Dashboard under XFCE real howto

If like me you like both XFCE and Gnome-Shell dashboard/ window picker, here's how I configured my desktop for the nearest most Gnome-like experience :

1) Install xfdashboard (the dashboard itself). I ised version 0. Note : this release comes with a hot corner plugin, no more need to use xdotool or brightside.

2) Add or enable these commands to be run at X startup (in XFCE Settings / Sessions and startup / application autostart ) : xfdashboard -d (deamon mode for a faster display)

3) Configure XFdashboard using xfdashboard-settings :

• In 'plugins', select the 'hotcorners' plugin
• make sure to restart xfdashboard to enable this new plugin : xfdashboard -q, then xfdashboard -d &

4) Add the preferred applications into the vertical side bar (no GUI, xfce4-settings-editor cannot edit arrays), here's a sample command :

xfconf-query -c xfdashboard -p /favourites -n -t string -s "exo-file-manager.desktop" -t string -s "exo-terminal-emulator.desktop" -t string -s "jetbrains-idea-ce.desktop" -t string -s "owncloud.desktop" -t string -s "simple-scan.desktop" -t string -s "gnome-calculator.desktop" -t string -s "firefox.desktop" -t string -s "thunderbird.desktop" -t string -s "zim.desktop" -t string -s "libreoffice-writer.desktop"

5) If you are in multi-monitors mode and you want to see all windows on the primary display and not spread on several monitors, see my workaround : in /usr/share/themes/xfdashboard/xfdashboard-1.0/xfdashboard.css (or in the others themes xfdashboard.css files) , change filter-monitor-windows: true; to filter-monitor-windows: false;