How to control the screen rotation in ubuntu 12.10 via an icon on the panel?

Question

Is there is a program that displays an icon in the panel, to control the rotation of the monitor?

Answer 1

Here is a launcher using Unity quicklists (right click menus) to provide you with rotation options:

The result will be something like this:

You just need to follow these steps:

1. Create a new text file with this content:

   [Desktop Entry]
   Name=Rotate Screen
   Exec=notify-send 'Choose an option from the quicklist' -t 2000 -i rotate
   Terminal=false
   X-MultipleArgs=false
   Type=Application
   Icon=rotate
   StartupNotify=false
   X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=Normal;Inverted;Right;Left
   
   [Right Shortcut Group]
   Name=Rotate Right
   Exec=xrandr -o right
   TargetEnvironment=Unity
   
   [Left Shortcut Group]
   Name=Rotate Left
   Exec=xrandr -o left
   TargetEnvironment=Unity
   
   [Normal Shortcut Group]
   Name=Normal
   Exec=xrandr -o normal
   TargetEnvironment=Unity
   
   [Inverted Shortcut Group]
   Name=Invert 
   Exec=xrandr -o inverted
   TargetEnvironment=Unity
   

2. Save the file with a .desktop extension.

3. Make the new file executable (it will be called "Rotate Screen") through
   Right click → Properties → Permissions tab → Allow executing files as program
4. Click and drag the file onto the launcher.

Answer 2

create a shortcut to for example: xrandr -o right

Answer 3

As for creating a desktop shortcut to rotate your screen, I think this link might be helpful.

Edited:
This will help you to create a desktop executable file to rotate your screen either to left, right, 180 degree, back to normal.(multiple files)
For Rotate Left:
1- In Terminal:

xrandr

look at the output and see what is connected (LVDS1, HDMI, VGA1, DP1,.. ). I will consider here that LVDS1 is connected.
2-
cd ~/Desktop
gedit rotate_left.desktop
3- paste the following code inside the opened text editor:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Name=rotate_left
Exec=xrandr --output LVDS1 --rotate left
Name[en_US]=rotate_left

save and close.
4- In Terminal:

sudo chmod 755 rotate_Left.desktop

Now you have an executable file on your desktop to rotate screen left.
To rotate differently, just replace the word "left" with "right" inverted", "normal".
Hope this was helpful :-)