Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 KDE User Guide
SUSE Linux Enterprise
www.novell.com11
March17,2009 KDE User Guide
Desktop
KDE User Guide
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Contents
About This Guide vii
Part I Introduction 1
1 Getting Started with the KDE Desktop 3
1.1 Logging In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Exploring the Desktop Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Leaving Your System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4 Switching Desktops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2 Working with Your Desktop 15
2.1 Starting Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.2 Using Dolphin File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3 Moving Text between Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.4 Finding Data on your Computer or in the File System . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.5 Accessing Removable Media and External Devices . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.6 Using Virtual Desktops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.7 Managing Internet Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.8 Exploring the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.9 E-Mail and Scheduling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.10 Instant Messaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.11 Managing Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.12 Opening or Creating Documents with OpenOfce.org . . . . . . . . . 31
2.13 Viewing PDF Files and Other Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.14 Taking Screen Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.15 Displaying, Decompressing, and Creating Archives . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.16 Creating CDs or DVDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.17 Viewing and Managing Digital Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.18 Managing Your Music Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.19 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3 Customizing Your Settings 37
3.1 The Personal Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.2 Conguring Desktop Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3 Conguring the Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.4 Conguring KDE Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.5 Conguring System and Security Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Part II Managing Files and Resources 57
4 Viewing PDF Files and Other Documents with Okular 59
4.1 Viewing PDF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2 Annotating a PDF File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.3 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5 Accessing Network Resources 63
5.1 General Notes on File Sharing and Network Browsing . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.2 Accessing Network Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3 Sharing Folders in Mixed Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.4 Managing Windows Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
6 Searching with Kerry 73
6.1 Searching Using Kerry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.2 Conguring Kerry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
7 Managing Print Jobs 77
7.1 Starting Print Jobs in KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
7.2 Monitoring Print Jobs in KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
8 Managing Passwords with KWallet Manager 81
8.1 Starting KWallet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
8.2 Managing Your Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.3 Adjusting KWallet Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
8.4 Copying Your Wallet to Another Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
9 Controlling Your Desktop’s Power Management 87
9.1 Using the Battery Monitor Widget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
9.2 Saving Power by Using Proles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
9.3 Conguring Power Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
9.4 For More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
About This Guide
This manual introduces the KDE 4 desktop of SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop. It
helps you perform key tasks. It is intended mainly for end users who want to make efcient use of KDE in everyday life.
Many chapters in this manual contain links to additional documentation resources. This
includes additional documentation that is available on the system as well as documentation available on the Internet.
For an overview of the documentation available for your product and the latest documentation updates, refer to http://www.novell.com/documentation or to
the following section.
1 Available Documentation
We provide HTML and PDF versions of our books in different languages. The following
manuals for users and administrators are available on this product:
GNOME User Guide (↑GNOME User Guide)
Introduces the GNOME desktop of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. It guides you
through using and conguring the desktop and helps you perform key tasks. It is
intended mainly for end users who want to make efcient use of GNOME desktop
as their default desktop.
Application Guide (↑Application Guide)
Learn how to use and congure key desktop applications on SUSE Linux Enterprise
Desktop. This guide introduces browsers and e-mail clients as well as ofce applications and collaboration tools. It also covers graphics and multimedia applications.
Deployment Guide (↑Deployment Guide)
Shows how to install single or multiple systems and how to exploit the product
inherent capabilities for a deployment infrastructure. Choose from various approaches, ranging from a local installation or a network installation server to a mass deployment using a remote-controlled, highly-customized, and automated installation
technique.
Administration Guide (↑Administration Guide)
Covers system administration tasks like maintaining, monitoring and customizing
an initially installed system.
Security Guide (↑Security Guide)
Introduces basic concepts of system security, covering both local and network security aspects. Shows how to make use of the product inherent security software
like Novell AppArmor (which lets you specify per program which les the program
may read, write, and execute) or the auditing system that reliably collects information about any security-relevant events.
Virtualization with Xen (↑Virtualization with Xen)
Offers an introduction to virtualization technology of your product. It features an
overview of the various elds of application and installation types of each of the
platforms supported by SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as well as a short description
of the installation procedure.
In addition to the comprehensive manuals, several quick start guides are available:
Installation Quick Start (↑Installation Quick Start)
Lists the system requirements and guides you step-by-step through the installation
of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop from DVD, or from an ISO image.
