Can I edit which icons appear in the Unity dash?

When I open the dash in 11.04, I get two rows of icons. The first row contains 'lenses' that take me to lists of applicaitons/files; the second row opens specific applications - Browse the Web, View Photos, Check Email, Listen to Music.

Is there any way to change what programs the icons in the second row point to? (If I were to add new lenses, do they also appear, and can I change the order?) So far it seems like the Browse the Web and Listen to Music icons respect my preferred applications choices. The first can be either Firefox or Chromium (and perhaps others) and the second can be either Banshee or Rhythmbox. However, I can't change the Check Email icon. It remains pinned to Evolution, even though I have Thunderbird set as my preferred email client. I'd like to change this if I can.

Solution 1:

To change default applications, click the power/settings menu in the top right corner of your screen (the one with the OFF symbol) and select last item (System Settings).

Select Preferred Applications in the window that will appear, so you can change them.

As far as I know, it is not possible to add additional items in the Unity Dash.

Solution 2:

I understand what he meant, in the old days you could right click on menu and edit, now the answer is to install alacarte.

sudo apt-get install alacarte

Alacarte can be run from the terminal or the Unity Dash.

Solution 3:

The mail problem known bug in Unity. The bug is reported here and is fixed for 11.04

Solution 4:

Unfortunately in 11.04/11.10 there is no way to arbitrarily change the shortcuts in the dash to any application you want unless you edit the source code directly.

However if you set your browser, mail program, and mp3 player in Preferred Applications Unity will respect those settings.