How can I create a shortcut for the start menu to launch an application?

Some apps I've installed, like Eclipse IDE, can be launched from an icon on the desktop, but I would like to have it available in the start menu.

I should be able to go to the start menu and click on the application and have it launch exactly the same way as launching it from the desktop/folder.

How can I achieve that?

Solution 1:

If you have a launcher in your desktop, then copy/move the launcher from your desktop to the ~/.local/share/applications/ directory. It should appear in the menu.

Otherwise, you may manually create a simple .desktop launcher (say eclipse.desktop) in your ~/.local/share/applications/ directory. The content of the eclipse.desktop may be as follows.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Eclipse
Exec=/full/path/to/the/executable
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=/full/path/to/the/icon-file

For a GUI alternative, try Main Menu (aka Alacarte). You can install it by

sudo apt-get install alacarte