Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 10 SP1, KDE Quick Manual

SUSE Linux Enterprise® provides the tools that Linux* users require in their daily activities. It comes with an
easy-to-use graphical user interface (KDE* desktop) that communicates with the underlying Linux system to
access and manage les, folders, and programs. SUSE Linux Enterprise provides an integrated suite of applications
that meet all professional requirements to perform tasks in a business environment. The OpenOfce.org suite
is also included, which allows you to edit and save les in a number of formats. Because the ofce suite is
available for several operating systems, you can use the same data across different computing platforms.

Getting Started

When you start your system, you are usually prompted to
enter your username and password. If you did not install
your system yourself, check with your system administrator
for your username and password.

After logging in to KDE for the rst time, you see the KDE
desktop, which shows the following basic elements:

Desktop Icons: Click an icon on the desktop to access
its associated program or application. Right-click to open
a context menu for moving, copying, or performing other
functions on an icon.

Desktop Context Menu: Right-click an empty area on
the desktop to access this context menu for creating new
objects, such as les, folders, or bookmarks; conguring
the appearance of the desktop; running applications; and
logging out.

KDE Panel: By default, the panel of your KDE desktop
consists of the following areas (from left to right): main
menu button, quick launcher, desktop previewer, taskbar,
and system tray. You can add or remove icons in the panel
and customize the appearance of the panel as well as its
location on the desktop. Click the arrow at the far right to
hide the panel. If you hold your mouse pointer over an icon
in the panel, a short description is displayed.

Main Menu Button: Click the icon at the far left of the
panel to access a menu leading to all programs, tools, and
applications on your system. The function-oriented menu
structure makes it easy to nd the right application for your
purpose even if you do not know the application names
yet.

Quick Launcher: The quick launcher contains some
larger icons that are shortcuts to frequently used programs,

KDE Quick Start

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1

NOVELL® QUICK START CARD

1

folders, and functions, such as an Internet browser, your
home folder, and the online Help Center.

Desktop Previewer: Between the quick launcher and
the taskbar, nd a miniature preview that shows your virtual
desktops. SUSE Linux Enterprise allows you to organize your
programs and tasks on several desktops, which minimizes
the number of windows to arrange on the screen (Section
“Using Virtual Desktops”). To switch between desktops, click
one of the symbols in the previewer.

Taskbar: By default, all started applications and open
windows are displayed in the taskbar, which allows you to
access any application regardless of the currently active
desktop. Click to open the application. Right-click to see
options for moving, restoring, or minimizing the window.

System Tray: This rightmost part of the panel usually
holds some smaller icons, including the system clock display­ing time and date, the volume control, and icons for several
other helper applications.

Starting Programs

To run a program in SUSE Linux Enterprise, click the main
menu icon in the panel or press Alt + F1 to open it and
navigate the submenus. Click an entry to start the corre­sponding program.

If you already know the name of an application but are not
sure how to start it from the main menu, use the main menu
search function. Just type a part of the application's name
into the search eld without pressing Enter afterward. If
the application is installed on your system, the menu
structure leading to this application is highlighted in the
main menu.

Customizing Your Desktop

You can change the way your KDE desktop looks and be­haves to suit your own personal tastes and needs.

Changing Individual Desktop Elements

In the following, nd some examples of how to change in­dividual desktops elements.

Adding Program Icons to Your Desktop

To create a link to an application and place it on the desk­top, proceed as follows:

1. Click the main menu button.

2. Browse to the desired program.

3. Left-click and drag the menu entry to the desktop then
release the mouse button.

4. Select Link Here from the context menu that appears
then position the icon as desired.

To delete an icon from your desktop, right-click the pro­gram icon and select Move to Trash.

Customizing the KDE Panel

You can customize the KDE panel according to your prefer­ences by adding, deleting, or moving icons or changing the
overall appearance of the panel.

1. To add or remove icons from the panel, right-click an
empty patch in the panel. A context-menu appears.

2. To add an application, click Add Application to Panel
and select the desired application from one of the cat­egories of the submenu.

3. To add an applet (miniprogram), click Add Applet to
Panel and, from the dialog box that appears, select the
desired applet. Click Add to Panel to insert the applet
into the panel.

4. To remove icons from the panel, select Remove from
Panel → Applications or Remove from Panel → Applet
and choose the icon to remove.

5. To change the overall appearance or behavior of the
panel, select Congure Panel from the context menu.
A conguration dialog appears where you can adjust
further settings.

2

Changing the Desktop Background

You can change the background colors of your desktop or
select a picture to use as the background. Because KDE of­fers virtual desktops (see Section “Using Virtual Desktops”),
you can apply these changes to one or all of your virtual
desktops.

1. Right-click an empty patch of the desktop and select
Congure Desktop. A conguration dialog appears.

2. In Settings for Desktop select the virtual desktops to
which the changes should apply.

3. If you want a different picture as the background, click
Picture and select one of the pictures provided by the
list. To use a custom picture, click the folder button
beneath the list and select an image le from the le
system.

4. Click Slide Show to have multiple images appear in a
slide show mode.

5. If you do not want a picture on the background, click
No picture.

6. From the Options group, click the left button below
Colors to select the color for your background. For a
multicolor background, set Colors to an option other
than Single Color and click the right button below to
select a second color.

7. Click Apply then OK to close the conguration dialog.

Using the KDE Control Center

Apart from changing individual desktop elements, KDE al­lows you to personalize your desktop to a very high degree.
Find more settings to adjust the overall appearance and
behavior of your desktop in the KDE Control Center. There,
you can also change fonts, keyboard and mouse congura­tion, regional and language settings, parameters for your
Internet and network usage, and more.

Start the Control Center from the main menu by selecting
Personal Settings or press Alt + F2 and enter kcontrol.

The sidebar provides different categories with a subset of
settings each. To get an impression of the numerous possi­bilities, just click a category icon and explore the possibilities
provided there.

For an overview of all categories, switch to a tree view.
Change the view by selecting View → Mode → Tree View.

Clicking an item displays the corresponding settings on the
right. Change the settings as desired. No changes take effect
until you click Apply. Reset all items on the page to the
default values by clicking Default. Performing tasks in some
areas of the Control Center requires system administrator
(otherwise known as root) permissions.

Using Virtual Desktops

The desktop environment allows you to organize your pro­grams and tasks on several virtual desktops. If you often
run a lot of programs simultaneously, this minimizes the
number of windows to arrange on your screen. You might,
for example, use one desktop for e-mailing and calendaring
and another for word processing or graphics applications.

Moving an Application to a Virtual Desktop

You can display a running application on one or all virtual
desktops or move it to other desktops.

1. Open the application.

2. Right-click the title bar of the application.

3. Click To Desktop.

4. Select the desktop on which to place the application.

5. To switch between desktops, click the desired desktop
in the desktop previewer in the panel.

3