Menu Items

Gnome menu entries can be created using the GUI interface, but when pushing out an application to multiple machines, using the command line to accomplish such a task can save a lot of time.

Creating Gnome Menu Entries Esing the Command Line

Basically, all you have to do is create an appropriately named .desktop file inside /usr/share/applications.

WAIT: After installing a new menu item, you may have to log off and back on to see the new menu entry.

Here is a standard entry from the kate.desktop file:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=2.5.9
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Name=Kate
Comment=An MDI Text Editor for Programming
Categories=Development;
Exec=/usr/bin/kate
Icon=/usr/share/icons/gnome/scalable/apps/text-editor.svg

A quick explination of some of the items in this file:

• Type= This says the type of file that we are launching. Valid options are:
  • Application
  • Link
  • Directory
• Terminal= If we needed the application to launch in a terminal, we would set this to true.
• Name= The name that will be displayed in the menu.
• Comment= A comment that will appear on mouseover to describe the application; a tooltip.
• Exec= The path to the application we wish to run.
• Icon= An icon that will be displayed in the menu.
• Categories= This defines which sub menu we want our item to display in. You must use the category name listed below for each specific sub menu:

Sub Menu Name -> Category Name
  Accessories -> Utility;
  Edutainment -> Education;
        Games -> Game;
     Graphics -> Graphics;
     Internet -> Network;
       Office -> Office;
  Programming -> Development;
Sound & Video -> AudioVideo;
 System Tools -> System;
       Others -> Other;