Adding Programs and Shortcut Icons to Your K menu and Panel

K Desktop Environment
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# 6.2. Adding Programs and Shortcut Icons to Your K menu and Panel

The KDE K Menu and panel are not limited to the setup you find right after installing KDE. The KDE panel is designed to be extended, and there are two ways of doing that: Adding new programs, and adding shortcut icons.

## 6.2.1. Adding menu entries

To add your favorite programs to the KDE panel, you can use the KDE Menu Editor. To start it, use the application starter and choose System->Menu Editor.

A window will open showing the existing K Menu on the left, and an empty menu entry dialog on the right

For this example, we will be adding an entry for the Gimp under the Graphics submenu. If you already have a Gimp entry there and don't want a new one, you can still follow through this example, and just don't click the Apply when you are done.

1. Navigate down the left hand tree to the Graphics entry.

2. Click on it once with the left mouse button to expand the entry.

3. Click the icon labelled New Item in the toolbar, or choose File->New Item in the menu bar.

4. In the dialog box that pops up, enter the name you want your new menu entry to have. For this example, enter `Gimp`.

   Then press OK in the dialog.

5. Click on the new Gimp menu entry that was created for you in under the Graphics submenu. The menu entry dialog to the right will now change to be mostly empty, except for the name you already gave.

6. Fill in an optional Comment. You might like to put `An image editor` for the example. Text entered here will be shown as a tool-tip in the Application Starter

7. Enter in the box labelled Command, the command you would type on the command line to open your application. For this example, this is gimp. You may also enter any optional command line parameters if you wish. You can use this to make a menu entry that always opens a particular document or image, for example. Check the application's documentation to find out more about command line parameters.

8. If you want the application to operate from a particular directory (for example, for Gimp to begin it's Open File dialog in a particular place) enter this path in the box labelled Work Path. This is optional.

9. If you wish to change the icon from the default "unknown", click on the icon to the right of the dialog, to open a standard KDE icon chooser.

10. Some applications must be run in a terminal window (for example Pine). If this is the case, check the appropriate check box.

11. If you want to run your application as a different user, check the box labelled Run as a different user and enter the appropriate user name in the text box.

12. If you're happy with your menu entry, press Apply. If you would like to start over, press Reset.

And that's all. You now have a new menu entry.

## 6.2.2. Shortcut Icons

Although KDE is much more comfortable than the average Unix window manager, everyone wants a solution for a one-click way to start a program. Later, you will learn how to create links and files on your desktop, but this also has some disadvantages: sometimes all your desktops are filled up with windows, and you cannot reach your icons without minimizing all the windows that cover them. For commonly used programs, you can minimize this problem and speed access by creating shortcut icons on the KDE panel.

To create a shortcut on the KDE panel, do the following you have some choices: Drag-and-drop, or via a menu.

Adding a shortcut icon with the menu

1. Click on the application starter and choose Panel Menu->Add->Application.

2. You will see the top level of the application starter again. Go through the menus to find the entry for which you want to create the shortcut, such as Home directory or Konqueror. Click on the program you want.

A new icon will appear on the KDE panel. Click on it, and the program will start.

Adding a shortcut icon with drag-and-drop is even simpler - just drag any icon from your desktop or a Konqueror window, to an empty space on the panel.

What happens when you drag an item to your panel depends on what kind of item it was:

If you drag a directory...

  A menu will pop up giving you a choice of Add as a File Manager URL or Add as a QuickBrowser. Choosing the first will make you an icon that opens a Konqueror window, starting at this directory, while choosing the latter will open that directory as a menu from the Panel.

If you drag a shortcut from your desktop...

  It will be copied to the panel.

If you drag a document...

  A link will be made on the panel, leaving the original in place. Clicking on the resulting icon will open that document in the default application.

In any case, if you want to move the icon, click on it using the right mouse button and choose Move. Move the icon to the position you want and press the left mouse button. If you wish to remove the icon, click on it using the right mouse button and choose Remove. You can also move the icon by clicking with the middle mouse button, and dragging it to it's new location.

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