You can easily create custom items for the contextual menu on Dolphin to execute scripts on files.

A new “Actions” item

Create a .desktop file inside /usr/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/ (e.g.: copyTextContent.desktop) and add this content to the file:

  • [Desktop Entry]
  • Type=Service
  • X-KDE-ServiceTypes=KonqPopupMenu/Plugin,<mimetype>: replace <mimetype> with the MIME types of the files in which you want the custom menu item appears. For example, for text files add text/*. You can add several MIME types (separated by commas).

  • Actions=<action name>: replace <action name> with a name for the desktop action (e.g.: Myaction)

  • [Desktop Action <action name>]: after a blank line, add this and replace <action name> with your chosen desktop action name.
  • Name=<item name>: replace <item name> with the name for the menu item.
  • Exec=<command>: replace <command> with the command you want to execute. To refer to the file, add %U as a command argument.
  • Icon=<icon name>: you can optionally add an icon.

This is an example (copies the content of a text file to the clipboard, requires xclip):

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Service
X-KDE-ServiceTypes=KonqPopupMenu/Plugin,text/*
Actions=Copytext

[Desktop Action Copytext]
Name=Copy Text Content
Exec=xclip -selection clipboard %U

Save the file and the menu item will appear inside Actions section in the contextual menu.

Custom menu item in Dolphin

A new “Create New” item

You can also add menu items inside the “Create New” menu. Create a .desktop file inside /usr/local/share/templates. and add this content:

  • [Desktop Entry]
  • Name=<item name>
  • Comment=<a description>
  • Type=Link
  • URL=<full path to the template file>: create a blank file (which will be used as a template) and add its full path.

For example, to create a “New LibreOffice Writer document” item:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=New LibreOffice Writer document
Comment=A comment
Type=Link
URL=/home/user/MyTemplates/mytemplate.odt

If you have any suggestion, feel free to contact me via social media or email.