How do I add a custom launcher?

Solution 1:

First thing I'd do is navigate to /usr/local/share/applications & see if there is a geany.desktop

If so then just drag onto the launcher.

If not then would just a minute or so to set up. Your source has a 'geany.desktop.in', remove the .in & it's a perfectly good geany.desktop

Edit: the geany.desktop.in is a good template for your .desktop but needs some minor editing before copying or after. Lines 4,5,6 start with a _ that should be removed.

Ex. of edited geany.desktop (or edited geany.desktop.in

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Version=1.0
Name=Geany
GenericName=Integrated Development Environment
Comment=A fast and lightweight IDE using GTK2
Exec=geany %F
Icon=geany
Terminal=false
Categories=GTK;Development;IDE;
MimeType=text/plain;text/x-chdr;text/x-csrc;text/x-c++hdr;text/x-c++src;text/x-java;text/x-dsrc;text/x-pascal;text/x-perl;text/x-python;application/x-php;application/x-httpd-php3;application/x-httpd-php4;application/x-httpd-php5;application/xml;text/html;text/css;text/x-sql;text/x-diff;
StartupNotify=true

The source also has some geany icons in it, take the geany.png from geany-0.21/icons/48x48 & put somewhere like Pictures or Documents Then copy the geany.desktop.in file sitting in the source folder to ~/.local/share/applications/geany.desktop

Ex. - if it was in Downloads/geany-0.21

cp Downloads/geany-0.21/geany.desktop.in  ~/.local/share/applications/geany.desktop

Then just go there,

nautilus ~/.local/share/applications

right click on geany .desktop > properties > click on the icon area & browse to your geany.png > open

Finally drag geany.desktop onto your launcher

Edit: one advantage you'll see with a more 'proper' .desktop is it has a MimeTypes= line. Open up the .desktop in a text editor & take a look.

You can, if you want, now drag & drop any of those mimetypes on to the geany icon in your launcher & they'll open up in geany

Solution 2:

You can add a custom launcher in Ubuntu 11.10 by typing this in a Terminal

gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/Desktop/ --create-new

Once you have customized the item on your Desktop, drag it to the Launcher.