FAQ: How do I edit the menus in the panel?

[ubuntu-geek]

There is no easy way to do this in modern versions of GNOME.

If you really want to change things, the menu items are ".desktop" text files in /usr/share/applications/. You can edit them in a text editor (like gedit or nano).

[dawynn]

I've posted this in other threads -- but, if the menus are really that hard to work with in Gnome, why is it considered worthy of Ubuntu? The Ubuntu philosophy is -- "It should just work." Since Gnome doesn't, why was it chosen over KDE (which *does* work -- and has a very good menu manager), or any of the other numerous Window Managers?

[FLeiXiuS]

Boo KDE, Gnome is much cleaner and easier to use, I haven't had a problem with it yet. Perhaps your overlooking the situation.

[leeech]

it is kind of horible... try install crossover and office xp...

you will get one messy menu

tidy them up one by one... then know what? my 2nd user account's menu also messy...

anywhere to change global menu arrangement... else everytime i create a new user, i have to resort things

[flygmaskin]

Originally Posted by leeech it is kind of horible... try install crossover and office xp... you will get one messy menu tidy them up one by one... then know what? my 2nd user account's menu also messy... anywhere to change global menu arrangement... else everytime i create a new user, i have to resort things

Just copy your custom config files to /etc/skel/, they will then be copied to all new users home directories.

[dawynn]

Maybe it would be helpful (since this *is* the FAQ's and HOWTO's area) for someone to write-up how the menus are stored. flygmaskin indicated that we could copy the custom config files into /etc/skel. That'd be great, if we knew where our custom config files were located.

Adding and removing entries is pretty simple in gnome. All it takes is a right-click (OK -- not sure how Mac users would accomplish that). But how about trying to move a menu entry into a new folder? Drag-and-drop doesn't work. I could delete and re-add, but I would lose a lot of the configuration information. There is no option to cut-and-paste.

So, if anyone has had any success with "sorting" or heavily modifying their gnome menus -- please feel free to inform us about what you did! Or about any web documentation that you found especially helpful.

Thanks!