Home Menu Editor
The main menu editor is based on the script.skinshortcuts addon. You can find it in Settings -> Skin Settings -> Home -> Customize menu items and widgets.
It may seems a little overwhelming at first, but it's indeed rather simple.
Let's make an example with the Youtube addon (you have to install it from the add-on browser):
- Click on "Add" to create a new item in the home menu. You can see a new item with Label set to "None", Action set to "Noop" and background and thumbnail set to "Default". This item is empty and will not produce anything in the home menu if you leave it like this.
- Let's make the item call the Youtube addon. Click the "Choose shortcut" button -> Select the "Add-on" item in the list -> Select the YouTube entry in the list -> Select the first entry in the list "Create shortcut to here".
- Now the custom home item has changed Label, icon with the Youtube logo, and action with "ActivateWindow(......)". You do not need anything more.
- Exit the Home Menu editor by pressing "Esc" or "Back" on the remote.
- Exit Skin settings by pressing "Esc" or "Back" on the remote.
- You should see at the top a progress dialog telling that Kodi is building the menu.
- Exit the Settings screen and you should be in the home menu and see a working Youtube icon as the last item in the menu.
That's all for a basic configuration.
You can now customize the Youtube shortcut deeper. This is optional:
- Return in the home menu editor and scroll the home menu to the youtube item you created before.
- Let's move the item to be the first in the home menu list. Just press the "Left" button till the item is the first of the list.
- You can rename the item. Just press "Set label". With the keyboard screen edit the name to for example "My videos on Youtube". Press "Done".
- Now you can change the icon. Press the "Set thumbnail" button. Browse to the picture you like and click on it. You can see the icon has changed to your picture.
- Change the background. Press the "Select background" button. Select "Single Image" and browse to the picture you like and click on it. You can see the background has changed to your picture.
- You can add a submenu adding a smart playlist created before. Press the "Customize Submenu" button. The list is empty. There's only an entry called "None" ready to be edited. Again click on the "Choose shortcut" button -> "Video Library" -> "Playlists" -> Select the name of your Playlist -> Do you want do "Play" or "Display"? Select "Display". You have now a working submenu item called "PlayLists". We can edit the name with the "Set label button". You can add new items as well in the same way.
- Press "esc" when done and return the the main menu editor.
- Exit the Home Menu editor by pressing "Esc" or "Back" on the remote.
- Exit Skin settings by pressing "Esc" or "Back" on the remote.
- You should see at the top a progress dialog telling that Kodi is building the shortcuts.
- Exit the Settings screen.
- You have the firt item in the home menu called "My Videos on Youtube" with a customized icon and background and a submenu with one item. If you click on the submenu item, you will see your smart playlist.
Widgets are placed below the main menu items and provide info about the recently added items in your library and more. Widgets must be enabled in skin settings for them to work: Settings -> Skin Settings -> Home -> Set "Enable Home shelf" to Yes.
Available widget types are: Favourites, Add-ons, Movies, Concerts, Clips, TvShows and Music.
Movies, Concerts, Clips, TvShows and Music widgets are based on the script.skinwidgets addon. They provide quick launch list for the last 20 recently added items, recommended/recently viewed items, random items from your library. This kind of widgets can be customized in Skin settings: Settings -> Skin Settings -> Home -> Configure shelf items.
The widget for Favourites lists 20 items from your favourites collection and must be enabled in skin settings: Go in Settings -> Skin Settings -> Home -> Set "Favourites" to Yes.
The Addons widget instead lists your 5 favourite addons specified in skin settings. Go in Settings -> Skin Settings -> Home -> Set "Add-ons" to Yes. Click on each of the "Add-on X" item to select your favourite addon to be added as widget for the add-ons home menu item.
The "Custom action" button provides an alternative way to set the action of your shortcut in case the action is not listed in the "Choose shortcut" button selection. You can manually edit the associated action, but you need to know what you are doing! Here a good starting point: List of built-in fuctions.
Go in Settings -> Skin Settings -> General.
The last 2 options are useful to reset the skin settings to default values. The first resets every skin setting, including the home menu. The "Reset Home Menu ONLY to default values" command resets only the home menu to the default layout provided by the skin when installed for the first time.
If the "Reset Home Menu ONLY to default values" button does not work and the home menu keeps working erratically, you can "hard reset" the script.skinshortcuts addon:
- Exit Kodi.
- Locate your "userdata" folder: http://kodi.wiki/view/Userdata
- Enter the "addon_data" folder.
- Delete the "script.skinshortcuts" folder.
- Start Kodi and the menu will get rebuilt to the default layout.
In some circumstances, customizing backgrounds or thumbnails could be apparently impossible because you cannot browse to the folder containing your favourite pictures. This can be fixed using the Kodi File Manager.
The File Manager is located in the Settings submenu. Enter the File Manager to add all the folders holding your favourite pictures as "Sources". Press the "Add source" command and in the following dialog you can browse to the favourite folder. Once you have defined the folders for your pictures, you are ready to customize the backgrounds and thumbnails of your home menu items.
You can choose among different types of background.
- Single Image. This will select a single picture. The most common situation.
- Multi Image. This will select a folder containing a collection of pictures. The skin will display different pictures as background cycling them randomly.
- Random Movie/TvShow/Video/Music Fanart. If you select one of these options, the skin will display random fanarts picked from your corresponding library. Your library should be correctly populated for these options to work.
- Actual Weather Condition. This will display the picture corresponding the actual weather condition of the moment. You have to configure your weather settings correctly for this option to work.