How To Edit MATE Menu Properly?

[FragileX]

Hi,

I'm new to Linux, is there any way to customize the MATE menubar without any coding? I want to add my own menus and also add single items such as FireFox etc. How do I do this?

Every time I Google for answers it only shows me the obvious which is right click > edit menu HOWEVER this is NOT IT! This simple removes sections and items and its useless for what I want it for. I want to add things to the actual menu itself, delete/create submenu's, rename items etc.

I'm trying to simplify the menu as all Linux distro's have extremely cluttered and overly saturated menu's with so much random junk you will NEVER use as a regular user. Half the time I'm looking for something I find myself going through every menu one at a time just to find it, which brings me to my final problem. I want to rename the apps as most of them have the dumbest names (no offence) that require deciphering to know what it does. ("GIMP", seriously? Pulp Fiction much? ) I want to rename this to Image Studio for example.

In Windows XP/7 you can simply drag and drop without any effort and/or simply rightclick > delete/rename anything you don't want.

Thanks!

[FragileX]

bumpy

[tenfoot]

I also use Mate on Linux c19.0 Tara.

As a new Linux user, you may not be aware that you can put all your frequently used applications in the Favorites section of the Menu. Just find the app in the All Applications list, click with the right mouse button and choose Show in my favorites. Also, you can increase the size of that Menu by clicking on the Menu icon, with the right mouse button pressed and by choosing Preferences - Favorites adjust the number of rows and size of icons to your liking. This may be a good "first step" for you to achieve what you want.

[smurphos]

The menu editor is the place to do this. Mate's version just isn't quite as flexible as Cinnamon's - particularly with moving items between categories.

You might also want to look at alternative menu applet with a less cluttered layout than the default menu applet - there are several available in Mate to add to the panel. They all use the same backend configuration for where menu items are categorised.

Anyway -

New Menu to create a new category.
New Item to create an entry in a category.
Highlight any existing item click Properties to rename, change comment, icon etc.

In the Mate editor to move things between categories I think the only way to do it it to create an entry in the category of choice from scratch and delete or uncheck the original entry. I recommend unchecking rather than deleting The Cinnamon editor has a copy/paste function.

If you find the GUI menu editor clunky the other way would be to edit the background desktop files directly. Copy entries of choice from /usr/share/applications to ~./local/share/applications - open in a text editor via right click. They look like this. Change the Name, Icon, Categories as required. You can add new desktop files to ~./local/share/applications as-well.

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=GNU Image Manipulation Program
GenericName=Image Editor
Comment=Create images and edit photographs
Exec=gimp-2.8 %U
TryExec=gimp-2.8
Icon=gimp
Terminal=false
Categories=Graphics;2DGraphics;RasterGraphics;GTK;
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Bugzilla=GNOME
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Product=GIMP
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Component=General
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-Version=2.8.22
X-GNOME-Bugzilla-OtherBinaries=gimp-2.8
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=image/bmp;image/g3fax;image/gif;image/x-fits;image/x-pcx;image/x-portable-anymap;image/x-portable-bitmap;image/x-portable-graymap;image/x-portable-pixmap;image/x-psd;image/x-sgi;image/x-tga;image/x-xbitmap;image/x-xwindowdump;image/x-xcf;image/x-compressed-xcf;image/x-gimp-gbr;image/x-gimp-pat;image/x-gimp-gih;image/tiff;image/jpeg;image/x-psp;application/postscript;image/png;image/x-icon;image/x-xpixmap;image/svg+xml;application/pdf;image/x-wmf;image/x-xcursor;
X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=gimp20

[FragileX]

Hey, thanks for all the replies. I will definitely look into this.

However one thing that has come to my attention is this. When I install a new program from the software centre, it is automatically placed into its own category it deems fit.

How do I have it so all new programs all show up under one new category I created? (like in Windows > All Programs.)

My desire is to dump everything that came with MATE into one category (lets call it "Misc Programs") then make a new category and only drag and drop a few selected apps that I want, such as Office, Calculator, Firefox, Redshift etc etc - and most importantly where all new programs automaticity are placed by default.

This is the million dollar question

Thanks!

[gm10]

How do I have it so all new programs all show up under one new category I created? (like in Windows > All Programs.)

My desire is to dump everything that came with MATE into one category (lets call it "Misc Programs") then make a new category and only drag and drop a few selected apps that I want, such as Office, Calculator, Firefox, Redshift etc etc - and most importantly where all new programs automaticity are placed by default.

There already is an "All" category. And for what you want you don't need a category, you can use the Favorites, and to add to those you don't need the editor, you only need to right click in the menu and select to show in Favorites.

[JerryF]

Hi,

I'm new to Linux, is there any way to customize the MATE menubar without any coding? I want to add my own menus and also add single items such as FireFox etc. How do I do this?

Every time I Google for answers it only shows me the obvious which is right click > edit menu HOWEVER this is NOT IT! This simple removes sections and items and its useless for what I want it for. I want to add things to the actual menu itself, delete/create submenu's, rename items etc.

Hmmm...I just ran 19 MATE. I right-clicked on menu, edit menu, and added my own menu item "Jerry's Menu" and then added two programs to it, "Firefox" and "Caja".

Click to enlarge

[FragileX]

Ah, sorry guys I've been a little bit of a doofus here. I forgot to tell you that I deselected Apps and Favourites from the menu so it only has one single row. "Places" and "System" and it is this section I want to edit. Sorry about that, I wasn't too clear.

Does anyone know how to edit the first row to simple add "All Applications" in the form of a slide out menu? For me this would be the PERFECT menu.

Thanks!

[JerryF]

Is this more towards what you're looking for (titles of first 3 have been modified---you can edit the titles if you want)
.

Click to enlarge

.
I think the "first" column is going to be more difficult customizing.

[gm10]

Ah, sorry guys I've been a little bit of a doofus here. I forgot to tell you that I deselected Apps and Favourites from the menu so it only has one single row. "Places" and "System" and it is this section I want to edit. Sorry about that, I wasn't too clear.

Does anyone know how to edit the first row to simple add "All Applications" in the form of a slide out menu? For me this would be the PERFECT menu.

Not possible without a code change. Alternatively go look for another menu that does what you want or can be configured that way (there are some which are entirely configuration file driven).

[FragileX]

Is this more towards what you're looking for (titles of first 3 have been modified---you can edit the titles if you want)
.
.
I think the "first" column is going to be more difficult customizing.

This is what I was afraid of. Appreciate the effort but I have a weird irritation with large menus. I like the single column setup such as in Windows 2000XP/7 classic etc. Its what I've been using for almost 2 decades and I hate change

So essentially what is needed is a way to add "applications" to the first column with a fly out menu and I'm good to go, kinda

[FragileX]

Not possible without a code change. Alternatively go look for another menu that does what you want or can be configured that way (there are some which are entirely configuration file driven).

Thanks, what menu's do you have in mind, I keep breaking distro's every time I attempt to be heroic, resulting in me reinstalling the whole thing

[kukamuumuka]

Right mouse click above Menu -> edit Menu

[gm10]

Not possible without a code change. Alternatively go look for another menu that does what you want or can be configured that way (there are some which are entirely configuration file driven).

Thanks, what menu's do you have in mind, I keep breaking distro's every time I attempt to be heroic, resulting in me reinstalling the whole thing

Not much you can break there, you can add an additional menu and test it before replacing the existing one.

By the way, the existing Alt+F1 floating menu is close to what you want, maybe you can come to terms with it instead.