Linux Audit Quick Start
Gives a short overview how to enable and congure the auditing system and how
to execute key tasks such as setting up audit rules, generating reports, and analyzing
the log les.
Novell AppArmor Quick Start
Helps you understand the main concepts behind Novell® AppArmor.
Find HTML versions of most SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop manuals in your installed
system under /usr/share/doc/manual or in the help centers of your desktop.
Find the latest documentation updates at http://www.novell.com/
viii KDE User Guide
documentation where you can download PDF or HTML versions of the manuals
for your product.
2 Feedback
Several feedback channels are available:
• To report bugs for a product component or to submit enhancements requests, please
use https://bugzilla.novell.com/. If you are new to Bugzilla, you
might nd the Bug Writing FAQs helpful, available from the Novell Bugzilla home
page.
• We want to hear your comments and suggestions about this manual and the other
documentation included with this product. Please use the User Comments feature
at the bottom of each page of the online documentation and enter your comments
there.
3 Documentation Conventions
The following typographical conventions are used in this manual:
•
/etc/passwd: directory names and lenames
•
placeholder: replace placeholder with the actual value
•
PATH: the environment variable PATH
•
ls, --help: commands, options, and parameters
•
user: users or groups
•
Alt, Alt + F1: a key to press or a key combination; keys are shown in uppercase as
on a keyboard
•
File, File > Save As: menu items, buttons
•
Dancing Penguins (Chapter Penguins, ↑Another Manual): This is a reference to a
chapter in another manual.
About This Guide ix
Part I. Introduction
Getting Started with the KDE Desktop
This chapter assists you in becoming familiar with the KDE desktop of your SUSE®
Linux Enterprise Desktop. If you have not yet installed your system, refer to Chapter 3,
Installation with YaST (↑Deployment Guide) or to Installation Quick Start (↑Installation
Quick Start).
KDE stands for K Desktop Environment and is an easy-to-use graphical user interface
graphical user interface that communicates with the underlying Linux system to access
and manage les, folders, and programs. It has many applications designed to help you
in your daily work. KDE also offers many choices to modify your desktop according
to your needs and wishes. Read more about conguring your desktop in Chapter 3,
Customizing Your Settings (page 37).
The following description is based on the default conguration of the KDE 4 desktop
shipped with your product. If you or your system administrator has modied the defaults,
some aspects may be different, such as appearance or keyboard shortcuts.
1.1 Logging In
If more than one user account is congured on your computer, usually all users must
authenticate—unless Auto Login is congured for a certain user. Auto login logs the
user in to the desktop environment automatically on boot. This feature can be enabled
or disabled during installation or at any time using the YaST user management module.
For more information, see Chapter 9, Managing Users with YaST (↑Deployment Guide).
If your computer is run in a network environment and you are not the only person using
the machine, you are usually prompted to enter your username and password when you
1
Getting Started with the KDE Desktop 3
start your system. If you did not set up your system and your user account yourself,
check with your system administrator for your username and password.
The appearance of the login screen depends on the product you use and on the desktop
environment installed on your system. The login process is managed by an application.
For KDE, it is KDM. If the GNOME desktop is additionally installed on your system,
it may be GDM.
To start a normal login, enter your username and password. If desktops other than KDE
are installed, you can select which desktop environment to start by clicking the Session
Typing menu item at the bottom of the login screen. Press Enter to proceed. For infor-
mation on how to log out or switch to another desktop, see Section 1.3, “Leaving Your
System” (page 11) and Section 1.4, “Switching Desktops” (page 13).
Figure 1.1
If your system administrator has created an encrypted home directory for you (which
is useful as a protection against theft or unauthorized removal of the hard disk), your
home directory is mounted on login. After login, you can directly access the data as
usual—without entering another password.
