Hello All, Keep an eye on this space for an upcoming Screenshot Tour!

I will be Posting the Preliminary Tour Monday, April 14th at 06:00pm PST (14:00 PST for those on 24 HR clock)

It will include a mapping of Phatch 0.1.3's User Interface on GNOME for the Ubuntu GNU/Linux Operating System, as well as some filters applied to 2 example photos which I own the copyrights too. I'm searching for an appropriate license because I would like to write a manual based off of the 0.1.3 Release, and revise it after the 0.2.0 Release.

I will be licensing the photos so they can be distributed as part of a learning tool/process for Phatch. I will upload all Actionlists and Droplets I generate in the Screenshot tour along with the original "unfooled around with" scans.

Please keep an eye on this space for more!

Thanks a lot!
Stani

Add Phatch Droplets as Custom Actions in the Thunar File Manager.

1. Let's get started!
2. Install Phatch.
3. Create a Droplet. You can create an: Action List Droplet, or a Phatch Recent Droplet for use with Thunar's Custom Actions.
4. Remember that an Action List Droplet is single-purpose, while the Phatch Recent Droplet is multi-purpose.
5. We will use the Phatch Recent Droplet for the puroposes of the How-To since it is a more versatile tool.
6. Remember, the same procedure will apply to creating a Custom Action in Thunar with the Action List Droplet.
7. In Phatch go to the (File > Create Droplet From… > Copy Recent as Command to Clipboard) menu.
8. Go to the (Applications > Accessories > Thunar File Manager) menu.
9. This will open the Thunar File Manager.
10. In the Thunar application, go to the (Edit > Configure Custom Actions) menu.
11. A Custom Actions Dialog Box will appear.
12. On the Top Right Hand side of the Dialog Box you will find a "+" Button.
13. Go ahead and Click it now.
14. You will now be presented with a Create Action Dialog Box.
15. Paste the Phatch Recent Droplet Command in the field labeled "Command:".
16. Go to the "Name:" field and enter something useful such as "Phatch Recent" or "PHoto & bATCH", you get the idea.
17. In the "Description:" field enter something useful such as "Process Photos according to a recent Action List" or whatever works for you.
18. Click on the "No Icon" button.
19. A new Select an Icon for "Phatch Recent" (i.e. the "Name:" you entered) Dialog Box will open.
20. Click on an icon. On your keyboard press the letter "p" followed by the letter "h".
21. This is a shortcut to scrolling down to the "phatch" icon. You can of course simply use the scroll bar and scroll down to the "p" section of the Application Icons list.
22. The phatch icon, if you aren't already familiar with it, looks like an eye with a green gear for the iris.
23. Once the "phatch" icon is selected, Click the OK Button.
24. The "phatch" icon will now appear in the Create Action Dialog Box.
25. Almost done!
26. You must now click on the "Appearance Conditions" Tab.
27. Under the section: "Appears if selection contains:" Check the following boxes: "Directories", "Image Files". Deselect the "Text Files" Checkbox.
28. Now click the OK Button.
29. In the Custom Actions Dialog Box you should now see an entry labeled Phatch Recent, with the Description: Process Photos according to a recent Action List.
30. Now Click the Close Button.
31. That's it! You made it! You now have a Custom Action that will appear whenever you Right Click on the Icon of a Directory/Folder or Image File.
32. Let's test it out!
33. In the Thunar File Manager, navigate to a folder of screenshots or backgrounds or any other kind of photos.
34. Right Click on the Directory/Folder Icon.
35. You will see a "phatch" icon and the label Phatch Recent near the bottom of the pop-up menu that appears upon Right Clicking.
36. Click on "Phatch Recent" in the pop-up menu.
37. You will be presented with a Phatch Dialog Box.
38. Select an Action List from the list in the Dialog Box.
39. Go ahead and select "Round Corners Shadow".
40. Now Click the OK Button.
41. Phatch will now display the Drag & Drop Dialog Box. Here you can select the options that suit your needs.
42. Lets accept the defaults for now (you can play later!).
43. Click the Batch Button to begin processing your folder full of photos.
44. If, like me, you have some image files Phatch (or more accurately, The Python Imaging Library (PIL for short) is unable to handle, you will get an error message. With my work I often run into interlaced PNG files whick PIL currently can't handle.
45. This is no show-stopper. Just Click the Checkbox on the Error Dialog named "Apply for future errors" and select the "Skip To Next Image" Button.
46. Phatch will now skip all unreadable files but continue processing the entire batch so you can walk away from your desk, go get coffee, engage in watercooler gossip, or take care of something urgent, like the phone that's ringing in the background.
47. With the "Round Corners Shadow" Action List, it is set up to write output files to a folder with the same name as the source folder, but amended with "_round". So if your folder was named "Screenshots" you will now find another folder in the parent directory named "Screenshots_round".
48. I hope you have enjoyed this How-To Guide, and will be able to further enjoy your interaction with Phatch and Thunar.

