CrunchBang Linux

maxim9

New Member

Registered: 2011-06-28

Posts: 1

Left Side Panel/Dock Recommendations

I've been looking all day, trying to find a dock application that will provide what I'm looking for.

I'm trying to find a window/task manager that I can put on the left (vertical) side on the screen. My reasoning is two fold. One, it's the only part of the screen that don't have a scroll bar (right), title bar (top), or status bar (bottom). Two, it allows the real estate of the screen to be used to display the titles of the windows. In a horizontal bar, the window titles are typically truncated and end with "...". Having a list of windows allows for the display of more, if not all of the window title without truncation.

Additionally I would like the manager to be displayed all the time. Much like a panel, but more like a panel in auto hide mode that doesn't hide (always on top). This allows visibility of the tasks that are open, and quick access without having to wait for the dock to slide out and then finding the target task.

These are what I've found so far, and why they don't work for me:

awn (Avant Window Navigator)
This, so far, is the best match and I may just fall back on it and settle for now. This allows customization enough to drop the background, and allow just the icons to be displayed, reduce their size enough so they're not obtrusive, as well as make them partially transparent so the full screen is still usable. It doesn't allow the display of all of the window titles at the same time though. So when I have 3 folders open from thunar, I have to hover over each to find the folder I'm looking for because they all have the same icon. Support for this is pretty terrible. The forum is hard to use, and difficult to understand. Activity in the forums is pretty slim.

cairo-dock
This is very customizable. Lots of features, and almost allows me to do what I would like. I got it to look just like awn, however, it doesn't display the window titles to the side, but directly above each icon. They do have a feature for showing labels of all of the items but it doesn't work. It also doesn't allow changing where the text for the title is displayed so it can't even be moved, as well as it truncates the window titles. It also doesn't allow me to "click through" an icon when I need to access something underneath where the icon resides. With awn, the mouse pointer has to be brought over to the side of the screen edge first before the dock will be activated. This is not the case, if something is under an icon with cairo-dock the icon is the only thing I can click.

I've tried the following as well but typically they don't offer the granular cusomization required in order to provide the form and function I'm looking for:
KXDocker
Docky
wbar
kooldock
Simdock

If I could just get awn to display all of the window titles at the same time it would be pretty much perfect.

VastOne

#! Ranger

From: V-Ger

Registered: 2011-04-26

Posts: 10,165

Website

Re: Left Side Panel/Dock Recommendations

I've been looking all day, trying to find a dock application that will provide what I'm looking for.

I'm trying to find a window/task manager that I can put on the left (vertical) side on the screen. My reasoning is two fold. One, it's the only part of the screen that don't have a scroll bar (right), title bar (top), or status bar (bottom). Two, it allows the real estate of the screen to be used to display the titles of the windows. In a horizontal bar, the window titles are typically truncated and end with "...". Having a list of windows allows for the display of more, if not all of the window title without truncation.

Additionally I would like the manager to be displayed all the time. Much like a panel, but more like a panel in auto hide mode that doesn't hide (always on top). This allows visibility of the tasks that are open, and quick access without having to wait for the dock to slide out and then finding the target task.

These are what I've found so far, and why they don't work for me:

awn (Avant Window Navigator)
This, so far, is the best match and I may just fall back on it and settle for now. This allows customization enough to drop the background, and allow just the icons to be displayed, reduce their size enough so they're not obtrusive, as well as make them partially transparent so the full screen is still usable. It doesn't allow the display of all of the window titles at the same time though. So when I have 3 folders open from thunar, I have to hover over each to find the folder I'm looking for because they all have the same icon. Support for this is pretty terrible. The forum is hard to use, and difficult to understand. Activity in the forums is pretty slim.

cairo-dock
This is very customizable. Lots of features, and almost allows me to do what I would like. I got it to look just like awn, however, it doesn't display the window titles to the side, but directly above each icon. They do have a feature for showing labels of all of the items but it doesn't work. It also doesn't allow changing where the text for the title is displayed so it can't even be moved, as well as it truncates the window titles. It also doesn't allow me to "click through" an icon when I need to access something underneath where the icon resides. With awn, the mouse pointer has to be brought over to the side of the screen edge first before the dock will be activated. This is not the case, if something is under an icon with cairo-dock the icon is the only thing I can click.

I've tried the following as well but typically they don't offer the granular cusomization required in order to provide the form and function I'm looking for:
KXDocker
Docky
wbar
kooldock
Simdock

If I could just get awn to display all of the window titles at the same time it would be pretty much perfect.

Are you trying the latest versions of both AWN and cairo-dock?  If you are on stable, you may not be..

I use cairo-dock (2.3.0~3) and use the forum there regularly, the devs and support are always available and friendly..  There is also quite a few add ons and themes that may fit closer to your needs.. If not, ask the devs on the forum there and it may be added..

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