A KDM Login Screen
4 KDE User Guide
NOTE: Connecting to an Active Directory Server
To access shared network resources, you can also authenticate a KDE client
machine against an Active Directory server. For further details, refer to Chap-
ter 5, Accessing Network Resources (page 63). If your machine is congured
for this kind of authentication, the login screen also provides an additional
eld. In this case, proceed as follows during login:
1. Select the domain from the list.
2. Enter your Windows* username.
3. Enter your Windows password and press Enter.
1.2 Exploring the Desktop Components
After logging in to KDE for the rst time, you see the KDE desktop. It consists of the
following basic elements:
Figure 1.2
Example KDE Desktop
Getting Started with the KDE Desktop 5
Desktop Icons and Desktop Folder Desktop icons represent les, directories, applications, functions, and removable media, like CDs or DVDs. Click an icon on the
desktop to access its associated program or application. By default, your desktop icons
are shown in a Desktop Folder, a transparent region of the screen showing the contents
of the Desktop folder in your home directory. If you drag an icon from the Desktop
Folder and drop it on another part of the desktop, it appear as widget that you can tilt,
enlarge or minimize. Widgets are small applications that can be integrated into your
desktop. Right-click to open a context menu to access the icon properties, or to remove
the icon. For more information, see Conguring Widgets (page 42).
Desktop Context Menu: Right-click an empty area on the desktop to access the
context menu for conguring the appearance of the desktop, adding panels or widgets
to the desktop, locking the widgets in their current position, or for leaving the current
session or locking the screen.
KDE Panel: The panel (in KDE also called “Kicker”) is a bar, typically located at
the top or the bottom of the screen. By default, the panel of your KDE desktop consists
of the following areas (from left to right): quick launcher with the main menu icon on
the left and further program icons, pager (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. If you hold your mouse pointer over an icon in
the panel, a short description is displayed.
Quick Launcher: The quick launcher contains the main menu button and some
larger icons that are shortcuts to frequently used programs, folders, and functions.
Main Menu Button: Use the icon at the far left of the panel to open a menu holding
a search function at the top and several tabs at the bottom. The Applications tab shows
all installed programs in a function-oriented menu structure which makes it easy to nd
the right application for your purpose even if you do not know the application names
yet. For more information, refer to Section 2.1.1, “Using the Main Menu” (page 15) .
Pager (Desktop Previewer): Between the quick launcher and the taskbar, nd a
miniature preview that shows your virtual desktops (if not congured otherwise, they
are numbered). SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop allows you to organize your programs
and tasks on several desktops, which minimizes the number of windows to arrange on
the screen. To switch between the virtual desktops, click one of the symbols in the
pager. For more information, refer to Section 2.6, “Using Virtual Desktops” (page 28).
6 KDE User Guide
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 several
other helper applications such as the device notier, informing you about recently
plugged or inserted devices such as USB sticks, external hard disks, cameras, CDs, or
DVDs. For more information, refer to Section 2.5, “Accessing Removable Media and
External Devices” (page 27).
The integration and handling of desktop objects has changed from KDE 3.x to KDE 4,
which now uses a new desktop and panel interface tool called Plasma. Plasma supports
desktop widgets (also called “plasmoids”), similar to Apple’s dashboard widgets. Learn
more about the key desktop objects in the following sections.
1.2.1 Locking and Unlocking Desktop
Objects
With KDE 4, desktop elements can be locked in their current position to prevent them
from being moved around on the desktop. As long as the desktop elements are locked,
you cannot add, move, or remove any objects to and from your desktop.
To lock or unlock the desktop elements, right-click an empty space on the desktop and
select Lock Widgets or Unlock Widgets.
Figure 1.3
Unlocking Desktop Objects
Getting Started with the KDE Desktop 7
Find how to add, remove and congure widgets and change numerous desktop elements
in Chapter 3, Customizing Your Settings (page 37).
1.2.2 Desktop Icons
By default, the Desktop Folder showing the contents of the ~/Desktop folder, displays
the following icons by default:
My Computer
The My Computer icon is very useful for viewing the most important information
about your hardware, network status, disks (hard disks, removable media, and external devices), operating system, and some common folders at one glance. For
example, nd processor type and speed listed there, information about your RAM
and the current swap status, or your graphics card. OS Information lists the most
important information about your operating system such as the Kernel version included, the current user, version number and type of the operating system, and the
KDE version number. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop ships with a number of
further tools (either graphical or command line tools) that you can use to get more
detailed information about your system. If you need detailed hardware information
about your system, use the YaST hardware probing, described in Section “Probing
Your Hardware” (Chapter 5, Setting Up Hardware Components with YaST, ↑De-
ployment Guide).
Firefox
Opens the Firefox Web browser. For more information, refer to Chapter 18,
Browsing with Firefox (↑Application Guide).
