I've come across this a few times, but I will use a specific example. When I downloaded the ADT bundle from Google it came with programs that just ran without needing to be installed, i.e. I can run Eclipse just by clicking on the eclipse file after I extracted the archived folders to the /home/ADT Bundle directory. There was no need to install anything. The problem is that I like using the Unity dash to quickly search for the programs I want to run and Eclipse doesn't show up. In fact, I can't even search for the eclipse file located in the /home/user-name/ADT Bundle/eclipse directory using the dash to start the program that way. What I'm hoping to learn is how to let the dash know that these folders, files, and/or programs exist on my system so that I can search for them if that is possible.
What I've tried: used sudo nautilus to move the folders containing the programs to the /usr/local directory (returned it to the /home directory when this didn't work)
Additional information: The dash will not find the folder ADT Bundle located in the /home directory or any file/folder contained within
running ubuntu 12.10
I installed my home, root, etc as separate logical partitions (don't know if that helps)