Can't add Sublime Text to the Gnome Shell Dock

Question

I've downloaded Sublime Text for Linux (32bit) and put it in /opt, linked it in /usr/bin and currently I can start it by typing sublime_text in console. Whenever I start it its icon appears in the Shell's Dock but I can't pin it, and it doesn't appear in the Applications menu either.

How do I add it?

Answer 1

The shortest way:

1. Press super key to activate overview
2. Type main menu and hit enter
3. Add new item, where the command is sublime_text
4. voila, you have your shortcut

Answer 2

You have several options to make this happen. The crux of it is that in order for an app to be usable by GNOME Shell, it needs to have a corresponding .desktop file in either /usr/share/applications or ~/.local/usr/share/applications.

Either:

• Use alacarte (the old GNOME menu editor) to add a new menu item
• Use the command gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/.local/usr/share/applications/sublime-text.desktop, which will pop a dialog asking for the information required for the shortcut, the same as alacarte does
• Add a file into one of those directories yourself, using the same format as other .desktop files

The layout for a desktop file is of the form:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
Icon[en_GB]=gnome-panel-launcher
Name[en_GB]=Sublime Text 2
Exec=sublime-text
Comment[en_GB]=Sublime Text 2
Name=Sublime Text 2
Comment=Sublime Text 2
Icon=gnome-panel-launcher