Ofce
Opens a new OpenOfce.org document. For an introduction to the ofce suite,
refer to Chapter 1, The OpenOfce.org Ofce Suite (↑Application Guide).
1.2.3 Panel Icons
The quick launch area of your panel as shipped with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
includes the following icons by default:
8 KDE User Guide
Figure 1.4
Panel: Quick Launch Area
Main Menu Icon
Opens the main menu, similar to the Microsoft* Windows start menu.
Device Notier Icon
Informs you about recently plugged or inserted devices such as USB sticks, external
hard disks, cameras, CDs, or DVDs. For more information, refer to Section 2.5,
“Accessing Removable Media and External Devices” (page 27).
Dolphin Icon
Opens Dolphin, the default le manager.
Apart from the larger icons in the quick launcher, the panel also holds a number of
smaller icons in the system tray area on the right:
Figure 1.5
Panel: System Tray
Klipper
KDE's clipboard tool that “remembers” the last entries you have moved to the
clipboard. To view the clipboard contents, click the Klipper icon or press Ctrl +
Alt + V. The most recent entry is listed on top and is marked as active with a black
check mark. To insert the active clipboard entry again, move the mouse pointer to
the target application, then middle-click. For more information, see Section 2.3,
“Moving Text between Applications” (page 24).
KMix
Your desktop's default mixer, KMix helps you to control sound on your desktop
after your sound card has been detected and congured with YaST, the central tool
for installation and conguration of your system. By default, clicking the KMix
icon in the system tray shows the master controller with which to increase or decrease the overall volume. For more information, refer to Section “Mixers”
(Chapter 23, Playing Music and Movies: amaroK, Kaffeine and More, ↑Application
Guide).
Getting Started with the KDE Desktop 9
openSUSE Updater
Helps you keeping your system up to date. When you connect to the Internet, the
openSUSE Updater automatically checks whether software updates for your system
are available. The applet icon changes color and appearance depending on the
availability of updates for your system. For detailed information about how to install
software updates with openSUSE Updater and how to congure openSUSE Updater,
refer to Chapter 1, YaST Online Update (↑Administration Guide).
KNetworkManager
If you manage your network connection with NetworkManager and have enabled
the use of NetworkManager in YaST, the KNetworkManager icon also appears in
your system tray be default. Use it to change and congure network connections.
For detailed information, refer to Chapter 23, Using NetworkManager (↑Adminis-
tration Guide).
Clock
For information about the current date and time, click the clock in the system tray
or hove your mouse pointer over the clock. You can change the clock settings (such
as appearance or additional data to be displayed) from the context menu available
upon right-click. If you need to update the system time, start YaST and select System
> Date and Time. Refer to Section “Clock and Time Zone” (Chapter 3, Installation
with YaST, ↑Deployment Guide) for more information.
Lock Screen
Locks your screen and starts the screen saver. Access to the session can only be
regained with a password.
Log Out
Logs you out and ends your current KDE session. If not congured otherwise in
the KDE 4 Personal Settings, (see Adjusting the Session Handling (page 55), the
session manager will restore the currently open windows by default next time you
log in to KDE.
Cashew Icon
Give access to panel conguration options. For more information, see Customizing
the Panel (page 46).
Of course, you can also change the way your KDE desktop looks and behaves to suit
your own personal tastes and needs. To learn how to congure individual desktop ele-
10 KDE User Guide
ments or how change the overall appearance and behavior of your desktop, refer to
Section 3.1, “The Personal Settings” (page 37).
If you would like to start working with your desktop now, continue reading at Chapter 2,
Working with Your Desktop (page 15). Otherwise you can leave your system with one
of the possibilities described below.
1.3 Leaving Your System
When you have nished using the computer, there are several options how to leave
your system: some of them will leave the system running, others will shutdown the
computer. If your system provides power management, you can also choose to suspend
your computer—in this state, it will consume considerably less power that usual but it
will start much faster than after a complete shutdown and boot process. For more information, refer to Chapter 9, Controlling Your Desktop’s Power Management (page 87).
You can access all the options to leave your session or your system from the main menu.
