Jan
31
I just came across a method to consolidate your three gnome menus (applications, places and system) into one. For those of you that have used SLED (SuSE Linux Enterprise Edition) or openSuse 10.2 you’ll recognize this layout. It turns out it is also an option for our Ubuntu machines.
To install the new menu layout simply install the following with your favorite package management interface.
sudo aptitude install gnome-main-menu
Once you’ve installed the package you’ll need to simply add it to your panel. You do that via a right-click on your current menu panel and add the new “gnome main menu” under the utilities section. (note: there are two listings for the main menu at this point in the “add to panel” dialog. You’ll want to add the one that looks like the computer icon and not the ubuntu logo.)
As you can see this menu layout combines all of your options into a central layout. You’ve got your favorite, or most commonly used, applications listed by default and the system options on the right. The drop-down menu will show you recent documents and places.
What I have done at this point is removed my previous menu (via right-click, remove from panel) and replaced it with this new layout. You may need to use the right-click and move option to put the new listing in the right place.
update: if you want to revert your changes and replace the original menu simply re-add the other gnome-main-menu.. the one that looks like the ubuntu logo.
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13 Responses to “Consolidate your gnome menus with gnome-main-menu : Ubuntu (6.10)”
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Now, if i could only bind a shortcut to it _without_ adding it to the panel. It’s not possible to do that even when i’ve added it to the panel. That would be great…
[...] 10.2 [no idea why i’m just wierd that way], well now you can have it in Ubuntu. Thanks to Christer Edwards for this information [apologies i did just steal what he wrote :s i will remove it if nessary] To [...]
Ah, but is there a way to make Alt-F1 open this menu instead of the old one?
Ahem, I hate to sound like an ex-XP fanboy here… but…
I have tried this menu once before, and found myself switching back to the good old default 3 menus quickly. The reason for this, I found this menu too ineffecient to use. it can show your most popular apps - good - allthough you have to build this list manually, unlike XP. But what if you want to run another program you don’t use very frequently - You have to click on “More Applications” first, then find the application in a huge list, and do another click to launch it - that’s lot more clicks than XP’s start panel. I think it would be much better if there was an “All Programs” item like XP down the bottom of the menu, that would collapse your standard looking “Applications” menu.
I have tried a similar menu called “Ubuntu System Panel”. However, the problem with this panel, it was too wide (3 columns), and too complex at first glance, and once again, lacked some elements to actually make it effecient to use.
I’ve always thought XP’s start panel has had a lot of effort put into effecient design. For a good start panel, you need (in my mind): automatically generated most frequently used apps (or manual, you should be able to choose), your places should be easily accessible (not as a sub menu, but rather straight on the panel), system icons should be easily accessible, and a hover-over menu that quickly opens “all programs”. And it should only be 2 columns wide, 3 columns just looks too much.
There was one point, I was thinking of doing a “mockup” in Gimp and putting it on the Ubuntu forums. I might still do that one day.
No, I’m not that much of an XP fanboy, in fact, I use Ubuntu for my day to day use, I do however think that XP’s start panel is well designed.
This rocks!
Ubuntu default, anyone?
That is the balls.
Many thanks for posting that, I would never have heard of it otherwise.
Only just started using it, so I can’t comment on how I’ll find it’s effectiveness in the longterm, but at the moment it seems to function quickly enough for my needs, although having to open a new window to see all my applications is potentially a little frustrating.
Yeah it’s great, apart from the fact that favorite applications fall off the list mysteriously, the more applications design requires clicking and so makes it more frustrating to get to other apps, the recent documents and places selector is again more clicking and more hassle.
I tend to agree that the XP one is a better design (though I hate XP) but I find it annoying with XP that apps are added automatically when you use them once (and may never use them again).
I like it, but how would one go about editing its appearance? Specifically, making it use only the icon on the panel, without the label.
It’s also interesting that users on the Xubuntu wiki are floating requests to do the opposite - to move from one menu to three.
To add applications to the “favorites” you can take a look at this: http://reverendted.wordpress.com/2006/06/18/customizing-the-gnome-main-menu/
[...] Consolidate your gnome menus … (Ubuntu Tutorials) [...]
[...] Consolidate your gnome menus with gnome-main-menu : Ubuntu (6.10) (tags: linux ubuntu desktop) [...]
[...] matin, en lisant les nouvelles, je suis tombé sur un article de Christer Edwards sur Planet Ubuntu. Il y présente un nouveau menu pour le panneau GNOME. Je l’ai installé [...]
[...] matin, en lisant les nouvelles, je suis tombé sur un article de Christer Edwards sur Planet Ubuntu. Il y présente un nouveau menu pour le panneau GNOME. Je l’ai installé [...]