I happily run Word 2007 via Wine on my Ubuntu 12.04 desktop. I prefer having it sit in the launcher for easy access, however, every time I start a new session (that is, logging in or booting up), the Word launcher has disappeared.
Could this be a bug or am I doing something wrong?
The problem is that the .desktop file is NOT in a standard directory. Launcher favorites need to be in either the /usr/share/applications directory or the ~/.local/share/applications folder (and NOT a subdirectory as my wine .desktop files are). Copy the .desktop file there and then drag it to the launcher to lock it there.
The other option is to set the full path to the launcher using gsettings, but that's a pain.
EDIT on further investigation, when I add the desktop file for Word on my system (residing in ~/.local/share/applications/wine/Programs/Microsoft Office/), its name is added in gsettings with - instead of / for its location. Doing the following with gsettings to correct it made it permanent for me:
gsettings get com.canonical.Unity.Launcher favorites > myfavs.txt
Edit myfavs.txt to replace - with /:
['nautilus-home.desktop', .... , 'wine-Programs-Microsoft Office-Microsoft Office Word 2007.desktop']
becomes:
['nautilus-home.desktop', .... , 'wine/Programs/Microsoft Office/Microsoft Office Word 2007.desktop']
Then set it:
gsettings set com.canonical.Unity.Launcher favorites "`cat myfavs.txt`"
I filed a bug report here so that one shouldn't have to do this: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/1033577
