The Application Dashboard is a great addon, that I like to use. My desire is still - like on good old plasma-netbook - to have a single icon for a group of applications. That is, almost like Application Dashboard, but without the tree inbetween. I tried in the editor to delete all categories but one, and - never ever do that! - destroyed my kde menu. So when you edit this, you edit not the particular Application Dashboard, but the system-wide kde-menu! Plus, it still had the category to select from. It should be possible, to kind of take the existing Application Dashboard code, remove the tree, and instead configure a category ('Office', 'Internet', 'User-Defined', etc.), and pop up the entries of only that category when clicking the launcher, that is the desktop icon for that modified Application Dashboard. Then one can have a multiple icons as 'quick-starter', popping up a dashboard containing exactly the icons of that category (only).
Why can't you use favorites for this?
Sorry, I have no idea what you mean. The favorites are added automagically, and most of all consist of a good handful of items. Maybe was not clear, but I want neither. Just try the former Plasma Netbook, and you'll see what I want, because I love that. I have a dozen of relevant links on the desktop, like you could 'star' them in Plasma Netbook. And like in Plasma Netbook, I want to have an icon fpr each main category that pops out all the members of a category whenever I need an application less frequently used. As far as I am concerned, it couldn't be any better. Maybe that's only me, but I despise panels and trees.
You can add and remove favorites manually via the context menu.
Created attachment 102797 [details] Panel-less working What I desire are a good handful of icons for groups of applications (like 'Office') that pop out / scatter all applications under that category across the desktop, additionally. Pretty much like Application Dashboard does, but only at its very end. And I don't want any favorites or stuff, just the application folder contents from kmenu.
Then I suggest you use Folder View as your desktop layout and set it to an applications:/category URL.
I don't understand. What I get to pop up is a file browser. That's not what I want, files and folders. And I don't want a frame containing a bunch of applications (even though I still don't see how I could get it). That's so Windows3.1. ;-) What's wrong with a single icon that pops up all applications? Maybe you don't like it, though I don't see why you should just shoot it down. What's wrong with giving more people the choice to configure Application Dashboard in such a manner?
I don't really understand your request I guess. The screenshot you showed me is of some icons on the desktop. You can do this by using Folder View as your desktop layoout (not "Add Widgets", so not a frame: as desktop background) and pointing it at a special applications:/<category> (try out in Dolphin) URL to load a menu category. If you don't want to do this and want a popup instead (i.e. Dashboard), just use the favoriting system to put your preferred icons on the first page.
Okay, yes, it seems you don't. I could always make a screenclip, but this one here is somewhat close (Plasma Netbook, deprecated, alas). Disregard the panels top and bottom, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=futw4Cx8gow, and what I so love and desire starts at 0:21, when he clicks 'Multimedia' and all the applications come popping up. NOT in a folder, but just across the desktop, like in Application Desktop, principally, though Application Desktop is even nicer. See, the 'favourites' are lined up on top, one could 'star' any application to get it into the top line. That's what you can see on my screenshot. The 'Search' box is there as well, and the Application Desktop. What I miss, are the icons in the lower part of the screen that open the related applications across the desktop. You can see: no trees, no folders.