8.3. Using Your Graphical Environment

This chapter will introduce a few basic concepts and skills about using your computer. You may chose to use KDE or GNOME during the login process explained below.

8.3.1. Elements Displayed

In front of you are displayed many things we will now describe to you.

Figure 8-5. The KDE Desktop

Figure 8-6. The GNOME Desktop

  1. On the left of the screen, there are "icons": some little drawings, usually with a short text beneath that is the icon's title or name. Each icon allows you to open a window, within which a program will run, for instance, a game or a window displaying personal data. In our example, the icon shown above gives you access to a configuration tool created by Mandrake.

    Figure 8-7. Access to DrakConf

  2. In the lower part of the screen is the "tool bar". This tool bar, as its name suggests, provides short-cut access to some tools available with your Linux-Mandrake. You find icons on it, each one symbolizing an application (or program). Just move your mouse cursor on one of them, then leave it. After a few seconds, a yellow help balloon will appear describing the function of the icon. The tool bar is retractable; click on the arrow target ...

    Figure 8-8. KDE and GNOME Retractable Tool Bar

    ... and you'll see the tool bar shrink itself. This way, you can gain screen space. Click again to get it back.

  3. The icons and the tool bar are not floating on the screen: they are "stuck" on something called the "desktop" and also called the "background" or the "root window". In a sense, the desktop is where everything you see or use lives. Bring your mouse cursor on the desktop (i.e. on "nothing"), and click with your mouse buttons: you can see a pull-down menu appear, providing you access to several functions.

Now we can start playing with all this stuff.

 

 

8.3.2. Managing Windows and Desktops

Click on the icon

on the left of the screen. You can hear your hard drive spinning a bit, then something like this appears:

Figure 8-9. KDE and GNOME File Managers

You just launched a program (here, a file manager) which runs inside a window.

The window is composed of several parts. On the top, there's the "title bar". As its name suggest, this part shows you the name, or title, of the program you launched and possibly the document you're working on.

It can be in two different states:

active, which means it's the window you're currently using, or inactive, which means the program is still running, but you are not currently interacting with it. Usually, the active title bar is full-colored, whereas the inactive title bar is shaded or grey.

Just under the title bar is the "menu bar". In our example, it says (from left to right) File, Edit, and so on. Click on File; a list of items appears, each of which gives you access to a function of the program. This list of items a "pull-down menu".

Also under the menu bar is the "icons bar", also called the "application tool bar". It's simply one or more raw of icons, each one equivalent to an item in a pull-down menu : you can see them as a short-hand access to features of the program that you would find somewhere in the menu bar.

On the bottom of the window, there's usually a "status bar". In this place the running program displays information about what the program is doing. Not all programs offers this feature, but if the one you're using does, remember to check it if you're lost.

We introduced the word desktop. Now, look at the tool bar at the bottom of the screen. You can see a group of four "buttons" :

Figure 8-10. Buttons for Virtual Desktops

Click on the button labeled 2: as you can see, the window you opened before disappear and the background color changes. You didn't closed the window, you simply changed your desktop, just as if you went from one desk to another.

Click on the button labeled 1; the previous window comes back and you're back to your first desk.

This feature, called "virtual desktops" is very handy. It allows you to open several windows and to organize them as you desire through the virtual desktops.

Sometimes you may find the window you opened isn't where you want on the screen and you want to move it to see another window or simply for convenience.

You can do this very simply with your mouse. Bring the mouse cursor to the window's title bar and press and hold the left button. Then just move the mouse (while still pressing the button). The window will just follow the movements of the mouse. This is called "dragging" the window. When you reach a position that pleases you, just release the mouse button; the window is at its new position.

You can also change the virtual desktop the window is in. This may be handy to logically organize your work by desktop.

For this, use your mouse again. Click the window's title bar with the right button and a pull-down menu appears with an item named Move to. Just point to this item and a list of your virtual desktops will appear. Simply choose from this list the virtual desktop you want your window to appear in.

Often you'll find your window is in the right place but it's to small or to big.

Click on this button in the title bar.

Figure 8-11. Maximize the Window for KDE and GNOME

Now your window fits your screen! This operation is called "maximizing" a window. Click again on the same button to bring the window back to its original size.

On the contrary, if you want to hide your window but keeping the program running, click on this button

Figure 8-12. Minimize the Window for KDE and GNOME

The window seems to disappear. In fact, you resized it to its minimal possible size: the icon's size. This is called "minimizing" a window. You release the screen space it was using but the program is still running. You can still see it there on the "task bar":

Figure 8-13. The Task Bar Under KDE and GNOME

To bring back the window, just click on the icon associated with.

In most cases, you don't want to maximize the window nor minimizing it. You want a sort of middle stage where you can adjust the window size just to your needs.

You can achieve this with your mouse and the boundary borders of the window.

Bring the mouse cursor to the right edge between the desktop and the running program and your cursor will change to a double-arrow.

Now act like you did when moving the window, pressing the left button and keeping it pressed while moving. You can see the window resizing and its contents being rearranged. When you're satisfied with the new size, just release the mouse button.

We did this using the right-hand border of the window. You can do the same thing with the bottom, top or left-hand border. You can even do it with the window's corners, in which case you can resize the window in two directions simultaneously.

Note that not all windows can resized this way and usually there's a minimum size defined, as well as a maximum size (although that's rare).

As a final note about the buttons in the window's title bar, consider this:

Figure 8-14. Closing a Window for KDE and GNOME

If you click on this button, you simply stop the running program: you terminate it, you quit it. This button is called the "close button".

8.3.3. Software Accessibility

You may wonder about how you can access all the software you installed during the installation process. This is rather easy. On the left of the tool bar you can see a big icon like this:

Figure 8-15. Software Menu for KDE and GNOME

Just click on this icon (slightly different whether you're under KDE or GNOME) and you will see a pull-up menu listing the programs you can run. They are organized by categories.

In the next chapter, we'll explore a few more items.


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