I am running Ubuntu 11.04 and I don't like the way the libreoffice writer and spreadsheet icons look in the Unity panel. I found some Faenza icons that look nicer, but I only want to change the libreoffice icons, not the whole icon set. I have installed Faenza icons, so they should be accessible. Is there a way I can substitute only those two icons for the ones showing in my panel?

You would need to modify the actual icon images in the icon library you are currently using.

Back in my early computer days using DOS and Windows 3.1, I used to do stuff like that, substituting and renaming one image file for another and changing its name to fit.

Ubuntu stores its icons in directories under /usr/share/icons.

I don't know how to change them in the menu, but I use a panel for the programs that I use the most (such as LibreOffice). If you 'drag' a copy of the Libreoffice writer from the menu to the panel, it will show the same icon. But in that position, (in the panel) if you 'right clik" on it, and choose "properties" it will sow you some variations that you can make. (Be careful not to change the line that says "command") click on the icon that you would like to shange. Write down it's name and location in case you need to change it back. Then navigate to the icons that you would prefer, and choose one. It should show immediately in the "properties" window, and when you close the window it should show in the panel.

I Just tried it, and the same procedure works for the icons in the menu.

Thanks for both of your replies. I tried getting properties from the icon in the panel, but unfortunately, the Unity panel doesn't give this option when you right-click an icon. littlejoe5, what version of Ubuntu and what panel were you using? If it works in the Gnome 2 panel, I wonder if a change there will also change the icon in the Unity panel?

frankbell, the difficulty is to know what icons to replace. There are no libreoffice icons in usr/share/icons in the theme I am using or from most other themes. I looked around a bit and found what look to be those icons in the hicolour theme under apps/48x48. I assume that to find out the icon used, I can find this by selecting the icon in properties of the program, but where would the libreoffice programs be stored?

It looks like LibreOffice installs a lot of stuff to /opt/libreoffice3.4, including some image files, but I don't think they are desktop icons. I poked around some more, but didn't have much luck.

I'm using Mint10 (derived mostly from Ubuntu). Libreoffice (the program) is installed in /usr/bin but you really don't need to mess with it. I guess the Unity panel is something that Mint didn't bring over from Ubuntu. I don't now much about that. I'm speaking about the gnome panel.

But this changing of icons also works in the menu itself. (At least in Mint10.) just right click on the menu item and choose "properties" or "edit properties" from the small menu that pops up. the left click on the icon in the "properties" window that pops up. That should take you to a directory full of icons (in my case, the directory where the majority of the icons are stored is: /user/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps ). There are a lot of unused icons there. just choose one that suits you.

I have redesigned them using gimp, but then I have had some trouble getting the permissions right, etc. so that they will even work. It's just easier to use one that has it's permissions (and other aspects already set right..

Unfortunately, right-clicking on a icon doesn't do anything in the Unity Dash menu in Ubuntu. I think that if I can find the executable, maybe I can right-click on it to get properties/icon. However, I also realized that it isn't the design of the LibreOffice menus that I dislike, but rather the green (Calc) or blue (Write) backgrounds on the icon tile that are coloured around them in the Unity launcher, making them look to me like they belong on a child's game. I believe that the launcher is getting those colours from the coloured parts of the icons, themselves, but I don't know how to change this other than change the icons.

Edit: I just discovered a program called Unity Launcher Editor that does give access to icons and should allow me to change them. I'll try that and report back, but my suspicion is that even changing them won't affect the colour fill-in unless I change them to black and white.

The best solution I found was to add a quicklist to the general LibreOffice launcher, which is white in colour. I followed the instructions given here to make the quicklist. Now I don't need specific launchers for LibreOffice writer and calc.

I realize this is an old post, but I was quite aggravated when Linux Mint or LO or someone decided to "modernize" all the icons in the menus of LO. I particularly did not like losing the "floppy Disk" image for file save to a square with a down arrow.

Just open a calc document and make a minor change so that the save icon is visible, right click and select "customize toolbar"

click the icon you want to change and click on "modify" and select "change icon" scroll thru the selections until you find one you like
and select it.

Best Regards,
Jim