Help with using a symbol ★ to label something, easy access to ★ from desktop

[Jessie]

I often add a ★ to a video or music file name etc that is particular special to me. But its hard to type. I have to find the symbol then copy/paste it, takes a lot of time.
Is there a way to make the symbol readily available on the desktop screenshot below somewhere?:

So that all I gotta do is just click it one time & it puts the ★ into my clipboard?

I asked chatgpt/Google-PaLM and it offered a solution, but dont know if its even a real one. It told me to create a txt file, with only ★ inside it, then make the text file "allow to run as executable" in it's permissions. Then just click it and it should copy it into my clipboard. It didnt work.
But maybe chatgpt was getting at something, an interesting idea?
Maybe a .py script file would work?

And then i could either pin the txt or .py script to my taskbar & a one click would copy it to my clipboard?

Chatgpt also suggested the Custom Keyboard Shortcut solution, but with that u got to always remember & enter into the sequence/code for the shortcut which i'm not interested in doing, for multiple reasons.

Lastly I'm also aware of the Insert ASCII or Unicode command "Ctrl + Shift + U" which would be: ctrl+shift+u then 02605 then space =★

But i'm looking for a one click button in nemo file manager or taskbar.

I just tried to make a .py script:

import pyperclip

# Copy the ★ symbol to the clipboard
pyperclip.copy('★')

But it doesnt work, i even installed pyperclip, & it successfully installed, but when i check "pyperclip --version" it says the command isnt recognized.

When i do sudo pip3 install pyperclip

It says:

Requirement already satisfied: pyperclip in /usr/local/lib/python3.8/dist-packages (1.8.2)

when i do: pip3 show pyperclip

It says i have it installed, i think.

Even after all this, i'd have to find a way to pin the .py file to my taskbar.
-Thanks!

[Aravisian]

Icon sets include a folder with Emblems.
Emblems serve the purpose that you describe. It would not be a symbol in the typed name, rather an icon emblem overlaid on the icon itself.
Here is a quick example of emblem usage:
nautilus - How can I create a new kind of emblem? - Ask Ubuntu.

[Jessie]

Its not possible for me personally to understand what emblems are without some screenshots. I'm not familiar with them, I'm used to using windows & "emblem" is not a term used with windows.

Despite that, are you saying/recommending that instead of me changing the file name of the file. That i change the icon for it instead?

[Aravisian]

@Jessie

Despite that, are you saying/recommending that instead of me changing the file name of the file. That i change the icon for it instead?

Yes, I think this might be a viable option for you and I can help you to set up an emblem that you can include in your preferred icon set. Then, you can just click and apply the emblem as needed.
It is a different option than what you relayed above, but I think a viable one.
@Storm can likely be helpful with this, as well.

A visual example you can probably see already present is the symlink emblem that usually looks like an arrow on any icon that is a symlink to a file located elsewhere.

[Storm]

I'm going to see how it's done in Gnome 3.38 as I'm using Gnome 45
In Gnome 45 it's like this

[Aravisian]

Thanks Storm.
I am multi-tasking pretty heavily at the moment (it is after 6am here) and could not really delve into creating a detailed graphic.

[Storm]

From the look of OP's screenshot it looks like the file manager he is using is Thunar and not Nautilus.

[Aravisian]

Nemo, I believe. It matches the format of my Nemo File Manager.

In mine, the emblems appear on the lower right side, overlapping the icon.

[zenzen]

You can use the "Characters" program that comes pre-installed with Zorin and search for the star icon. Turns out there are a lot of them but since you already know the specific one that you know you can run a search for "2605" and it should return the one you need:

I'm not sure how it works for other file explorers but with Nautilus (default to ZorinOS Core) you can "star" files that will appear on the "Starred" sidebar. Here you can see an example where I starred a file and also applied the "Favorite" emblem, which causes the heart icon to appear (no idea how to customize that):

I'm sure something similar exists for other file explorers as well.

[Kayjzjzk]

You can use some sort of clipboard manager and save that there

[Jessie]

Thanks everyone. 1.) Yes, its nemo, not nautilus or Thunar. I mentioned nemo in my OP, but i dont blame anyone for not seeing it, i only mentioned Nemo one time. Could easily be missed.

2.) Thanks everyone for telling me how to "star" or make a file a "favorite", this in fact can be done with Nemo. I forgot about that. However, starring a file is slightly problematic in two ways.

1st way is that it changes the order of that file, moves it to the front of the file list, see here, song #4 "Autumn Shade" was fourth down the list, but now its 1st. In summary, it messes up the order of files. Which is not all bad, but has pros & cons.

2nd problem is, unlike adding a ★ to the filename itself, merely favoriting the file, that data wont transfer or file sync to another OS or with one's smartphone, unless ur using a linux mobile OS, but no guarantees.

So if anyone could help me figure out how to do a one click button, that would be really helpful.

Also @Aravisian , in ur 1st comment, were you recommending changing the file icon from this?

To this? but without actually favoriting it? just changing the icon photo?

Thats an interesting idea that i'm open to.

Lastly, @Kayjzjzk has helped the most so far actually. By recommending a clipboard manager, i never even thought of that.
And also, I often accidentally lose my clipboard save, so its definitely time to have one. My whole life I've used windows & ZorinOS, and I've always had a one slot clipboard, and if I accidentally write over it I lose what was saved/copied forever.

So I did a little research and found a youtube video titled "CopyQ: A Clipboard Manager That Does Everything??"

