Chapter 9. Using KDE 2

Table of Contents
9.1. Discovering your universe
9.1.1. Help wanted !
9.1.2. Files and directory : the File Manager
9.1.3. Miscellaneous tools
9.1.4. Command line
9.2. Customizing your universe
9.2.1. General appearance
9.2.2. Creating icons
9.2.3. Backgrounds and virtual desktops
9.3. Internet work
9.3.1. Browsing the Web
9.3.2. Downloading files

In this chapter, we'll explore with a little more depth the numerous features of one of the best existing graphical environment, KDE in its second release.

9.1. Discovering your universe

9.1.1. Help wanted !

To know everything that is in your GNU/Linux system would mean learning an encyclopedia: This is impossible, as well as keeping a case of books near you. So, when you need an information, there's a complete help system built-in. You can access it with this icon

in the tool bar, which gives :

Figure 9-1. The help center under KDE

You can see the window is divided in two panels. The left one is a list of help categories, and the right one is where the help itself is displayed. You just need to click on a category to see the help associated with the selected item.

Introduction

This category is an introduction to the KDE project, presenting the project in a whole, the development process, how to support the developers, and also a short chapter about the help center you're currently using.

Introduction to KDE

Here you'll find some tips and tricks about how to use KDE in daily work. We've already introduced you a few techniques, you'll find them here again and some more.

KDE User's Manual

As the name suggests, this category is a general guide to the use of KDE, the way to configure it, a few words about the various applications you can access.

Application manuals

This category contains the manuals for KDE-specific applications. Again, in this book we'll give you an overview of some applications, but if you need more precise or complete information, you'll find them in this category.

Unix manual pages

Keep in mind that Linux is an Unix-like operating system. Those systems always come with a rather complete set of manuals, about system commands, programming, and so on. Linux contains such a system, which you can access through this category.

Browse info pages

The GNU Info Pages are like the man pages above, but a little bit more sophisticated. On them you'll find some informations that you won't find in the man pages, which are considered a rather old system.

The KDE FAQ

If you don't already know, FAQ stands for "Frequently Asked Questions". This category is just this: Many answers to many frequently asked questions...

KDE on the web

This page is simply a set of links to various web sites related to KDE. Interesting if you want more information and being always up-to-date.

Contact information

In the same idea of the previous page, this is if you need or want to contact someone of KDE, or if you want to subscribe to a KDE mailing-list.

Supporting KDE

Finally, this page is for those of you who would wish to help the KDE project in any way: This explains the way to to do this correctly.

9.1.2. Files and directory : the File Manager

When you're working, you store your work in files, organized in a directory structure. Indeed, we need a tool to manage the thousands of files you may create...

This tool is the "file manager". KDE provides such a tool, whose name is Konqueror. Start it simply by clicking on your Home icon, which you can find either on the left of the screen or in the tool bar :

Figure 9-2. Your Home directory under KDE

After a few seconds, a new window appears : it's the file manager, displaying the content of your home directory (the only directory you're supposed to store your files in) :

Figure 9-3. KDE file manager, Konqueror

You can see the window is divided in two parts. The left one is a view of the directory tree of your Linux system: There you can see (provided you're allowed to) how everything is sorted. If you click on the little + sign on the left of a directory name, you get the list of the others directories this one contains. Try with the directory named Root: You'll get a sub-tree, containing directories such as bin, usr... If you click again on the + sign on the left of the directory named usr, then you go more deeply in the tree, and so on.

Note that there are two specials directory on the top : one labelled Home directory, the other Network . The first one is a short-hand access to your personal data and files : you're not supposed to store your own files anywhere else ! Of course, within this directory, you're allowed to create as many directories as you want. The second one is a list of the available directories through a network. This chapter isn't about networking, so we won't go further here.

The right part of Konqueror is where the content of a directory, including files and sub-directories, are listed. In a way, this is the real content of your GNU/Linux system... If you simply click on a file, it's content is opened with the right program if known. If the program isn't known, you're prompted to select the program to use to display or edit the file. If you click on a directory, then its contents are displayed.

9.1.2.1. General manipulation

You can use Konqueror just by using the two panels we've just described. But you may find useful some of the icons in the tool bar.

This icon brings you to the directory containing the one you're currently listing in the right panel. If you want to go several directory levels upward, this one is very handy.

To be used when you're lost: This icon brings you back to your home directory, the root of your personal data.

If you click on this one, you force Konqueror to rescan the contents of the current directory. This can be very useful in a network environment, or if you create or delete files "outside" Konqueror.

The followings icons control the way the files are displayed in the right panel.

This one, the default when you first start Konqueror, simply lists the files, each one symbolized by a big icon.

Here you keep the big icon, but the list is organized in columns.

There you loose the big icon : it's replaced by a small one, and you get a display similar to the left panel, a tree-like display, with the great difference that here you not only see the directories, but also the files they contains. Note also that you have far more details about the files: The size, last modification date, and so on.

You get there a straight list with full details, but not in the tree-like display.

At last, this one gives you a very simplistic view of a directory, with full details but without all the nice icons.

