Hello, I have a small number of apps (9 in total) which I don't start often enough to warrant pinning them to the dash (also it would clutter my taskbar). At the same time I use them frequently enough to not want to bother with having to click category first. Also, I can't seem to sort categories to my liking.
So what I'm looking for is to basically just see the list of my preferred apps, in my preferred sorting order, instead of categories when I hit Zorin Menu. This is an experience coming from Windows.
To rule out some possible suggestions already:
I don't want to have any icons on my desktop
I don't want to pin 9 more apps to my dash (I already have 3 pinned there)
I don't want to click through categories to get to them
I don't want to have to type them
I don't want to switch to Mac-style Layout
I don't want to lose the other half of the start menu (Folder shortcuts, Settings, Software...)
Any ideas? I hear that Arc menu offers the flexibility I'm looking for, but installing that seems rather complex (also for the life of me I don't even understand why I need to install a web browser extension to enable an OS shell...)
Thanks, I tried that, but it seems it doesn't let me eliminate category folders from showing up The only way to do that would be to switch to a different layout in which you immediately get the 'All Apps' view, but that one can't be sorted to my liking, and also I'd sacrifice the the file folder, settings + software stuff.
I'd appreciate if there was some way to fully customize Start Menu so I can define closely what I want to see there
There is. It is a Gome Extension called ArcMenu. It is a very good customizable Start Menu. I use ArcMenu by myself and really appreciate the Possibilities that it brings. But You must bring a bit Time with, because You have a lot of Setting-Options.
Thanks, yes, I found mention of ArcMenu elsewhere as well, but I'm just not sure about it requiring a 'browser' extension? What does my Browser have to do with the OS start menu..?
It's basically a browser extension that allow you to install Gnome extension from Gnome extension web page. I used it a lot when I was using Gnome.
An example of gnome extensions use:
When you open extension manager there is an extension called Applications. Turn that on and you get another button on the taskbar called Applications. When you click that you get a menu that has Favorites at the top. You can then put your favorite applications there. The menu that is brought up when you click on the Applications button is also much easier to navigate than the menu you get when you click on the Zorin icon.
That is because You can over the Browser with the Browser Extension directly install the extensions over the Website. To be honest: I had my Problems in the Past because it didn't worked good for me.
So, I use the Extensions Manager. @Hackgets show a Screenshot of it. You can find it in the Gnome Software Store. The good Thing about this Program is, that You can search over this Gnome Extensions and install and manage them. There exists an Gnome-own Program, but with that You can only manage installed Extensions but not search and install them. So, I prefer the Extension Manager.
Thank you very much everyone! I followed the advice to use the Gnome extension manager to install ArcMenu ('Applications' doesn't serve my purpose).
So now I'm running successfully ArcMenu and will dive into configuring my very own start menu experience. Lovely!
That brings back the 'original' gnome Panel item that would originally appear in the top panel. You could also get it to show with gnome-tweaks but not sure if that is still there in current iteration.
I know I like it much better than the menu that now comes with Zorin. I only need to hover the mouse curser over a catagory and immediately see what is in that catagory instead of having to click on the catagory to get it to open.
The only way to do that would be to switch to a different layout in which you immediately get the 'All Apps' view, but that one can't be sorted to my liking, and also I'd sacrifice the the file folder, settings + software stuff.