CopyQ has a great reputation, so i just chose that one.
I configured it to save last 20 copies, and also it pins to the taskbar & you can pin any type of selection. So i have the ★ pinned.
So all i have to do is click twice to reach it. Two clicks. Just one more click than what my goal was. So pretty close & I'm happy.

Although, Would be cool to pin a python script to my taskbar that I only have to click once to cause the ★ to be put in my clipboard.

-Thanks everyone!

[Aravisian]

@Jessie

Also @Aravisian , in ur 1st comment, were you recommending changing the file icon from this?

To this? but without actually favoriting it? just changing the icon photo?

Thats an interesting idea that i'm open to.

Yes, that mock-up accurately illustrates what an Emblem can do on Nemo FM.
However given this comment:

@Jessie

2nd problem is, unlike adding a ★ to the filename itself, merely favoriting the file, that data wont transfer or file sync to another OS or with one's smartphone, unless ur using a linux mobile OS, but no guarantees.

I think you are on the right track following kayjzjzk's advice since that should allow for transferring the file to another drive:

@Jessie

Lastly, @Kayjzjzk has helped the most so far actually. By recommending a clipboard manager, i never even thought of that.
And also, I often accidentally lose my clipboard save, so its definitely time to have one.
So all i have to do is click twice to reach it. Two clicks. Just one more click than what my goal was. So pretty close & I'm happy.

[zenzen]

In ZorinOS Core, I don't know how to create shortcuts on the taskbar but you can write a simple script that you just double-click and place it somewhere easily reachable like on the desktop.

First, install xclip

sudo apt install xclip

Then create a new file with the following contents:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo -n ★ | xclip -selection clipboard

Make sure it's executable by running chmod u+x <name_of_file>. You might still get a prompt when you double click on the file asking whether to open its contents as a text file or execute it. Just click "Execute". I hope Aravisian knows a way to overcome this to automatically run it?

EDIT:

Here's another method instead of creating a script file you can simple create a new .desktop file with whatever name you like. For example I'm calling it clipstar.desktop with the following contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Clip Star
GenericName=clipstar
Comment=Copies the star icon U+2605 onto the clipboard
Exec=sh -c "echo -n ★ | xclip -selection clipboard"
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false

Note that this file needs to be placed in /usr/share/applications, so my example it's /usr/share/applications/clipstar.desktop. The name does not matter, choose whatever makes sense but don't overwrite anything else, of course.

With this you should be able to find it in the menu and add it to the taskbar. If you want to have an icon for it, add a new line on the .desktop file "Icon=/path/to/icon". Otherwise, it will appear as below:

[Aravisian]

@zenzen

You might still get a prompt when you double click on the file asking whether to open its contents as a text file or execute it. Just click "Execute". I hope Aravisian knows a way to overcome this to automatically run it?

In Nemo FM, the O.P. can click Edit > Preferences > Behavior
Scroll to Executable Text Files and select the preferred option

• Run
• View
• Ask

[Jessie]

@zenzen , ur .desktop method doesnt work. Can you try it yourself?
Make sure there arent errors in ur 2nd method?
I will try your 1st method soon.

[zenzen]

This should work, but only on X11. If you press Alt+F2, do you see a prompt? If not, your are using Wayland instead of X11.

EDIT: Actually, I'm not entirely sure if Wayland may still show a prompt even though nothing should work with it so to confirm it further try to logout, and at the login screen before typing your password, look in the lower right corner and you should have two options there: one with Wayland in it. Check the one without it (would be X11) and try again, hopefully it will work this time with this change.

These methods would need to be adjusted to use a different tool other than xclip in order to work for Wayland. I don't know of any at the moment, but will look into this further tomorrow.

EDIT2:

It seems to work just fine even on Wayland though:

[Jessie]

@Aravisian, @zenzen ,

I could never get your 2nd lone .desktop method to work.
I am running X11 too, I followed the instructions to the T.

Although, would be worth trying again, to see where the error is. But not for now.

However, i got the method 1 working & even fine tuned it. So I wont try the method 2 again for now.

Here's what i did, see below, i added some more steps to get what i needed, so now instead of two clicks with "CopyQ", i just have to one click my taskbar shortcut icon. See the star shortcut, it copies ★ to my clipboard with one click:

_________________________________________________________
--How to create star taskbar copy clipboard button

First, install xclip

sudo apt install xclip

Then create a text file with

#!/usr/bin/env bash

echo -n ★ | xclip -selection clipboard

Rename the text file as .sh (very important step)

–Make sure the file is executable by running chmod u+x <name_of_file>.

–For that .sh file in Nemo File manager, click Edit > Preferences > Behavior, Scroll to Executable Text Files and select the preferred option and select Run.

Then, next, create a .desktop link
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1090731/how-do-i-pin-a-file-shortcut-to-ubuntu-dock
with the following in it:

[Desktop Entry]

Name=desktopSTAR1stmethod

Exec=bash '/home/user/Downloads/Untitled Folder 3/star1stmethod.sh'

Comment=Launch desktopSTAR1stmethod

Terminal=false

Type=Application

Icon=starred

Then move it to /home/user/.local/share/applications

–it should show up in apps now, then search for "desktopSTAR1stmethod". It should appear. Then Right click on it and mark as favorite. It should be on the taskbar now.

Then if you want the icon to have a special image, like the star, u need to find the name/code for it, I used gtk3-icon-browser to find it.

I install gtk3-icon-browser, and luckily found a star icon.
The name for it is: "starred", so in the .desktop file, i put Icon=starred, at the end.

And voilà, done.