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For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Mark 8:36 (KJV)

CREATE A LAUNCHER TO AN EXISTING FILE

Launch VLC and have it open a playlist.

We’ve previously downloaded and saved Freedom Kids™ in the Music folder. We’ve also saved a playlist of the songs with three different extensions; .m3u, m3u8 and .xspf

"Freedom Kids" album in Music


Method 1: Right-click any empty space on the Desktop and choose Create Launcher… from the drop down.

Create Launcher...


Fill out the Create Launcher pop-up form:
Name: Freedom Kids™
Comment: Scripture-Fed and Spirit-Led Music
Command: vlc /home/username/Music/Freedom-Kids/Freedom-Kids.xspf

Note: To change the playlist type, simply change the extension from .xspf to .m3u or .m3u8, (or .asx, or .b4s, or .pls).

Create Launcher pop-up

Method 2: Right-click any empty space on the Desktop and choose Create Document > Empty File

Create Document > Empty File
Create a Launcher Manually


Name the file freedom-kids.desktop and click the [Create] button.

Create New File


Right-click and choose to Open With “Mousepad”

Open With "Mousepad"


Copy the following, Paste in the text file, Save and Close

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=Freedom Kids™
Comment=Scripture-Fed and Spirit-Led Music
Icon=/home/username/Music/Freedom-Kids/cover.jpg
Exec=vlc /home/username/Music/Freedom-Kids/Freedom-Kids.m3u

Freedom Kids™ on the Desktop
on the Desktop

Confirm you trust the launcher

Method 1: Command-line
Open a Terminal [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[T] and type:
chmod a+x ~/Desktop/freedom-kids.desktop

Method 2: GUI (a)
When you attempt to use the launcher the first time (by double-clicking it), Mark it Executable.

Marking an Untrusted launcher Executable


Method 3: GUI (b)
Right-click the launcher, choose Properties from the drop-down menu, click the Permissions tab, and check the Program: Allow this file to run as a program check box.

Allow this file to run as a program


Whichever way you went about it, the launcher should now be fully functional. Double-click it to play Freedom Kids™ in VLC:

Freedom Kids™ playing in VLC
Freedom Kids™ playing in VLC

ADD A LAUNCHER TO THE MENU

Categorize the launcher by adding the Categories key. Adding a launcher without the Categories key will make the launcher appear in (a new) category called Other.

Other Menu Category


Right-click the Freedom Kids™ launcher and choose to Open With “Mousepad”

Open With "Mousepad"


Add Categories=AudioVideo;Audio; at the end, Save and Close.

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=Freedom Kids™

Comment=Scripture-Fed and Spirit-Led Music
Icon=/home/username/Music/Freedom-Kids/cover.jpg
Exec=vlc /home/username/Music/Freedom-Kids/Freedom-Kids.m3u8
Categories=AudioVideo;Audio;


Method 1: Add the launcher to the menu via command-line

Copy the launcher to ~/.local/share/applications (locally ~ for you only)
Open a Terminal [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[T] and type:
sudo cp ~/Desktop/freedom-kids.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

sudo cp ~/Desktop/freedom-kids.desktop ~/.local/share/applications


Move the launcher to /usr/share/applications (globally ~ for all users)
Open a Terminal [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[T] and type:
sudo mv ~/Desktop/freedom-kids.desktop /usr/share/applications

sudo mv ~/Desktop/freedom-kids.desktop /usr/share/applications
Freedom Kids™ playing in VLC
Freedom Kids™ playing in VLC


Method 2: Add the launcher to the menu via GUI

Right-click the Launcher and Copy (if you want to keep a copy on the Desktop), or Cut (if you don’t).
Open a Terminal [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[T] and type:
pkexec thunar
Press the [Enter] key

pkexec thunar


Provide your password / passphrase and click the [Authenticate] button.

Authenticate


Click File System on the left pane.

Select File System


Double-click each of the following folders; usr, share and applications. Paste the launcher.

Paste in /usr/share/applications


Freedom Kids™ in the Menu:

Freedom Kids showing in (a sample) Multimedia sub-menu
Freedom Kids™ in Multimedia shown with several other launchers

LAUNCHER TO AN INTERNET RADIO STATION

The launcher below is to DOC Radio, a ministry of “The DOC” (Downtown Outreach Center) and Calvary Chapel Southside in St. Petersburg, Florida in the United States. A .pls playlist file was downloaded from Internet Radio, opened in Mousepad, and the link was copied and pasted into the Command / Exec key.

Adwaita Audio Headphones icon

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=DOC Radio
Comment=Contemporary Christian Music!
Exec=vlc http://199.195.194.140:8043/listen.pls?sid=1
Icon=/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/512×512/devices/audio-headphones.png
Categories=AudioVideo;Audio;

Remember to save launchers made in Mousepad (or other text editor) with the .desktop extension

More Internet Radio Stations AccuRadioChristianRadio.comChristianTunerIcecastiHeartRADIOInternet RadioLive365raddio, and SHOUTcast


LAUNCHER(S) TO CBN RADIO NETWORK STATIONS

The Christian Broadcasting Network features 11 different radio streams. To change the broadcast to one of the others; just change the word contemporary in the Command / Exec key below to christmas, countrycountry-christmas, fiesta-hoygospel, instrumental, news, praisesouthern-gospel or superbook.

Launcher using the CBN logo from Wikimedia Commons

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=CBN
Comment=Christian Broadcasting Network
Icon=/usr/share/icons/CBN_logo.svg.png
Exec=vlc http://cbnradio.streamguys1.com/contemporary-128K?
Categories=AudioVideo;Audio;Player;

Remember to save launchers made in Mousepad (or other text editor) with the .desktop extension

The icon, CBN_logo.svg.png was downloaded from Wikimedia Commons


LAUNCHER(S) TO LIBREOFFICE DOCUMENTS

The LibreOffice suite features six different applications. To create a launcher to a LibreOffice document, simply make the Command / Exec key show what application the document should open in: Exec=libreoffice –base(or calc, draw, impress, math, or writer)/path/to/Your-Document. If you want to use the default (Elementary-Xfce) LibreOffice document icons, you don’t have to provide a path to them, just the name.

Launcher using the Default (Elementary Xfce) LibreOffice Base icon

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Exec=libreoffice --base /path/to/Your DataBase
Icon=libreoffice-base

Launcher using the Default (Elementary Xfce) LibreOffice Calc icon

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Exec=libreoffice --calc /path/to/Your Spreadsheet
Icon=libreoffice-calc

Launcher using the Default (Elementary Xfce) LibreOffice Draw icon

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Exec=libreoffice --draw /path/to/Your Drawing
Icon=libreoffice-draw

Launcher using the Default (Elementary Xfce) LibreOffice Impress icon

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Exec=libreoffice --impress /path/to/Your Presentation
Icon=libreoffice-impress

Launcher using the Default (Elementary Xfce) LibreOffice Math icon

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Exec=libreoffice --math /path/to/Your Math File
Icon=libreoffice-math

Launcher using the Default (Elementary Xfce) LibreOffice Writer icon

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Exec=libreoffice --writer /path/to/Your Word Processing Doc
Icon=libreoffice-writer

Remember to save launchers made in Mousepad (or other text editor) with the .desktop extension

More about Launchers Launcher, Desktop Item Editor and Launcher Panel Plugin on Xfce Documentation. Also see How to add new menu items to XFCE menu on Internal Pointers.