rofi columns

converting from dmenu to rofi, it turns out, proved to be just the beginning. Its extended dmenu feature set refocused attention on the format possibilities of the menu content—not that there was anything dmenu restricted.

But ricing has its own lure..

columnar output

the unix utility column is a text formatting tool that space aligns text. This is facilitated by inserting a separator character into the menu content—of course, the dmenu functions must also accommodate these new Space formatted lines..

selection=$(... \ | … | column -s\^ -t | … | dmenu "Prompt..." -no-custom) || exit

where, the caret (^) character in this example is the column separator in the input list to dmenu a.k.a. rofi.

indenting

to add a bit of uniqueness to this rofi usage, the input lines are also indented below the prompt message. This adds a touch of readability to the minimalist presentation which omits the commonly used background colour highlight (I use full transparency)..

INDENT=' ' fontsize=... padding=... ... dmenu() { prompt=… select=… … input=$(sed “s/^/$INDENT/” | rofi -bg black -bc black -bw 0 -fg ‘#FDF6E3’ -hlbg black -hlfg ‘#25C0EF’ -font “PragmataPro $fontsize” -eh 2 -opacity 85 -separator-style none -hide-scrollbar -lines $lines -width 100 -fixed-num-lines -padding $padding -dmenu -p “$prompt────── “ -i -mesg ‘ ‘ -select “$select” $@ ) [ $? -eq 0 ] && echo “$input” | sed “s/^$INDENT//” || return 1 }

Stripping the indent padding before returning the “result” makes for a seamless implementation.

Together with columnar formatting of menu content (where applicable), readability and aesthetics are improved..

Note: the menu list looks unsorted because this dmenu function prepends the normal sorted project file list with the history of previously selected items!

Rofi. I use it a LOT and continually refine the rofi scripts to streamline my workflow. As per usual, the dotfiles can be found here.