Copied from comments on (now resolved) bug #8536: Andrzej 2012-03-07 11:22:02 CET [...] Related issue: "Panel Preferences"->Items contains a list of all plugins in the panel. [...] However, all launchers use the same icon, which makes it difficult to distinguish them from each other. Proposed solutions: - use the same icon as the one shown in the panel, and/or - add the name of the first application to the tooltip or the plugin name. (just to make it clear: although I'd like to see these features in 4.10 I don't consider them worth delaying the release) [reply] [-] Comment 2 Nick Schermer editbugs 2012-03-07 12:04:22 CET [...] Items dependent icons require new API, so I want add that in 4.10 at this point.
Just an idea for another (much heavier) solution: panel&plugin settings could be integrated in a single dialog box using pluggable dialogs (as in xfce4-settings). Triggering plugin->preferences should always open a panel preferences dialog showing an appropriate "card". This would fix this bug (because it would be easy to go back and forth between panel and plugin settings) and make the panel configuration easier to understand (same result regardless of the entry point).
The relevant aspect is described in the duplicate report. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 8364 ***