Create Your First Menu

Kando comes with an example menu which you can use to get started. However, you should soon adapt the menu to your needs and create your own menus.

The Menu Editor

Kando comes with a graphical menu editor which allows you to create and edit your own menus. There are three ways to open the menu editor:

1. When a menu is shown: Click the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.
2. From the system tray: Right-click the Kando icon and select “Show Settings”.
3. From the command line: Run kando --settings.

In the editor, you can create new menus, and edit existing menus. Drag new items from the toolbar to the menu preview, reorder them, and change their properties on the right side of the screen.

Note

There are several advanced options which are not yet exposed in the editor UI. See the Config-File Documentation for all advanced options.

Three Tips for Efficient Menu Layouts

Avoid too many items in a single menu!

Instead, create submenus. Eight items per menu is a good rule of thumb, and you should never have more than twelve items in a single menu.

Deeply nested menus are not a problem!

Kando is designed to handle deeply nested menus. You can use the marking mode to quickly select items which are in subsubsubmenus.

Use the fixed-angle locks to create a clean layout!

Even if you have an odd number of items, you can use fixed angles to lock items to the top, bottom, left, or right side of the menu.

Available Item Types

You can compose your menus from a variety of item types. Below you can find a list of all currently available item types. Click on an item to learn more about it!

Open URI Can be used to open files, websites, and more.

Paste Text Can be used to paste text into the current application.

Run Command Can be used to open applications or run shell commands.

Simulate Hotkey Can be used to simulate keyboard shortcuts.

Simulate Macro Can be used to simulate a complex sequence of keyboard shortcuts.

Submenu Can be used to create nested menus.