putting icons for apps on desktop or toolbar

Asked by brian pattison

I apologise for this question because it's something i've already done but can't remember how to do it. I have had to re-install ubuntu, and because my pc is old I am running on 'classic'. I can't remember how I managed to put icons on the desktop! My printer is a 3in1 thing, and although it prints ok, I didn't know how to get the scanner to work. Somehow I managed to stumble upon something that allowed me to put icons on my desktop so i could just click and the app would be launched, but I don't know how I did it! could someone advise me please? The scanner worked with simple scan. I can open it but i am unable to launch it, and when I had the icon on before, I just clicked it and my scanner copied to computer. I am not getting any younger and I find Ubunto not quite as easy as windows. Thankyou, Brian

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Ubuntu gnome-desktop Edit question
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Wim
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Best Wim (launchpad-xs4all) said :
#1

Brian,

you ask two different things, i will try to answer them both here:

1. how to put icons on your Ubuntu Desktop:
First try a right mouse-click on the Desktop, a change there appears a menu, in which you can choose to add a Quick-Start icon for a program on your Desktop.
If this does not work, try the other way: start File Manager program Thunar, browse to your own directory (probably called Brian) and within this directory browse to the sub-directory called Desktop; create a file here with the name Brian-temp, does not matter what kind of file it is....
Quit the program Thunar, and now you see the just created file on your screen. Select it with the mouse, right click, and in this menu select Create-Icon-on-Desktop (this name is different in different Ubuntu-versions)

Create the icon for your scanning-program,e.g. XSANE;
on the same way you can create icons for other favourite programs.
Vernieuwen

2. Your scanner:
IF everything is "OFF", connect PC and scanner;
now first switch ON your 3-in-1-scanner, and after a few seconds switch ON your PC; wait another few second before loggin in to Ubuntu.
Now start your scanning-program, and let it search for scanners
(the way the program is doing this is different in several scanning-programs)
Mostly the scanner is found, and you can start, but beware:
it is clever to first take a "preview" before making a real scan.

After you scanned a page, the program lets you select where to store the result.

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brian pattison (rickymeo) said :
#2

Thankyou for the excellent advice---Sorted! Brian