Mint 19.1 MATE Menu Editing: Using the MATE Applications Menu
UPDATE: Mint 19.2 Update added
This update will explore using an alternative to the default
mintMenu (Advanced Menu). I’m looking for a very simple one-column menu that can be easily created, customized and used, similar to Xfce’s
Applications Menu. There are two other menus available, the
Main Menu and the
Menu Bar (For
MATE 20.1, it is named the
Classic Menu)
The
Main Menu is seen as menu #1 in the picture below:
The attachment Mate Main Menu.jpg is no longer available
I dislike it for several reasons. The 3 system icons at the bottom are too small and are displayed as very basic ugly icons when they are below size 25. The default size is 24. The only sizes available are 16, 22, 24, 32 and 48. Changing to size 32 is shown in menu #2. Now the 3 icons are fully displayed but this size is a little too large. What’s needed is a size which is between 24 and 32, such as 28. It’s difficult to change the icons and they can’t be renamed or removed. I prefer having only the Shut Down icon visible.
The
Places category, as seen in menu #5, can’t be removed. I prefer removing it because I can duplicate it’s actions by having a
File Manager launcher on the panel below the menu. The only feature I see of value to some users would be the
Recent Documents feature.
The
System category, as seen in menu #3, can’t be removed. It contains the
Preferences and
Administration categories. The Preferences category has additional sub-menus. I prefer having those categories added with the other categories and eliminate the System category.
The second menu alternative is the
Menu Bar as seen in menu #4. It is identical to the Main Menu in function but has the Places and System items placed on the panel, which I don’t like.
There is a third alternative menu which I have created by customizing the Menu Bar. I call this the
MATE Applications Menu.
The picture below shows the
MATE Applications Menu on the left and the
Xfce Applications Menu in the middle. The MATE Applications menu can be further tweaked to improve it’s appearance, as seen in the menu on the right. That is the menu I am now using.
The
Preferences and
Administration categories are added with the other categories, and the sub-menus are removed from
Preferences. Any category or app can be repositioned in the menu and this also applies to any app within a category. This can’t be done with the default mintMenu, except in the Favorties section. All categories and apps can be renamed and easily have their icons changed, even using custom icons.
The info that follows will discuss how to create the
MATE Applications Menu using the Mint-X theme. First, right click on the panel and select
Add to Panel. Add the
Menu Bar. (For MATE 20.1, add the
Classic Menu).
Right click on it and select
Move. Temporarily move it to the middle. I increased the menu’s font size from 9 to 11 in
Appearance > Fonts, under
Application font.
The
dconf Editor is needed for the next step. Use the command
apt install dconf-editor to install it.
Open the app and go to
/org/mate/panel/menu-bar and turn OFF
show-desktop and
show-places.
This removes the Menu Bar's
System and
Places items from the panel.
Next, a new
Preferences and
Administration categories will be created. Open the File Manager and go to
/etc/xdg. Right click on the
menu folder and select
Open as Administrator. Right click on the
mate-applications.conf file and select Copy. Right click in the empty space and select Paste, to create a backup. Open the original file and go down to the end. Copy these lines:
Code: Select all
<Menu>
<Name>Preferences</Name>
<Directory>mate-settings.directory</Directory>
<Include>
<Category>Settings</Category>
</Include>
</Menu>
<Menu>
<Name>Administration</Name>
<Directory>mate-settings-system.directory</Directory>
<Include>
<Category>System</Category>
</Include>
</Menu>
Paste them between these two lines at the end:
Code: Select all
</Menu> <!-- End Other -->
</Menu> <!-- End Applications -->
So the section will now look like this:
Code: Select all
</Menu> <!-- End Other -->
<Menu>
<Name>Preferences</Name>
<Directory>mate-settings.directory</Directory>
<Include>
<Category>Settings</Category>
</Include>
</Menu>
<Menu>
<Name>Administration</Name>
<Directory>mate-settings-system.directory</Directory>
<Include>
<Category>System</Category>
</Include>
</Menu>
</Menu> <!-- End Applications →
Now when the Menu Editor is opened, there will be two Preferences and two Administration categories. Only make changes in those two categories that are listed under the
Applications category, and not under the
System category. Do not deselect or delete the two categories under the
System category.
Next, the
Shutdown launcher is created. In the Menu Editor, first select the
Applications category at the top on the left. Click the
New Item button on the right. For the
Name, type
Shutdown. For the
Command, type
mate-session-save --shutdown-dialog. Click on the icon and go to
/usr/share/icons/Mint-Y/actions/24 and select
system-shutdown.png.
