So, I'm really writing this just writing this out because there is a surprisingly small amount of people know how to do this, and I saw a post while browsing the inter-webs on https://forums.linuxmint.com where someone was asking how to do THIS EXACT THING, and was met with "The program you want to use is in this repo so you don't need an appimage" Which isn't an appropriate response. so here I am with an appropriate response... To KT-GB-12, and anyone else who needs to add either a script, appimage, file, or other launcher to your taskbar/panels:
So, first you'll need to open a new file saved as YourProgramName.desktop in ~/Desktop
and write the following with the appropriate information:
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=YourProgramName
Comment=<What your program does>
Exec=/opt/YourProgramname/YourProgram.appimage
Icon=/usr/share/icons/YourChosenIcon.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Actions=
NoDisplay=false
Categories=Audio;Development;Documentation;Education;Game;Office;Other;Settings;System;Utility;Video;X-Xfce-Toplevel;
alternatively, you can use shift+enter and use the terminal and run your version of:
cat>>YourProgramName.desktop<<EOL
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=YourProgramName
Comment=<What your program does>
Exec=/opt/YourProgramname/YourProgram.appimage
Icon=/usr/share/icons/YourChosenIcon.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Actions=
NoDisplay=false
Categories=Audio;Development;Documentation;Education;Game;Office;Other;Settings;System;Utility;Video;X-Xfce-Toplevel;
EOL
Then, use Terminal and run: sudo mkdir /opt/YourProgramname && sudo mv ~/ YourProgram.appimage /opt/YourProgramname && sudo mv ~/Desktop/*.desktop /usr/share/applications
That'll move all the files where they need to be.
now, just open up your application menu, and it should be there. if not(because sometimes that happens) change the
sudo mv ~/Desktop/*.desktop /usr/share/applications
to
sudo cp -r ~/Desktop/*.desktop /usr/share/applications
and drag and drop the program you want onto your panel.
also, if you want to be able to launch it with a command do: sudo ln -s /opt/YourProgramName/YourProgram.appimage /usr/bin/CommandName
Then in terminal you can type your commands name and your program will launch!
you can also change your .desktop file Exec=CommandName
NOTE:Type=Application needs to be changed to Type=Script OR Type=Bash to run scripts. to turn your scripts into one click programs.
To open specific files will need Exec=exo-open /directory/that/your/file/is/in/YourFileName.extension to open it with the default program for that file type. to run these files in a none default program, you'll have to use the terminal command name, which the easiest way ive seen to find this is opening the .desktop file of the program you want and looking at what Exec=command is in the file. Then you'll use Exec=ProgramCommand /directory/your/file/is/in/directory/that/your/file/is/in/YourFileName.extension .
NOTE 2 Electric Bugaboo: you CAN make a new custom icon folder in the /usr/share/icons folder without hurting anything if you want a neutral space that your program file icons can collect.(makes hopping Linux Distros easier...) or you can set the Icon=/to/where/ever/you/want/Youricon.png sometimes I leave it in the the /opt/ProgramFile/ directory.
If you want to add something to autostart, this can be done by adding X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true and dropping .desktop file this in ~/.config/autostart and then change it in your settings.
Template:
[Desktop Entry]
Exec=nemo-desktop
Name=nemo-desktop
Comment=Starts the nemo active desktop
Type=Application
StartupNotify=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
This will really help if you have a curtain command that you need to run EVERY time you login... add it to a script:
#!/bin/bash/sh
yourcommand
save as YourScriptName with no file extension, and follow the steps above to have it run every time without you doing ANYTHING.
That's about it. I hope someone else can find this information as useful as I have in the 8 years I've been running strictly Linux.