02. File > Export > As droplet command to the clipboard.

Here is the updated Step-By-Step How-To for Phatch-0.1.bzr316-1:

01. Create or Load an Action List. (These are the files named YourActionListNameHere.phatch)

02. (File > Create Droplet From… > Copy as Action List Command to Clipboard…) (For a single-purpose Droplet).

Alternatively you could choose: (File > Create Droplet From… > Copy Recent as Command to Clipboard…) (For a multi-purpose Droplet).

03. Right Click on the Xfce Panel and Select "Add New Item".

04. Select "Launcher" from the "Add Items to the Panel" Dialog.

05. Click the "Add" Button.

06. A "Program Launcher" Dialog Box opens.

07. In the "Command" field, Paste the Command from the clipboard.

08. Select an Icon.

09. Name the Launcher in the "Name" Field. (Such as "Phatch Droplet")

10. Enter a meaningful description for the Droplet in the "Description" Field. (Such as the title of the Action List, helpful if you plan on adding multiple Droplets to a Panel.)

11. Click the "Close" Button.

12. You will now find your new, functional, drag-and-drop-enabled Phatch Droplet/Inspector sitting in the Panel.

13. To use, just drag the icon of an image file onto a Droplet to process it, or an Inspector to review its properties.

I can report that stani is correct about the simplification of the process of adding a Phatch Droplet to an Xfce Panel. He's made it very simple to add the droplet command to the Xfce Launcher dialog. I even get a nice on-screen attention panel stating the command was in the clipboard buffer ready to be pasted as the command in a new Launcher. Very nice!

I'll go through the process again with the latest Phatch release, and see if there's any differences to report.

04. Name the Droplet/Inspector.

What do you mean by this? Phatch only lets you select a folder. You can't give a name.

11. I found out after some playing around that, with the xfce launcher in the xfce panel that it WILL WORK with out the "%U", for DROPLETS. INSPECTORS WILL WORK _with_ the "%U"

This has been fixed now. You don't have to remove "%U" anymore.

Moreover I implemented a new feature to export the droplet command immediately to the clipboard:

File>Export>As droplet &command to the clipboard

So step 2 to 11 becomes now only ONE step. All the rest is XFCE stuff.

Warning: XFCE does not accept filenames with spaces.

Please see the post further down the page referencing version: Phatch-0.1.bzr316-1

01. Create or Load an Action List.
02. File > Export > As Droplet/Inspector.
03. Choose Folder to Save Droplet/Inspector in.
04. Name the Droplet/Inspector.
05. Select the Open button or press Enter.
06. You will find the Droplet/Inspector Folder where you created it.
07. Inside you will find the Named Droplet/Inspector *.desktop file.
08. Right Click on Named Droplet/Inspector.desktop file, and Select "Properties".
09. Navigate to the Launcher Tab.
10. Select then Copy the Command.
(Mine looked like this: phatch -d '/home/elliio/.phatch/Tango-blue-Canvas-png.py' %U)
11. I found out after some playing around that, with the xfce launcher in the xfce panel that it WILL WORK with out the "%U", for DROPLETS. INSPECTORS WILL WORK _with_ the "%U"
12. Right Click on the xfce Panel and Select "Add New Item.
13. Select "Launcher" from the "Add Items to the Panel" Dialog bos.
14. Click the "Add" Button.
15. A "Program Launcher" Dialog Box opens.
16. In the "Command" field, Paste the Command from the Droplet.desktop Properties dialog.
17. Select an Icon.
18. Name the Launcher in the "Name" Field.
19. Enter a meaningful description for the Droplet in the "Description" Field.
20. Click the "Close" Button.
21. You will now find your new, functional, drag-and-drop-enabled Phatch Droplet/Inspector sitting in the panel.
22. To use, just drag the icon of an image file onto a Droplet to process it, or an Inspector to review its properties.

Many thanks to stani for getting this feature up and running for me!

Due to the way Xfce works, I don't think it is currently possible to just Drag-and-Drop a Droplet.desktop or Inspector.desktop file directly onto the Panel without going through the Add Items To Panel > Launcher Dialogs.

If you are a more advanced Xfce user, please chime in! :-)