Next, the
ALL launcher is created. First select the
Applications category. Click the
New Item button. Name it
ALL. For the
Command, type:
caja /usr/share/applications. The default icon is found at
/usr/share/icons/Mint-X/categories/24. Select
applications-other.png, or you can select another. The icon I used in the picture is a custom penguin icon. A good place to look is in
/usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps or categories/24. Use the
Move UP button to move the ALL launcher to the top. Clicking this launcher in the menu will open the
/usr/share/applications folder, which lists all the installed system apps. Even though the folder is owned by root, any app can be clicked on and it will be executed without needing to type your password, just the same as if it was clicked on in the menu.
Next, the favorite apps are added to the menu. These will be seen at the bottom of the menu when it is opened. To add an app, find it in it’s category in the menu editor, click on it and drag it to the
Applications category and release it. It will be copied there. I did this for GIMP, Screenshot, Transmission and Terminal. The apps can be repositioned in the menu by using the
Move Up and
Move Down buttons. To remove an app, select it and click the
Delete button.
The last task is to move the menu to the left end. Other items on the panel will prevent doing that if they are locked. Right click on the items to unlock them. One annoying feature of the MATE panel is there is an almost invisible locked separator on it that will block movement. With a new installation, there will be one just to the right of the
Show Desktop item. I suggest right clicking on that position and removing it. Also, the left border of the
Window List item will be just to the right of the panel launchers and it will need to be unlocked.
To increase the size of icons in the menu for very high resolution displays, open the
dconf Editor and go to
/org/mate/panel/menubar and click on
item-icon-size. Set
Use default value to OFF. Change
Custom value to 32 or 48. There is a way to make other sizes available, such as 26 and 28. Go down to the section
How to add 26 pixel and 28 pixel sizes for the menu panel icon and menu item icon:
Changing the menu's panel icon: Any system or custom icon can be used. Add the icon to the
/home/your-user-name/.icons folder. It can be any pixel size. The name can have spaces. Open the
dconf Editor to
/org/mate/panel/menubar and click
icon-name. Set the
Use default value button to OFF. Type the name of the icon next to
Custom value, leaving off the extension. Don’t include the full path to the icon.
Log out and back in. Sometimes the menu and desktop don’t respond after doing this. If this happens, just log out and back in again.
I greatly prefer this menu over the default one. One of the few problems with this menu is that the name,
Applications, can’t be changed, but the menu’s icon can be removed. Open the
dconf Editor to
/org/mate/panel/menu-bar and change the
show-icon setting to OFF.
UPDATE: Changing the menu's name:
Go to this website to get the
mate-panel source code:
https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-pa ... /master/po
Click on the file
en_GB.po. If you are using another language, then find the
.po file for that language.
Click the
Raw button. Press Ctrl+S to save the file to your Downloads folder.
Install
poedit: apt install poedit. It will be added to the
Programming category.
Open the program and select
Edit a Translation. Open the
en_GB.po file. Click
Edit > Find and type
Applications. Keep clicking the
Next button until the word
Applications is listed at the bottom under
Source text: and
Translation:
Under
Translation:, change the word
Applications to
Menu. If you prefer having no text, then press the spacebar once. Click
File > Save. A file named
en_GB.mo will be created in the Downloads folder. Open that folder, right click in the empty space and select
Open in Terminal. Use this command to copy the file
en_GB.mo to a file named
mate-panel.mo in
/usr/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGE:
Code: Select all
sudo cp en_GB.mo /usr/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGE/mate-panel.mo
Restart the panel by pressing Alt+F2 and typing:
mate-panel --replace
There is no
Search window, but the
Run Application window is similar and can be opened by pressing
Alt + F2, or a
Run Application item can be added to the panel and moved next to the menu.
The ALL launcher can be used to find apps just as fast, and the Control Center app lists the most common apps needed to configure the desktop and system.
MATE Applications Menu Options:
Favorites category:
Instead of having a favorite apps section in the menu, a Favorites category can be created. This may be better if there are a lot of favorite apps and will keep the menu more compact, or you can have both. This is shown in the menu on the left in the picture below:
In the menu editor, select the
Applications category and click the
New Menu button. Name it
Favorites. For the icon, go to
/usr/share/icons/gnome/24x24/status and select
starred.png. To add an app, click on it and drag it to the Favorites category and release it.
