Working with shortcuts in Linux (Ubuntu)

Hamish Taylor
Monday, 14 July 2008 20:19

Opinion and Analysis

For some bizarre reason if you use Add/Remove Applications to install the Azureus/Vuze BitTorrent client, then you get quite an old version. I am not sure why the Ubuntu distribution maintainers have not updated to the latest version, but that's what happens.

When setting up a new machine, I download the latest version from the Vuze website. It comes as a .tar.gz file, which is just a kind of "zipped" file. I right-click on it, select Extract here, then cut and paste the resulting vuze folder into my /home folder (accessible by clicking on Places and then Home). The Linux /home folder is a bit like the Windows "My Documents" and "Documents and Settings" folders in one. It stores settings for applications and user created documents.

So now I have an application in my /home folder but not in the menu system. I open up Main Menu, and select the folder to which I want to add the shortcut. In this case I select the Internet folder. On the right-hand side I click on New Item. The Type is Application. Under Name I type in Vuze. Then I click on Browse, and navigate to the /home/hamish/vuze folder and click on the "vuze" file, which is the launcher. I generally leave the Comment blank.

The final thing I do is click on the Icon (in the square box on the left-hand side of the small window). This opens up some alternative icons. I choose one of them and click on it, then click on OK. You can also change the location of the shortcut by moving it up or down.

The item should now be in the menu. Click on it to see if it works. If it does then you can close the Main Menu or continue to add other shortcuts.

So now we have added an application shortut to the main menu! On page 3 I'll quickly outline how to put a shortcut into the panel area on the top just to the right of the System menu.