Hello! I’m new to Linux, and using Plasma 6.2, and I’m finding the Application Launcher incredibly finicky to work with. The primary issue is that the category changes on cursor pass-over, and so ends up requiring some surprisingly precise mouse or touch-pad movements to avoid changing the selected category.

Is there a way to change this behaviour? Digging through various settings panels hasn’t unearthed an obvious toggle or set of options, and Google hasn’t unearthed the secret either. I’m starting to lose hope on this front.

Am I missing something obvious? Is there a way to make it so the category only changes after a hover of some appreciable amount of time? Or even a click?

  • MyNameIsRichard
    3·
    6 hours ago

    I have the same problem with an inaccurate mouse hand! My solution is to use the application dashboard which has bigger category labels.

    Right click on the menu button and select show alternatives. Choose the application dashboard. If that’s not to your liking, you can download additional menus through add widgets -> get new.

    • Kichae@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      1·
      5 hours ago

      Hmm, I think I can live with the alternative Application Menu for now. Thank you!

  • macniel@feddit.org
    11·
    6 hours ago

    Application Launcher basically search well known directories for .desktop files which contains info like Name of the Application, the icon to use, what executable to run and also which category/categories this Application belongs to.

    For example my Sea of Thieves for Steam .desktop entry

    [Desktop Entry]
Name=Sea of Thieves
Comment=Play this game on Steam
Exec=steam steam://rungameid/1172620
Icon=steam_icon_1172620
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Game;

    You can read more about that specification here: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/index.html#introduction

    and for the Categories, this specification entry could help you: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/category-registry.html

    • Kichae@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      6 hours ago

      Maybe I’m missing it, but I’m not seeing anything in these documents explaining how to change how the menu reacts to the mouse cursor?

      • macniel@feddit.org
        2·
        6 hours ago

        Oh, you were asking how to change its user interaction. Well I don’t have any answer to that, maybe a different application launcher is more suited to your scenario?