Shutdown category with Shutdown, Log Out and Lock Screen launchers:
A Shutdown category may be better than a Shutdown launcher if you also want to add a
Log Out and
Lockscreen menu launchers. I don’t need them because the
Log Out action can be executed by pressing
Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, and the
Lock Screen action by pressing
Ctrl+Alt+L. This is shown in the menu on the right in the picture above:
First create the Shutdown category. Then select that category and create a new
Menu Item named
Shutdown. Use the same icon. For the
Command, type:
mate-session-save --shutdown-dialog
Then select that category and create the two new
Log Out and
Lock Screen menu items for it.
For the Log Out
Command, type:
mate-session-save --logout-dialog
For it’s icon, go to
/usr/share/icons/Mint-Y/actions and select
system-logout.png.
For the Lock Screen
Command. type:
mate-screensaver-command -l
For it’s icon, go to
/usr/share/icons/Mint-Y/actions and select
system-lock-sceen.
Alternate ALL category:
An
ALL category can be created that lists the apps in a column instead of a page but it is more complicated to do. I prefer the
ALL launcher that was previously created.
To do this, open the
/etc/xdg/menus/mate-applications.conf file again. Go down to the bottom and add this section after the
Administration section.
Code: Select all
<Menu>
<Name>ALL</Name>
<Directory>mate-all.directory</Directory>
<Include>
<Category>AudioVideo</Category>
<Category>Game</Category>
<Category>Graphics</Category>
<Category>Network</Category>
<Category>Office</Category>
<Category>Settings</Category>
<Category>System</Category>
<Category>Utility</Category>
</Include>
</Menu>
Then go to
/home/your-user-name/.local/share/desktop-directories. Right click in the empty space and select
Create Document > Empty File. Name it
mate-all.directory. Open the file and add these lines:
Code: Select all
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Directory
Icon=applications-other
Name=ALL
NoDisplay=false
Open the menu editor and move the
ALL category to the top if necessary. You can use the default folder icon or select another.
Adding Category Submenus:
Category submenus are easy to add and can go as many levels deep as you want, using the menu editor's
New Menu and
Menu Item buttons:
Change the menu background color:
I wanted to add some color to the menu’s default white background, to match the light gray color of the panel. Open the File Manager and go to
/usr/share/themes/Mint-X/gtk-3.0. Right click on the file
gtk-main.css and select
Copy. Right click in the empty space and select
Paste, to create a backup. Open the original file and go to the section
/* Menus */.
Change this line:
Code: Select all
@define-color menu_bg @theme_base_color;
To this:
The picture below shows the original menu on the left. The second menu is gray colored:
The third menu in the picture above has the gray-green color of the Xfce Applications Menu shown in the second picture. To do this, change this line:
Code: Select all
@define-color menu_bg @theme_base_color;
To this:
That menu has other changes. The names of the app launchers for Lockscreen, Logout and Shutdown were removed. To do this, select the app in the menu editor and click
Properties. For the
Name, just type one space.
The icon for the ALL launcher was removed. To do this, open any 24x24 pixel icon in GIMP. Click
Tools > Paint Tools. Select
Eraser and use it to remove all the color from the icon. To save the icon, click
File > Export As. The Name can be
blank.png. Exit GIMP. A window will open. Select
Discard Changes.
The menu color change also affects the background of all right click menus. The text is actually a black-gray color. It can be changed to black for slightly darker text by changing lines 4 and 6:
Code: Select all
@define-color theme_text_color #212121;
@define-color theme_fg_color #212121;
To these:
Code: Select all
@define-color theme_text_color #000000;
@define-color theme_fg_color #000000;
The picture below shows an original right click desktop menu on the left and the slightly darker texted menu on the right.
The fourth menu (2 pictures above) has a little extra space added between the app launchers and the separators have been been made more visible. Open the File Manager and go to
/usr/share/themes/Mint-X/gtk-3.0. Right click on the file
gtk-widgets.css and select Copy. Right click in the empty space and select Paste, to create a backup. To add the space, search for
context-menu menuitem { in that file. Change the value of 4 in this line to 5:
padding: 4px;
To change the separators, search for
* separators * in the
gtk-widgets.css file. Under
separator {, change the value of 1 in this line to 2:
border: 1px solid transparent;
Change the values in these two lines, from
.08 to
0.15, and
.35 to
0.7.
Code: Select all
border-top-color: alpha(black, .08);
border-bottom-color: alpha(white, .35);
Also, extra space has been added between the left border and the icons. To do this, search for
context-menu {.
