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I was wondering if I could move the menu which appears when I click the Alt key to the top bar. I know this sounds stupid but I don't want it take up space on my window.

Myspace
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  • You mean the searchbar or text field that prompts to run commands ? Because thats the only thing bound to left Alt key, if I recall correctly – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 15 '19 at 00:09
  • Question has been asked before: https://askubuntu.com/questions/916502/how-to-get-a-normal-application-menu-in-the-top-or-titlebar-in-gnome and https://askubuntu.com/questions/881973/how-can-i-move-the-window-options-menu-to-the-top-bar-in-gnome. There is no "good" solution. – vanadium Jun 15 '19 at 07:12

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Essentially, having the user menu appear in the top bar instead of under the title bar of the application window is not supported in Gnome Shell, which is the default desktop of Ubuntu since version 17.10. This indeed in contrast to the Unity shell, where having that menu in the top bar (for supported applications) was a core feature.

The Gnome developers themselves probably will not have any interest in implementing the feature. They want to get rid of that user menu altogether. You will have noticed that Gnome applications like Files (nautilus), Evince (PDF viewer), Gedit (the editor) do not anymore feature such user menu. Instead, options are exposed through buttons in the header bar of the application.

In another answer to a similar question, the use of an extension Gnome Global Menu Extension is indicated. The answer, however, was not accepted. Indeed, it works (worked?) only for a limited number of applications. Moreover, the extension has not anymore been recently updated.

If you insist on this feature, you may need to consider using another desktop. The Mate desktop has very good support for such feature. Indeed, they have even a build-in mode to emulate the Unity desktop. Support for the global menu is actually relying on the efforts of the Unity team.

Another option is the KDE-desktop. Also that desktop has quite good optional support for a global menu.

In any of these cases, not all applications are supported, as applications in Linux can use different toolkits to render their graphical user interface.

vanadium
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  • The Gnome Global Application Menu looks pretty good and does not work. Any other extensions like it? – Myspace Jul 04 '19 at 17:18
  • My answer was quite comprehensive, so that means I have mentioned any aspect I know about. Sometimes, an answer does not bring the solution you desire, because there is none. Please accept the answer if it informed you comprehensively about the current state on global menus in Gnome Shell. – vanadium Jul 07 '19 at 17:46