I have a widescreen display, so the taskbar is on the right-hand side of my screen. (Actually, that’s a lie. I have cats that sleep on my desk and keeping the bar on the right makes it easier to continue working.) When it gets filled up with applications (the taskbar, not a cat), instead of making the app buttons smaller and splitting them into two columns, it adds a second page. To get from one app to another I have to head to the bottom of the screen and move between pages.
This bugs the shit out of me.
I know about the option to combine taskbar buttons, but combined buttons bug the shit out of me too.
When the taskbar is at the bottom, it simply adds a new row. If I have a lot of things open and need additional space, a very small height adjustment to the bar gets me a whole new row.
Is there anything similar I can do with a vertical taskbar? Any way to get the buttons to display in two columns (as in the bottom goes to two rows after compressing the buttons to just the icon)? When I change themes (e.g., to Windows Classic) the height and format of the buttons changes allowing many more to fit in the same space. If I can’t change the overall behavior, fitting more is the next best thing. Where do I find options for changing the current theme’s display? Anything else I can do?
Can you just use a toolbar that points to a folder full of shortcuts? For example you could have a toolbar called ‘Work’ which would have all your work shortcuts in it, taking much less space than the individual shortcuts.
I only have four apps pinned to the taskbar; everything else is nicely grouped in the resurrected Quick Launch toolbar.
Doing a quick count, it seems the limit is 26 open apps/windows before it spills onto the next page. That may sound like a high number, and it’s generally more than sufficient to keep everything on one page, but it’s not unusual to exceed that amount. For example, if I have a small a handful of personal windows open and am working on a project that’s combining several information sources (e.g., four or five PDFs, a few Excel docs, a few Word docs) with a separate File Explorer window open for each (they would be four or five docs out of twenty or thirty in a folder; folders in diverse locations) and have a few emails open,* oops*, I’m on two pages. Yes I* could* close a bunch of things, but this isn’t 1998; my hardware easily supports two or three times the number of open applications. Limited by the taskbar? Bugs the shit out of me. Grrr!
hmmm, you aren’t really limited by the taskbar as you are choosing not to use the stacking icons function. One thing you could try is to use the ‘small icons’ setting which should free up a bit more space.
I haven’t tried it but you could have a play about with this taskbar modifier application. Using that you should be able to fit at least a handful more icons on one page.
Is the “stacking icons” function the same as the “combine icons” function? If not, stacking is exactly what I’m looking for.
I already use the small icons checkbox; I’m hoping there’s a way to change the display (either to columns or the height/internal margins) of the buttons. It’s vexing because different themes use different sizes, and I don’t really care about pretty-pretty on the buttons themselves (i.e., there is a whitish fade that makes the button look 3D, gentle, and soft. I don’t care, I’d rather not use that much space).
Your linked application looks good, but I think it is for adjusting the pop-up preview, not the button. I’ll look at it more closely though.
