Linux Desktop Hacks

Create Your Own GNOME Right-Click Actions #47

Chapter 6, GNOME Desktop Hacks

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HACK

Adding a Scripts Option to the Nautilus Menu

You run custom scripts from the Nautilus File menu or by right-clicking and

selecting the Scripts option. You might notice your current Nautilus menu

doesn’t contain a Scripts option. This simply means you haven’t defined any

scripts yet. Once you define a script, the option to run scripts will appear

(along with the option to open the scripts folder where you can add, change,

delete, or edit your scripts).

Place your scripts in the ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts directory. If you find you

are adding so many scripts that the menu gets confusing, you can divide

them into categories and place them into subdirectories of ~/.gnome2/

nautilus-scripts. For example, you can put all your file conversion-related

scripts in the ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/Convert directory. This will place all

the conversion scripts in a submenu so that you can select Scripts

➝ Con-

vert

➝ Your Script to run one of those scripts.

Image Conversion Script

This sample script takes an image file and converts it to the GIF format. It

uses the

convert command that comes with the ImageMagick package. This

command is capable of converting images from just about any format to just

about any other format.

Create the ~/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts/Convert2Gif script. Use your favorite

editor to enter the following code, ...