GNOME User's Guide
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# Launchers

Launchers are essentially buttons which reside in your panel and start an application or execute a command when clicked. A launcher can use any icon and has a customized tooltip to display a message when the cursor is passed over the Launcher.

You can change a launcher properties, such as the icon it uses and its name, by right-clicking on a launcher and selecting Properties from the pop-up menu. This brings up the Launcher properties dialog shown in Figure 7. The same dialog is used when you create a new launcher (see the section called Adding objects to the panel). Also, internally GNOME makes no distinction between menu items and launchers: these are just different presentations of the same thing. You can place any menu item on the panel, and it will show as a launcher. Therefore, all the information below applies equally to launchers and menu items.

Figure 7. Create Launcher/Launcher Properties Dialog

This dialog has two tabs: `Basic` and `Advanced`. In the `Basic` tab, you can set:

- `Name` — this is the application name, for example, `GNOME terminal`. This name will be used if you later put this launcher in a menu.

- `Comment` — this is a brief explanation of what this application does, for example, `Terminal emulation program`. This will be used for tooltips.

- `Command` — the actual command that runs the application, for example, `gnome-terminal`.

- `Type` — should be `Application`; do not change it unless you want to create something other than application launcher.

The `Basic` tab also shows the icon to be used for the launcher; if no icon is specified, a default icon will be used. To change the icon, just click on it to launch the icon browser.

Finally, if the application can only run inside a terminal — that is, if it doesn't create any windows on its own — you should also check Run in terminal button. If unsure, leave it unchecked.

`Advanced` tab is shown below. It is intended for advanced users; most of the time, you do not need to change any of the settings here.

Figure 8. Launcher Advanced Properties Dialog

In this tab, you can set:

- `Try this before using` — you can enter here a command, and GNOME will check if this command can be executed. If not, the launcher (or menu item) will not be shown even if you added it to the panel or menu. It is mostly used by people preparing GNOME distributions: for example, default GNOME Main Menu contains an item for `TkRat` e-mail program, but you will not see it unless you have `TkRat` installed on your system.

- `Documentation` — currently not used.

- `Name/comment translations` — here you can set translation of the `Name` and `Comment` to other languages. For example, for `GNOME Terminal`, the translations to Spanish (es) are name: `Terminal UNIX de GNOME` and comment: `Emulador de terminal GNOME`. This means that if a user sets his language to Spanish during login (it can be done by selecting appropriate language from Languages menu of GNOME login manager (GDM)), he will see Terminal UNIX de GNOME in the menu and `Emulador de terminal GNOME` in the tooltips. Of course, the actual command that runs the terminal is unchanged.

  To add a new translation, enter the language 2-letter code and translations of `Name` and `Comment` fields in the empty fields under the list of current translations, and press Add/Set button. To change one of existing translations, select it in the list, edit the fields you want, and press Add/Set button. To remove one of existing translations, select it and press Remove button.

  You can find the list of all languages supported by GNOME along with their 2-letter codes in GNOME Frequently Asked Questions.

All the changes you made in Launcher Properties dialog will take effect when you press Apply or OK. Pressing OK closes this dialog; pressing Apply will allow you to continue editing.

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