairo Dock and I was very tempted to install it, but I held back. Now, with the matter discussed in this topic I worked up an appetite to install Cairo Dock, but I postponed it for a while. Then the solution with Plank came about and I said to myself I'd better not go down the rabbit hole of installing Cairo Dock now. Installing it would mean that I would spend at least a full day playing with its settings and trying its plugins. Then I would wonder how come another unproductive day has gone by? I gave myself an excuse not to install it for now when I read on the app website that it can become a burden on resources.

I'll resist the temptation to install it until a have a better computer to play with.

Posted: **Sun Oct 22, 2023 10:44 pm**

@BV206 I tried to do what you wrote in viewtopic.php?p=749415#p749415, but it didn't work for me. However, I understand the concept. The most important thing is making the Menu Folder and getting its settings right. I can create symlinks manually anywhere and simply cut and paste them to the Favorites folder.

Posted: **Mon Oct 23, 2023 6:04 am**

andymx wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 3:31 pm I worked up an appetite to install Cairo Dock, but I postponed it for a while. ... I'll resist the temptation to install it until a have a better computer to play with.

It doesn't actually uses vast amounts of RAM, and - like @CharlesV - I went through customizing it once, and now use that .config file for all my distros, So that's one way of not having to go through the same stuff time and again. That said, Cairo is one of those apps that, on first set-up, can drive a person round the bend!

Posted: **Mon Oct 23, 2023 12:42 pm**

BV206 wrote: Sun Oct 22, 2023 1:05 pm I made something similar to the "Favorites" function that the Cinnamon desktop has.
Here is how to do it.

I added more information on how to do this in post #4 in the following thread.
viewtopic.php?t=71806

Posted: **Tue Oct 24, 2023 4:08 am**

@hebelwirkung I yielded to temptation and I installed Cairo Dock, just to try it. It's certainly quite impressive, but also demanding on my laptop. I could hear the internal fan working all the time. The default Help button on the dock that opens when you start Cairo Dock made the dock freeze. I tried starting it with either the -c or the -o option, but the result was the same with the freezing and the fan inside the laptop.

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How do you make a specific document easliy accessible?

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