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xfce4-docklike-plugin - Docklike Taskbar

A modern, minimalist taskbar for Xfce.

Docklike Taskbar behaves similarly to many desktop environment's and other operating system's equivalents. Wherein all application windows are grouped together as an icon and can be pinned to act like a launcher when the application is not running. Commonly referred to as a dock.


Usage

Mouse Actions

  • ctrl+left-click to begin dragging an item in the dock
  • ctrl+right-click to access Properties, move/remove the plugin
  • shift+click to launch another instance of an application
  • middle-click to close all instances of an application
  • mouse wheel to cycle through open windows in either direction

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are disabled by default. Be careful to avoid conflicting keyboard shortcuts!

  • super+[1,2,…] to switch between applications based on dock position
  • super to switch to the previous window

It would be nice to add a setting to change the modifier key in the future.

Hidden Settings

Your settings file is located at ~/.config/xfce4/panel/docklike-1.rc (or something like that). The file is only created after changing anything in the xfce4-docklike-plugin Properties window.

  • dockSize=<int> sets the minimum width/height (depending on panel orientation) of the dock widget (unset by default)
  • previewScale=<double> adjusts the scale factor of preview images (the default value is 0.125)
  • previewSleep=<int> adjusts the time, in milliseconds, between new preview images being generated (the default is 250)

Screenshots

Properties Dialog
Properties Dialog

Window List
Window List Window Previews

Alternate Indicator Styles
Dashes Dots

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Theming

You can modify the appearance of dock items with CSS. Create (or modify) ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css and add:

  /* Taller or wider buttons */
  #docklike-plugin button {
    min-height: 48px;
    min-width: 48px;
  }
  
  /* Brightly colored buttons */
  #docklike-plugin .open_group {
    background-color: lightblue;
  }
  #docklike-plugin .active_group {
    background-color: hotpink;
  }
  #docklike-plugin .hover_group {
    background-color: orange;
  }

Changes will take effect after the panel is restarted (xfce4-panel -r).


Latest Release

  • xfce4-docklike-plugin 0.5.0 released (2025/05/19 17:30)
    xfce4-docklike-plugin 0.5.0 is now available for download from https://archive.xfce.org/src/panel-plugins/xfce4-docklike-plugin/0.5/xfce4-docklike-plugin-0.5.0.tar.xz https://archive.xfce.org/src/panel-plugins/xfce4-docklike-plugin/0.5/xfce4-docklike-plugin-0.5.0.tar.xz?sha1 https://archive.xfce.org/src/panel-plugins/xfce4-docklike-plugin/0.5/xfce4-docklike-plugin-0.5.0.tar.xz?sha256 What is xfce4-docklike-plugin? ============================== Docklike Taskbar behaves similarly to many other desktop environments and operating systems. Wherein all application windows are grouped together as an icon and can be pinned to act as a launcher when the application is not running. Commonly referred to as a dock. Website: https://docs.xfce.org/panel-plugins/xfce4-docklike-plugin/start Release notes for 0.5.0 ======================= Meson has been added as a build system in this release, and the associated archive has been generated by 'meson dist'. Although autotools has been retained for the time being and can still be used via 'autogen.sh', meson is now the preferred build system, and autotools will be removed in a future release. - Update README after switchover to meson - Add missing files to translate and fix about dialog - Fix licensing - GroupMenuItem: Show window action menu as context menu - Group: Remove window action menu from context menu - x11: Add exceptions where instance-id should be preferred to class-id - Group: Don't show group menu when context menu is shown - Allow user to create a launcher if not found - AppInfos: Print a warning if app launch fails - cleanup: AppInfos: Use class member instead of creating new object - cleanup: AppInfos: Use naming conventions of other objects - AppInfos: Avoid using hard-coded aliases - Allow user to manually select a launcher if not found - Helpers: Extend String::pathBasename and use it everywhere - AppInfos: Extend excluded binary list and use a container - cleanup: Replace NULL/TRUE with nullptr/true - autotools-build: Explicitly require libxfce4util - build: Automate copyright year management - meson-build: Use shared_module() - Activate/minimize all group windows on left click on the group icon - Replace deprecated exo with libxfce4ui 4.21.0 - Group: Reset mTopWindowIndex when it becomes out of bounds - Revert "Group: Reset mTopWindowIndex when active window becomes inactive" - Group: Reset mTopWindowIndex when active window becomes inactive - Fix several issues with context menu for undockable apps - Fix memory leak when getting indicator color from theme - Add meson build - autotools-build: Require libXi - {State,Store}.ipp: Renamed from {State,Store}.tpp - I18n: Update po/LINGUAS list - Translation Updates: Albanian, Basque, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (United Kingdom), Estonian, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Interlingue, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese

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