How to customize Whisker menu for XFCE?

Question

I really don't like the Whisker menu, I can't uninstall programs from it, customize it (change the colour, make categories, change the name of a program, or the icon of a program), and worst of all for me, it names things by what they are, not their actual name (example: the application "MyPaint" is called "Raster Graphics Editor"). Is there a way to change this or an alternative (that is not the "applications menu")?

Solution

Right click on the Whisker Menu panel item. Then select Edit Applications. If you do not have this option, then install MenuLibre by pasting the following in terminal:

sudo apt-get install menulibre

Log out and in again so the option Edit Applications will not be grayed out / disabled.

In MenuLibre you can customize the Whisker Menu to your liking. You can create categories, change the name of a program, and change the icon of a program or category, etc.

1. To add a category, click the plus button in the top left. Select Add Directory. Be sure to save it by clicking the down arrow button in the top left.
2. To change the name of a program just click on the program name to edit it. Then save.
3. To add a launcher under a particular category (directory), first click on that category. Then click the plus button to add your Launcher.
4. To customize the icon and use your own image, click on the icon.
5. To change the ordering of menu items, click on the down and up arrows in the bottom left.
6. To remove a program or category click the trash icon at the top.

You can also change the background color, text color, etc. in Whisker Menu. There is a tutorial here from the developer. https://gottcode.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/theming-whisker-menu You can use a website such as this one for your hexadecimal colors. http://www.colorcombos.com/333333-hex-color

Enjoy!

Comments

[Terrance]

Go to Settings -> Panel -> Items. Click Whisker Menu, then the gear to the right to go into settings. Under Appearance tab, unselect the Show generic application names then it should show the real names.

[Terrance]

Or to customize your own menu: wiki.xfce.org/howto/customize-menu

[Sir_Scofferoff]

Using menulibre on Kali will remove all entries (not delete) due to it then using your ~/.config/ instead. You will have to delete any menulibre (or whisker) folders in there to restore it. Can't remember exact locations. Just that menulibre ruins it all.