Gnome Cheat Sheet

Create a custom application launcher in GNOME Shell

Create a APP_NAME.desktop (APP_NAME application name) file under /usr/share/applications (or ~/.local/share/applications or directly in ~/Desktop) with the following content:

FILE APP_NAME.desktopAPP_NAME.desktop file

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=APP_NAME
Exec=/PATH/TO/APP/EXECUTABLE
Icon=/PATH/TO/APP/ICON
Type=Application
Categories=APPLICATION_CATEGORY_NAME;

For detailed .desktop specification (eg. list of Registered Categories) see: specifications.freedesktop.org.