Abstract
In order to help you manage the main menu of
your preferred graphical interface, Mandrakelinux provides
you with a menu editor that ensures menus from all desktop
environments (like KDE or GNOME) are
coherent.
This tool allows system administrators to control the menus for all users (the system menu) but can also be used by users to personalize their own menus. You can launch MenuDrake from the Mandrakelinux Control Center or from the + + -> menu entry.
If started by root, MenuDrake can be used in two different modes: either changing menus for all users, or customizing the menus for user root. Click on:
When you launch MenuDrake, it first scans your current menu structure and displays it. The main window (see Figure 19.2, “MenuDrake's Main Window”) is divided in two parts: the menu itself on the left, and on the right a form relative to the highlighted menu item.
You can click on the [+] signs of the tree to view the content of the related sub-menus, on [-] to hide them.
![]() | Note |
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In your tree you may see entries which do not appear in your actual menu. These are empty directories which are not displayed but can be used for future installed applications. |
This should seldom happen as all Mandrakelinux graphical applications should provide a menu entry. However if you want to add a menu entry for a package you have compiled, or for a console mode program, you may use this function. Let's suppose that you want to open a new message window directly within Mozilla through a menu entry in the menu.
Select the directory, and click on the button on the toolbar. A dialog will appear asking you for the title of the menu entry and the command associated with it.
Edit the title (you could insert “Write a new message”) to be shown in the menu. Then you need to provide the action to be executed by the system in the Command field: /usr/bin/mozilla -compose. Click on and the entry will be added to the menu tree.
You can also choose an icon for your entry from the list you get by clicking on the icon button itself. The new entry is shown in Figure 19.4, “A New Menu Entry with MenuDrake”.
Finally to activate your modifications, click on the button and that's it. Congratulations! You can now test your new settings by accessing the main menu.
Depending on the experience the users working with your machine have, you may want to provide them with different menu styles. Mandrakelinux provides three template menus which you can eventually customize. Those templates are available through the button in the main window.
Choose one of the available options:
All applications. This is the traditional menu shipped with Mandrakelinux and it contains nearly all the available applications, sorted into functional categories.
What to do? Specifically designed by our ergonomics team, this menu provides a fast access to most common applications sorted by usage, such as , , etc.
Original menu. These are the plain menus as provided by the KDE or GNOME desktops. This menu probably lacks some applications.
You can activate a sub-menu by checking the Add link to box. Hence you will be able to access the sub-menu from the main one, thus ensuring all applications remain available.
When you have chosen a menu style and possibly an option, click on . You will then be able to see the corresponding menu structure in the main window, and you can now customize it.
The entry we have just added to the menu is now available in all graphical manager menus. It is also possible to make modifications to a specific menu by switching the Environment you are working with. For example, if you wish to add an application that should be available only in the KDE menu, simply switch from environment to environment .
All entries which only apply to the active graphical environment appear in blue in the tree structure on the left.
MenuDrake entries support the drag-and-drop feature. Similarly, you may have noticed that whenever you remove an application from the menu, it appears in the “attic”, that is the Available applications list on the bottom right corner. If you ever wish to add them again, you simply have to drag them to the desired directory.