Change the value in this line from 0 to 4:
padding: 0;
The menu’s borders have been widened by changing the value in this line from 1 to 2:
border: 1px solid @border;
UPDATE: How to add 26 pixel and 28 pixel sizes for the menu panel icon and menu item icon:
The default icon size is 24. This makes the menu icon on the panel too small. The next size available jumps up to 32, which makes the menu icon and any other app launcher icons on the panel below the menu too large. What is needed is size 26, or some may prefer size 28.
To make these sizes available, go to
/usr/share/glib-2.0 in the File Manager. Right click on the folder
schemas and select
Open as Administrator. Right click on
org.mate.panel.menubar.gschema.xml and select
Copy. Right click in the folder’s empty space and select
Paste, to create a backup. Open the original file and add these lines:
Code: Select all
<value nick="26px" value="26"/>
<value nick="28px" value="28"/>
To this section at the top of the file, between the 24px and 32px lines:
Code: Select all
<schemalist gettext-domain="mate-panel">
<enum id="org.mate.panel.menubar.icon-size">
<value nick="default" value="-1"/>
<value nick="16px" value="16"/>
<value nick="22px" value="22"/>
<value nick="24px" value="24"/>
<value nick="32px" value="32"/>
<value nick="48px" value="48"/>
</enum>
Use this command in the Terminal to rebuild the
org.mate.panel.menubar schema:
Code: Select all
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/
To change the size of the menu icon on the panel, open the
dconf Editor to
/org/mate/panel/menubar/icon-size. Change the setting
Use default value to
OFF. In the
Custom value drop-down menu, select the 26px size. Click the Check Mark at the bottom to save.
To change the size of the icons in the menu, go to
/org/mate/panel/menubar/item-icon-size and repeat the steps above.
Log out and back in.
UPDATE: Adding a Recent Documents applet and menu launcher:
Go to this website to get the
Recent Files Indicator Applet:
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/11/rec ... let-ubuntu
Click the link in step 1 and then press
Ctrl+S to save the file
recused.py to the Downloads folder.
Right click on the link in step 2 and select:
Save Link As… It must be added to the same folder as the
recused.py file. Rename the downloaded
8rNn3.png file to
recent.png
Open the menu editor and create a
New Item under the
Applications category. Name it
Recent Documents. For the Command, type:
mate-terminal -e "python3 /home/your-user-name/Downloads/recused.py",
changing
your-user-name to your actual user name. If the recused.py file is added to a different folder, then the path in the command needs to be changed.
Use the downloaded icon or any other one. I dislike the appearance of the default icon, as indicated by the red arrow in the picture below. I have switched to a green recycle icon and renamed it
recent.png, as seen on the right. The default icon can be renamed
recent.pngxxx
The
Recent Documents menu launcher can be seen in the menu above. When the launcher is clicked, the Recent Documents applet icon will appear in the
Notification Area of the panel. Clicking on it will display a menu of recently used files and the Terminal window will open. Select the file you want to open.
The only problem I have found with this applet is if you click on it too quickly, no file menu will show and an error message will appear in the Terminal window. Wait at least 3 seconds before clicking on it. If no file menu shows, then close the Terminal window, retry and wait a few seconds longer. After the selected file opens, click on the applet again and select
Quit or close the Terminal window. If you plan on opening a different file on the menu list, then don’t close the applet.
The number of files displayed in the menu can be changed by editing the
recused.py file and changing the value in line 13. The default is
n = 10
Changing Caja’s sidebar background color and scrollbar color:
To go along with the menu change, I wanted to change the File Manager’s sidebar color and make the scrollbars more visible. I dislike Mint-X theme’s default dark brown color with white text and the light scrollbars, as seen on the left in the picture below. I prefer a light gray sidebar with black text and a darker more visible scrollbar, as seen on the right:
To do this, go to
/usr/share/themes/Mint-X/gtk-3.0. Right click on the folder
apps and select
Open as Administrator. Right click on the file
mate-applications.css and select Copy. Right click in the empty space and select Paste, to create a backup. Open the original file. Change these lines at the top:
Code: Select all
@define-color caja_sidebar_bg #505050;
@define-color caja_sidebar_fg #dadada;
@define-color caja_sidebar_selected_fg #fff;
To these:
Code: Select all
@define-color caja_sidebar_bg #e8e8e8;
@define-color caja_sidebar_fg #000000;
@define-color caja_sidebar_selected_fg #000000;
To darken the scrollbars, open the
gtk-widgets.css file in
/usr/share/themes/Mint-X/gtk-3.0. Search for
scrollbar slider {. Change the values of lines 2 and 3 from 10 to 0. Change the value of line 7 from 1 to 6:
Code: Select all
scrollbar slider {
min-width: 10px;
min-height: 10px;
margin: -1px;
margin-top: 2px;
margin-bottom: 2px;
border: 1px solid @border;
border-radius: 8px;
This will affect all 3 scrollbars that may be seen and also the scrollbar in other apps such as Firefox, xed text editor, LibreOffice, Terminal, etc.
