How to make the unity app search find a manually installed app

I installed the scriptwriting Celtx software following the instructions on their site which had me place it inside of ~/bin/celtx

I can execute it with no problems by running bin/celtx/celtx & from the terminal. I prefer to launch my apps via the Unity search/finder thing that I get by hitting what I guess is called the Super button. How do I go about placing a link to celtx in there?

Solution 1:

You create a .desktop-file that you place in either /usr/share/applications/appname.desktop if it should be available for all users or in /home/username/.local/share/applications/appname.desktop if should only be added to your personal menu. The latter seems right in your case.

You can use the Gnome menu editor, alacarte, for this (installed by default) or you can create a shortcut by right clicking the desktop and then move it to ~/.local/share/applications manually afterwards. Alacarte will let you place the file in a certain category so that it displays in the Development category, for instance. You just navigate to Applications > Development in Alacarte and click "New item". Enter a name for the launcher, the command to run, an icon to use and an optional comment.

It will now be available when you press super and type some of its name, or if you right click the Applications lense in the launcher and select Development.