Add a search function to applications menu?

[JesterDev]

How do I add the ability to search the applications menu? I don't appear to be able too. Typing does nothing.

Xubuntu 20.04

[TheFu]

I don’t think that is possible with most DEs. At least it isn't built-in.
A good WM will support custom addons, which can do anything you can program through a script.

However, you can open a terminal and use tab-completion to fill in a program name. google "linux tab-completion" if you need more. This is one of those things where a video makes it clear, quickly. The shell/CLI is extremely powerful. Any one typing more than 2-3 characters at a time is doing it wrong.

I don't know about xfce addons, sorry.

General searching by file name is something the 'locate' command makes easy.
If you want to look inside files, use 'recoll'. Recoll is like google for your desktop.
Both tools need to index the search areas first.

[geofftf]

If you click on the little mouse at the bottom left hand side of the screen, the Whisker menu comes up. The cursor will be in a white field at the bottom with a magnifying glass. Type and hit the first few letters of the name of the application. A list of applications starting with those letters appears. Click the mouse on the one that you want. Is that what you were looking for?

[metacell]

You don't have this on your menu?