Changing back to the default mintMenu:
In the menu editor, use the delete button to remove the
Administration and
Preferences categories listed in the
Applications category section and any other app launchers created.
Update for Mint 19.2 MATE
The default menu editor is now
MenuLibre, which doesn’t do everything correctly with my custom MATE Applications Menu. I don’t know why the developers replaced
Mozo, the previous menu editor, which I experienced no problems with and was easier to use. The
Preferences and
Administration categories can’t be edited because they are missing when MenuLibre is opened. If you try to move an app out of it’s category to the bottom or another position in the menu, then a duplicate category is created which contains only that app. Also, each change you make, such as hiding or making visible an app or category, must first be saved before another change is made. The menu editor in Mint 19.2 Xfce is also MenuLibre and it works correctly, just like it did in Xfce 18.xx and 19.1.
I recommend removing MenuLibre:
apt remove menulibre
Then install the previous menu editor:
apt install mozo
The newer version of Mozo also does not do everything correctly as it did in MATE 19.1. The
New Item button works but the item will always be added to the
Other category, from where it can be dragged and copied to a different position. The
New Menu button doesn’t work. To create a new category, you will need to re-install MenuLibre temporarily. Then click the
+ sign and select
Add Directory. It won’t be visible in the menu until an app launcher is added to it.
The alternate more complicated method is to manually edit the
/etc/xdg/menus/mate-applications.menu file and the
/.config/menus/mate-application.menu file in the Home directory.
Panel item border appearance:
Another complaint from some users using the Mint-X themes has been the appearance of the left border on two of the panel items, which used to be almost invisible, but now shows three small vertical squares, as seen on the left panel in the picture below:
This can be seen on the left border of the
Window List and
Notification Area items. There have been two topics in the Mint forums expressing dislike for them and I personally agree. This can be changed by editing the
MatePanelAppletFrameDbus section in the
/usr/share/themes/Mint-X/gtk-3.0/apps/mate-applications.css file, but this solution posted in this Mint Blog is easier:
https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3787
Go down to user
Pete’s answer on
August 9, 2019 at 7:06 pm.
Create a file named
gtk.css in
~/.config/gtk-3.0. Add these lines:
Code: Select all
MatePanelAppletFrameDBus {
background: none;
}
Save the file and log out and back in. This makes the borders invisible. I personally prefer borders that are slightly visible because this is the spot on the applet you must right click on, to display the menu used to edit them. This can be done by changing the
background: none; line.
Here are two optional borders. The first uses the line
background: rgba (180,180,180,0.3); for a border slightly darker than the panel, as seen in the middle panel in the picture above.
The second border uses the line
background: rgba (190,190,190,1.0); for a more checkered appearance, as seen in the right panel above. Decrease the values to make the border darker.
A bug I have seen in MATE 19.2 but not 19.1 is when right clicking on the panel to show it’s menu. It doesn’t appear and instead, the menu for the
Window List applet appears on the left side. The temporary solution is to right click on any panel applet and open an item on it, then close the applet and then right click on the panel again.
Update for Mint 19.3 MATE
On the plus side,
Mozo has been restored as the default menu editor. The
New Item button now works correctly; the item is added to the category that is selected. Also, the
New Menu button now works; the category won’t be visible until and item is added to it.
On the negative side, dragging an item from one category to another will move the item there, instead of copying it there, as was done in MATE 19.1 & 19.2.
Mint 17 MATE Menu Editing is continued below:
I'm using Mint 17, not 17.1, but I doubt if that has any effect. Did you try putting the icon in "
/usr/share/icons/Mint-X/apps/48”. That's where my instructions say, which is the location of the original icon. Also be sure you leave off the
.png extension when adding it to the
“
system_management.py” file.
You asked about the difference between your icons and mine. I have replaced some of the icons in the menu, some have been enhanced visually by editing them in GIMP, and some icons are custom made, like the GIMP icon.
My round Firefox icon can be found in “
/usr/share/linuxmint/mintinstall/icons/firefox.png”
The Transmission icon is found in “
/usr/share/pixmaps/transmission.png”
In the picture below, the original icons are on the top row and the icons I replaced them with is on the bottom row:
The attachment mate-icons-2.png is no longer available
