Change the text for "Applications, Places, System"

Tips, Tricks and Tutorials Tips & Tricks
#1

This is one that's been asked for years -- yet, there isn't a simple solution on the internet.

  1. First, get a copy of the PO file for mate-panel for your locale from the source code.

    (On GitHub, click on the file, then the Raw button, then CTRL+S to save to your computer)

    For instance, my system's locale is en_GB. You can check yours with this command:

     env | grep "LANG"

  2. Install poedit -- this is available from the :ubuntu_mate: Software Boutique under Programming.

    For the rest of this, I'll use en_GB as an example.

  3. Open Poedit and find the "Applications", "Places", "System" lines and change them to what you want.

  4. Save the new PO file, this will also create a MO file.

  5. Copy the new MO file to the system locales folder:

     sudo cp en_GB.mo /usr/share/locale/en_GB/LC_MESSAGES/mate-panel.mo

  6. Then to see these new strings, restart the panel -- Press ALT+F2 and type:

     mate-panel --replace

Tip! This technique can be applied to virtually any other program too.

:warning: Please note: Your changes will be overwritten when the mate-panel package is next updated.

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