9.1.2.2. File and directory management

To organize your work, you'll soon need to create a few directories. You can do this easily with Konqueror. Assuming you're in your home directory (if not, click on the appropriate icon), right-click (click with the right button, remember ?) somewhere in the right panel, but on nothing particular. A pull-down menu appears: Choose the first item, Create new, then Directory. This little text box appears :

Figure 9-4. Naming a new directory

Just enter the name you want for your new directory, then click OK: You can see it appears in both panels.

You can with the same easiness delete files or directories. Bring your mouse cursor on one of them in the right panel (or the left one, if you want to remove an entire directory tree). Right-click on it: A pull-down menu appears.

There are two ways to remove files or directories: The safe one, and the real one. The safe one is labelled Move to trash: The files are not really removed, they're simply moved to a sort of trash can : so you can undelete the files you deleted, until you empty the trash bin... You can see the trash icon on the desktop :

Figure 9-5. The trash icon, empty or full

Click on this icon to see what files are stored in the trash. A new Konqueror window appears. If you right-click on the listed files, you can use Shred to totally erase the data contained in the file. You can also restore the files in their original place by simply dragging them in the corresponding directory, or...

...Or use the real way to remove files: Instead of Move to trash, choose Delete. Now the files are erased forever, and there's no way to bring them back.

Copying, moving or linking files or directories is rather straightforward: You can achieve all this operations with Konqueror and a few mouse moves.

When you need to do such an operation, there's usually one or more files to copy (or move) to a directory. So proceed like this :

  1. Find the "source" directory, that is, the directory from which you want to copy or move files or sub-directories. Display it in the right panel by clicking on its name.

  2. Find in the left panel the "target" directory, that is, the directory to which you want to copy or move files. Do not display its content; that is, don't click on its name.

  3. In the right panel, select the files you want to move or copy: You do this by clicking on each file while holding down the Control key.

  4. Now, "drag" the selected files from the right panel to the target directory in the left panel: You do this by pointing on one of the selected files, pressing the left mouse button, then moving the mouse while holding down the mouse button.

  5. We're almost done. When the target directory is highlighted in the left panel, release the mouse button : a little pop-up menu appears. You just have to choose what you want to do: Copy, move, or link...

All of this may seems rather complex to you. Try by yourself a few times: Very soon, you'll see that it's very easy.

You can also use the file manager to create icons on your desktop, linked to a directory or a file. This is very simple: For viewing directory contents, simply drag a file or directory icon onto the desktop, then release the mouse button. Choose Link in the little menu that appears. You have a new icon on your desktop! Now, you can open its content simply by clicking on it.

9.1.3. Miscellaneous tools

As you may have noticed already, KDE comes with many various programs for you to work with. We'll introduce you some of them here, though we'll not go in many details: Each of them would need a whole chapter. If you need, you can get more help on them by using the help center as explained in the beginning of this chapter. Each of these tools can be accessed through the big "K" menu, on the left of the tool bar.

Amusement

Well, not very much to say about this... You'll find here plenty of more or less silly little games. Some are rather fun, providing hours of entertainment. Note that they can be a good exercise for those of you not yet very comfortable with the mouse.

Applications

There you'll find many different things: Tools to backup your data, an address book, tools for developers, text editors (if you ever need to change a text file, use one of these), a few programs to manage your files and directories (different from Konqueror), stuff to check or manage the system state, and so on.

Configuration

Here you'll find many programs to adjust your system installation to fit your needs as well as possible. This contains everything from fixing system time and date to package management (describe in another chapter), even the way your computer starts... Be careful, if misused some of them can alter your system, even making it unusable.

Multimedia

As its name suggests, this group of programs are related to sound, image or video: Image viewers, videos or sound players... And some very good programs (such as GIMP) to create or manipulate all of these items.

Networking

If your computer is able to "speak" with other computers, this is where you'll find your way: Internet chat, various tools for file transfer or electronic mail... Of course, you can use any of these even if you're not on the Internet, but simply on a local private network.

Office

Definitely some of the greatest programs available nowadays under Linux are here: (almost) all you need to do a good office work. Text processors for small letters or large books, spreadsheets, charts builders, and so on... Again, it's impossible to really describe everything here. Explore!

Terminals

Finally, in this category you'll have access to the command line if you need it (briefly described below), using various interfaces : choose the one you prefer!

9.1.4. Command line

You do a lot just using the graphical interface... but not everything. Sometimes, you may need to enter system commands with the keyboard, under what's called the command line. In fact, when you're well trained, you can do almost everything with the command line, which is much more powerful than any graphical interface... but this skill usually requires a long time of learning.

If you need to use the command line, you can obtain it by clicking on this icon in the tool bar :

Figure 9-6. The command line under KDE

And very soon this window appears, with the system prompt:

Figure 9-7. The command line under KDE

Now you can type in the commands you need. In certain cases, you may need several command lines: You can easily find another one by clicking on the button labelled New in the bottom-left corner of the window, then choosing Shell.

As a final note, you'll find in the Options pull-down menu everything you need to customize fonts or colors.


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