How To Create a Submenu in Ubuntu MATE
A submenu is a term used to describe a menu that is contained within another menu. A submenu is often identified by having a small arrow pointing to the right at the edge of the option.
In this section, I will demonstrate how to create an Entertainment submenu within the Applications menu in Ubuntu MATE. I am using the Traditional Menu on my system, but this should work for the other layouts as well.
If you use the Traditional menu, click on System, highlight Preferences, Look and Feel, and then click on Main Menu.
or
You can open the Control Center and click on Main Menu found under the Look and Feel group.
You should see a Main Menu dialog box appear on your screen. Click the New Menu button to allow you to create a new menu or submenu.
You will see a small Directory Properties dialog box appear. You can enter the name of your new submenu to the right of Name:. You can add an optional comment in the Comment: section. Click the folder icon to allow you to add an icon to your new submenu.
A Choose an Icon dialog box and navigate to the location of the icon you want to assign to the new submenu. I keep a variety of icons in an Icons folder in my Home folder. I selected a movie-reel-popcorn-icon.png and click on the Open button.
Your new icon will replace your older icon. Now click the OK button to create your new submenu.
You should now see the new submenu in your list. You can click on the new menu item to select it and then click on the Move Up button until you have the new submenu in alphabetical order in your list. Make sure you have a check in the square box to the left of the new menu item to make it display in your menu. The new menu item will appear italicized to indicate the folder is empty. An empty folder will not be displayed in your menu until you place an item inside it.
I will place a Hypnotix, an IPTV streaming application, in the new Entertainment submenu. I first selected the Entertainment submenu and then I clicked the +New Item button. A Create Launcher dialog box will appear. I entered the following information in the empty boxes:
- Type: Application
- Name: Hypnotix
- Command: hypnotix
- Comment: Watch TV
- Icon: should fill in automatically based on the icon associated with the hypnotix command. However, you can click the icon and manually change the icon.
You should now see the new submenu Entertainment in the Applications menu and it should contain the Hypnotix program within it.
I recommend that you click on the application to see if it opens. I clicked on Hypnotix and it immediately opened the streaming application.
Hypnotix was originally placed in the Sound & Video submenu. To prevent the program displaying in both submenus you can uncheck Hypnotix in the Sound & Video submenu. The application will appear italicized to indicate it won't be visible in the menu. Click the Close button when you're finished.
Linux is highly customizable. Ubuntu MATE's Traditional menu makes it easy to organize and access the programs on my system.
Mar 18, 2021