Click the main menu icon on the left and switch to the Leave tab. Select one of the
following options:
Logout
Ends your current session and leaves your system running. If not congured otherwise in the KDE 4 Personal Settings (see Adjusting the Session Handling (page 55),
the session manager will restore the currently open windows by default next time
you log in to KDE. Find more information about the session manager and conguration options at Adjusting the Session Handling (page 55).
Lock
Prevents unauthorized access by others by locking your screen and starting a screen
saver. Access to the session can only be regained with a password. To unlock, enter
your normal login password. For information about conguring your screen saver,
see Conguring the Screen Saver (page 44).
Switch User
Starts a second session with a graphical user interface on your machine. Your current
session remains active while you are taken to the login screen where you can log
in as a different user. You can access the rst session again by pressing Ctrl + Alt
+ F7. To access a new session, press F8 instead of F7. Additional sessions can be
accessed by pressing Ctrl + Alt + F9 to F12.
Getting Started with the KDE Desktop 11
If more than one desktop environment is installed on your system, you can also
choose to switch to another desktop for the new session as described in Section 1.4,
“Switching Desktops” (page 13).
Hibernate
This menu item is only available if your computer provides power management
functionality. Pauses your computer without logging you out. All your data and
the session data is saved to disk before the system is laid to rest. It is thus protected
against data loss should you loose power in the meantime. Waking the system up
again is much faster than booting it from scratch.
Sleep
This menu item is only available if your computer provides power management
functionality. Pauses your computer without logging you out. All your data and
the session data is saved to RAM. Bringing the system up again is faster than
restoring a session from disk.
Shutdown Computer
Logs you out and turns your computer off.
Restart Computer
Initiates the shutdown process and reboots your computer. Instead of selecting the
desired boot option in the boot manager, you can also select the desired option directly—just click one of the option below Restart Computer.
To access most of the options for leaving, you can also use the keyboard shortcut dened
in the Personal Settings. Usually, this is Ctrl + Alt + L.
TIP: Looking Up KDE Keyboard Shortcuts
If you are interested in other KDE keyboard shortcuts, look them up in the KDE
4 Personal Settings, described in Chapter 3, Customizing Your Settings (page 37).
For a description of how to change KDE keyboard shortcuts, refer to Modifying
KDE Keyboard Shortcuts (page 48).
If you have already logged out, you can still access shutdown and restart option from
the login screen by clicking System and selecting the respective menu items.
12 KDE User Guide
1.4 Switching Desktops
If more than one desktop environment is installed on your system (for example, KDE
and GNOME, or KDE 3.5.x and KDE 4), you can choose to switch to another desktop
when logging in again (or when logging in as a different user). To do so, proceed as
follows:
On the login screen, click Session Type and select the desktop environment to
1
start.
Enter a valid username and password. A new session on the selected desktop
2
environment starts.
To switch back again, log out from the current desktop and select a different
3
Session Type on the login screen. If you do not select a new session type, your
next session will be of the same type as the session before.
Getting Started with the KDE Desktop 13
Working with Your Desktop
After having being introduced to the desktop, you can now start to work with your
desktop.
2.1 Starting Programs
You can start programs either from the main menu or from the command line, using
the Run Command dialog or a shell. Additionally, you can start programs from the
desktop or the panel by left-clicking the respective program icon once.
TIP: Selecting and Starting Objects
Clicking an object once in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop usually starts an action
directly: a program starts, a preview of the le is displayed, or the folder is
opened. To former users of Windows, this behavior may be rather unusual. If
you just want to select one or several objects without any other action, press
Ctrl then click the object. Alternatively, alter your mouse settings in the KDE
Personal Settings as described in Adjusting the Mouse Settings (page 47).
2.1.1 Using the Main Menu
2
To open the main menu, click the main menu icon in the panel or press Alt + F1. The
main menu consists of the following elements: a search function at the top and several
tabs at the bottom, providing quick access to the key functions of the menu.
Working with Your Desktop 15
The following tabs are available:
Favorites
Shows a default selection of key programs for quick access.
Applications
Shows all applications installed 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. To navigate through the structure, click an
entry and use the arrow icons at the right or the left to switch back and forth. To
switch back to the top-level hierarchy from anywhere in the structure, just click
the tab's name or icon.
Computer
Gives quick access to some places often needed, such as important system folders
(home directory, network folders) and media devices. Also allows you to quickly
access system information and to change your system conguration with YaST, if
necessary.
