With Ubuntu, the Linux novice can now use this Linux distribution on the desktop. Now I have installed and configured many a Linux distro, (RedHat, SUSE) but have not had as pleasant an experience as I have had with Ubuntu. In this article I will look at how to setup a menu item in Ubuntu. I have the 6.10 (Edgy Eft) build but I understand that it will also work with the Dapper Drake build. 

After researching the use of a VNC client on my laptop, which has Ubuntu, I thought wouldn't it be good to have a menu link in the GUI to select and not have to open a terminal.  I know that it is just as many steps to open another terminal as it is to select a menu link. However, that is another terminal that you have open, that is being used to start an application. Why not set a menu item to do that.

Now let's set a menu item to open the VNC Client. First, lets open the Menu Layout tool via System | Preferences | Menu Layout.  

Then, select the New Item Button. This will bring up the Menu Item Properties  dialog:

Within the Command text box enter the path to the executable of the app you want the menu item to start. I wanted to add a menu item for my VNC Client, which on my Ubuntu Edgy Eft install is /usr/bin/vncviewer. Next, add the text you want to display in the menu to the Name text box. As you can see I simply added VNC Client. Finally, if you want you can change the icon to be displayed by selecting the Icon button which is displayed as No Icon. Then browse to the icon image that you want to use. I browsed to the usr/share/icons directory and added the icon you see in the Menu Item Properties dialog above. To see the new menu item you will need to log off and then log back on.

In conclusion, this process enables you to set menu items. Moreover,  you could also use this process to create a menu item that utilizes a custom script that you create.