Or "How do I get a bar full of buttons to my favorite programs."
 | This page contains outdated information
If you're interested in recreating QuickLaunch, you should just use GeoQuickLaunch. It's as simple as that. The rest of this page is left here mainly as a list of alternative ways of doing things |
It's quite the norm to want to have a bar with a bunch of buttons on it to launch your favorite apps, and there are several ways to do this, depending on whether or not you have (or are willing to create) a folder with shortcuts to all of these apps (eg: your QuickLaunch bar in Windows Explorer is based on a folder).
With shortcuts in a folder
Once you have a folder with shortcuts in it, you can take one of two approaches:
1) Create a single button that pops out a menu
All you have to do is drag the folder onto a bar. A button should appear (it will probably be blank, and thus, look just like some space on the bar). You will probably need to "recycle" the plugin by holding SHIFT and double-clicking the button with your right mouse button.
Now you should be able to click that button and get a menu. To assign an icon to the button, use the control menu (hold CONTROL, and right-click the plugin).
The bonus of this approach is that you can creat hotkeys to open menus, so you can take advantage of keystroke sequences to launch the apps here...
2) Create a bunch of buttons, one for each application
You will need to load a plugin manually, for this, so Just right-click you bar, and choose "Load Plugin" and then choose geoQuickLaunch. If geoQuickLaunch is not in your Load Plugins menu, you may need to install it, or upgrade your shell (GeoQuickLaunch is included in all the latest GeoShell Releases).
Once you've got geoQuickLaunch installed, it will default to your QuickLaunch folder, but you can use it's control menu (hold CONTROL, and right-click the plugin) to change the folder it's pointed at.
With shortcuts in various places
 | Users Tip
You can use this method even when all your shortcuts are in one folder, and it's a perfect option if you don't have (or don't want) geoQuickLaunch. The big benefit of geoQuickLaunch is that it automatically updates, so all you have to do to add shortcuts to geoQuickLaunch is to copy shortcuts to that folder. |
Basically, all you do is the same as when creating a menu, except you drag the shortcut onto the bar. Make sure you drop it on the bar, not on another plugin. A button should appear (it will probably be blank, and thus, look just like some space on the bar). You will probably need to "recycle" the plugin by holding SHIFT and double-clicking the button with your right mouse button.
Now you should be able to click that button and launch your application. To change the icon for the button, or to show/hide text, use the control menu (hold CONTROL, and right-click the plugin).
