Taskbar query

[Member mikekkkkk]

I am a MX user trying Antix 22 and am very impressed with the speed on my ancient machine.
I have one problem.
On MX the centre section of the taskbar shows all the programs I have running as just buttons and I hover to see what it is. In Antix (icewm) I get the same but with the description alongside the button meaning that each program takes up a lot of space. Also in MX if I open a program twice the button only shows once and on hover the details of each are shown stacked above each other.
Can I configure these changes?
thanks

[Moderator BobC]

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Create a file ~/.icewm/prefoverride using geany and add these lines to it. A # sign in front of the line will comment it out.

#  Group applications with the same class name under a single task button: 0=off, 1=digits, 2=dots, 3=both.
TaskBarTaskGrouping=1 # [0-3]

Save it, then antiX main menu >> Logout >> pullout menu >> Restart IceWM

[Member Xunzi_23]

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Thanks BobC, useful info.

For ICEWM no need to logout just use icewm --restart

I teach that while showing how the configuration of ICEWM and toolbar works behind
the wallpaper :-).

[Moderator BobC]

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Yes, if you have a terminal handy that command works the same as the Restart IceWM option on the menu

[Member PPC]

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IceWM is so configurable that it can do almost every single thing a D.E. like xfce can do.

To hide titles of currently running windows on the taskbar (and show only the icons) add, to the above mentioned config file this (and restart icewm so the change sticks):

#Show only icons of running windoes on the toolbar (hide the title)
TaskbarButtonWidthDivisor=50

Note: This hides any text next to the icon, even the circle warning how many windows of that type are opened. To show that very handy info, I use the value:

TaskbarButtonWidthDivisor=27

…But you may need to experiment with some values, depending on you screen resolution, etc…

For more info (and videos) about how to configure IceWM, a nice resource is this YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ItzSelenux/videos

Edit: I’m not sure of how proficient the OP is with Linux, so here is a detailed “How to” that should work:
1- antiX menu > Text editor
2- On the Text editor window paste the text (adjusting the values as needed, for example, on the last line I prefer the value 27, not 50):

#  Group applications with the same class name under a single task button: 0=off, 1=digits, 2=dots, 3=both.
TaskBarTaskGrouping=1 # [0-3]
#Show only icons of running windows on the toolbar (hide the title)
TaskbarButtonWidthDivisor=50

Make sure to save the file as ~/.icewm/prefoverride

Restart icewm anyway you like (from the menu or from the terminal, logging off and back on again, etc) so the change produces effects.

Note: TaskBarTaskGrouping value 2, instead of showing the number of grouped windows, show a line under the app’s icon, letting the user know there are more than one window of that kind open. Value 3 mixes both previous open, showing the line and the number of running windows (yes, IceWM devs seem to have thought of almost everything users may want).

Off-topic, but related to adding features to IceWM:
Also, if you want a way to preview all non minimized windows you can install skippy-xd, available from the repository and create an entry for it on the toolbar.

P.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 2 months, 3 weeks ago by PPC.

[Member mikekkkkk]

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Thank you all for your advice, It was a great help.
M

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