Questions[launcher](ubuntu)

I have installed PyCharm on my brand new Ubuntu 13.10 laptop.

To launch PyCharm, I find I must navigate to the directory that pycharm lives in, and execute it from there as such:

cd home/matt/software/pycharm/bin sh pycharm.sh

I hope this isn't asking too much, but I would like to be able to click on an icon in the Launcher to launch this application.

I tried right-clicking on the PyCharm icon in the Launcher when the app is running and selecting "Lock To Launcher" but this doesn't work (after pinning, when I try to run the software this way, the icon throbs in a very awkward manner a few times and does nothing).

A small app called Alacart was rumoured to be useful, but I have no idea how it works, and it appears useless. I'm not sure why the authors teased us with a "Help" button if there are no help files written for us to view.

Further attempt has included reading page after page of technical documentation on how to write scripts that will somehow help me customize my experience.

How can I set up PyCharm to launch from the Launcher???

How can I add new programs to the launcher (or the dock in Ubuntu 17.10 and later) in Ubuntu?

How can I make a bash script executable by double clicking just like .exe files in Windows? I tried creating a launcher and assigning the script to it, but there are two consequences:

1. the terminal twinkles, disappears, and nothing is done.
2. you must specify to run in terminal in order to work.

I have a script that installs tomcat on an offline PC, including all dependencies of tomcat in the script. I need to make the script work on double clicking like windows since most who use the script will not be familiar with Ubuntu.

Forget the above explanation. I want to make a script that can be run by double-clicking on it, without using the terminal. Anybody knows how?

To the best of my knowledge, all shortcuts in the Unity Launcher have a corresponding *.desktop file. I have one shortcut (for skrooge) that doesn't have an icon. How can I find the *.desktop file corresponding to this shortcut so that I can add an icon to it?

Will Unity allow making custom launcher icons from .desktop files or via menu editing system? (Right now the launcher doesn't give the option to "keep in launcher" on all programs.

For some programs I use, I have to make custom launchers or .desktop files.

For instance, daily blender builds are generally just folders with an executable.

In basic Gnome or KDE, I can make a new menu entry with the menu editing system. Then, I can also add it to Docky either from the menu or by dragging a .desktop file to it. Unity launcher doesn't support drag and drop, so thats not a bug or anything, but when I open a .desktop file, it has unpredictable results. Most time it will not have "keep in launcher". Sometime it will have a pinnable item without the .desktop's icon, and if I pin the item to the launcher, it will not call upon the program again after closing it. I've also gotten it to just work with a .desktop file for celtx.