How to drag a folder to the launcher from Nautilus

Question

How can I add a folder to the launcher for quick access to it. In this particular case I wish to drag it to the launcher.

Answer 1

I'm not sure if it's possible to drag and drop a folder onto your unity bar - but you can have the same functionality with a bit of editing.

• Edit Nautilus .desktop file
  1) In a terminal (ALT+T) type: gedit ~/.local/share/applications/nautilus-home.desktop
  2) If this already exists, edit the following line to add your NEWFOLDER shortcut:

  X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Videos;Documents;Music;Pictures;Downloads;Dropbox;NEWFOLDER  
  

  3) Below X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts add a new shortcut group:

  X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Videos;Documents;Music;Pictures;Downloads;Dropbox;NEWFOLDER
  [NEWFOLDER Shortcut Group]
  Name=New Folder
  Exec=nautilus ~/Documents/newfolder
  TargetEnvironment=Unity
  

  Where ~/Documents/newfolder is the location of the shortcut you want to add.
  (N.B. if this file doesn't already exist you can use a copy of mine.)
  4) Type into Run prompt (ALT+F2): unity --replace

Now when you right click your home folder/nautilus shortcut you will see an extra option for new folder.

• Create a new .desktop file for your folder shortcut.
  1) Run gedit again: gedit ~/.local/share/applications/folder-shortcut.desktop
  2) Fill in the file with a sample as follows:

  [Desktop Entry]  
  Exec=nautilus Documents/newfolder  
  Version=1.0  
  Name=New Folder  
  GenericName=ew Folder 
  X-GNOME-FullName=ew Folder 
  Comment=Open New Folder
  Icon=/usr/share/pixmaps/gnome-computer.png  
  StartupNotify=true  
  Terminal=false  
  Type=Shortcut  
  

  2) Save the file and open the location in nautilus.
  3) Drag it onto the unity bar.
  4) Right click the new icon and click Keep in Launcher

N.B. you do not need to refresh unity for this one.

Answer 2

That's not possible, as that's not what the launcher is for. The bookmarks are displayed in the files lens. If you want an extra bar for your bookmarks, web links, etc, then I suggest adding an xfce4-panel.