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This page tells you how to add a new item to one of the Balsa user’s applications menus. The following instructions need to be followed carefully and accurately.

A Worked Example

In this example, we will add the Freecell Patience game to the Learning & Fun menu.

Here is what the Learning & Fun menu looks like before you begin:

These are the instructions for how to make the addition:

  1. Log into the Advisor’s account.
  2. Enter the overview mode (by pressing the Windows key or Alt+F1).
  3. Click the Applications button.
  4. Select the Add Programs to Balsa User’s Menu icon from the All menu.
    1. Before you select the item, your screen should look like this:
    2. After you click the icon, two windows, will appear. One, labelled Terminal, is greyed out.
    3. In the window labelled Select Items from the List, select the Freecell Solitaire item.
    4. Your screen should look like this:
    5. Click the OK button.
    6. The list of programs will disappear and the Terminal window will ask you for the Advisor’s password:
    7. Enter the Advisor’s password. The program will not show you what you are typing.
    8. The program will tell you that it has added Freecell Solitaire to the Balsa User’s Applications.
  5. Log out of the Advisor’s account.

The Freecell Solitaire game is now available to the Balsa menu. In the next steps we will copy it to the Learning & Fun menu using the Alacarte program.

  1. Log into the Balsa user’s account.
  2. Start the Alacarte program, by doing this:
    1. Type Alt+F2 (Hold down the Alt key and hit the F2 key). The screen will become dark and a prompt will appear.
    2. Type alacarte.
    3. Your screen should look like this:
    4. Hit the Enter key.
  3. The Alacarte program will start and display the Balsa user’s menus as folders. All-Apps is a hidden menu that contains all the shortcuts that are available for the Balsa user’s menus.
  4. Locate the Freecell Patience shortcut in the All-Apps menu, by doing this:
    1. Click on the All-Apps menu.
    2. Your screen should look like this:
  5. Turn off the checkmark for the Freecell Patience shortcut by clicking its box.
  6. Copy the shortcut by dragging it from All-Apps to the Learning & Fun menu.
    1. While you drag the shortcut, your screen should look like this:
  7. Close the Alacarte program by clicking on the Close button.
  8. The Balsa user’s Learning & Fun menu now contains the Freecell Patience game.

The selection list displayed by Add Program… contains all the programs that are installed on the Balsa system. You can add any of them to the Balsa user’s menu as we did in the example.

Even if you can add them, some of the programs are dangerous and should not be added to the Balsa User’s menu.

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