16 KDE User Guide
Recently Used
Lists the most recently opened programs and les. To reopen a program or le,
just click the entry. To remove all recently used programs or les from the list,
right-click below the respective heading and select Clear Recently Used Applications
or Clear Recently Used Documents.
Leave
Shows several options for leaving the session such as logging out, locking the
screen (access can only be regained with a password), shutting down or restarting
the computer. For more information, see Section 1.3, “Leaving Your System”
(page 11).
Additionally the menu displays your login name and the hostname of your computer.
This information is useful when you are logged in as a different user or on a remote
computer—it always shows you which system you are currently working on.
2.1.2 Using the Run Command Dialog
KRunner is a helper application with lets you quickly start programs. Apart from that,
it offers a search function for nding applications or locations. Refer to Section 2.1.3,
“Searching for Programs” (page 18) for more information.
Press Alt + F2 to open the Run Command dialog. Type a command, for example,
dolphin, and press Enter or click Launch to start the application. The command to
start the application is often (but not always) the application name written in lowercase.
Working with Your Desktop 17
If you want to start an application as a different user (for example, as root), click the
wrench icon in the Run Command dialog. Activate Run as Different User, enter the
user's password and press Enter.
The Run Command dialog also allows you to use the so-called Web shortcuts dened
in Konqueror. With these, you can send search requests directly to a search engine like
Google*, without opening the browser and visiting the Web sites before. For more information, refer to Section “Using Web Shortcuts” (Chapter 17, Browsing with Kon-
queror, ↑Application Guide).
Click the wrench symbol to explore the full range of KRunner's abilities: For example,
if the Contacts plug-in is activated, just enter the name of one of your contacts and then
press Enter to open KMail and to start typing your mail.
If the respective plug-in is activated, you can also use KRunner as calculator or to
convert units.
2.1.3 Searching for Programs
Both the main menu and the Run Command dialog offer a search function that lets you
quickly start programs even if you do not know the exact application name or command
yet. To search for an application, start typing a command or part of the application
name in the main menu Search eld of the menu or the input eld in the Run Command
dialog. Each character you enter narrows down the search.
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From the list below the input eld, choose the application or object matching your
query.
2.2 Using Dolphin File Manager
With KDE 4, Dolphin has replaced Konqueror as the default le manager, while Konqueror remains the default Web browser. For more information about Konqueror as
Web browser, see Chapter 17, Browsing with Konqueror (↑Application Guide). To start
Dolphin, click the card box icon in the panel or press Alt + F2 and enter dolphin.
2.2.1 Dolphin Main Window
The Dolphin main window consists of the following elements:
Menu Bar: The menu bar holds menu items for actions like copying, moving, or
deleting les, changing views, starting additional tools, dening your settings, and
getting help.
Working with Your Desktop 19
Toolbar: The toolbar provides quick access to frequently used functions that can
also be accessed via the menu. If you hover the mouse pointer over an icon, a short
description is displayed.
Location Bar: The location bar displays the path to the current directory. It is
available in two versions: one shows the path to the current directory with icons for
every superordinate folder in a “bread crumb” view. Click any icon in the bread crumb
view to change to that directory. The second version of the location bar shows the path
to the current directory as a string of text you can edit.
Panels: By default, Dolphin shows only the Places panel on the left. It allows quick
access to some often used places like your home directory, the /root directory of the
le system, the trash bin, or removable media. There are several other panels you can
add to the main window.
Display Field (Working Space): The display eld shows the contents of the selected
directory or le. By default, Dolphin displays the contents of your home directory on
start-up. Clicking a folder or le in Dolphin directly starts an action: Dolphin loads the
le into an application for further processing or opens the folder.
Status Bar: Shows the le type and size of the currently selected object and the
available disk space .
2.2.2 Managing Files and Folders
To perform actions like copying, moving, creating or deleting les, you need appropriate
permissions to the folders and les involved in your action.
Procedure 2.1
In order to select one or multiple les and folders in Dolphin, move your mouse
1
pointer over the le or folder but do not click. A green cross appears on the upperleft edge. To select the le or folder now, click the green cross icon. Alternatively,
press Ctrl and click the le or les. To deselect again, click the red minus icon
that appears if the object is currently selected.
Right-click and select Copy or Cut from the context menu.
2
Navigate to the destination folder in which to insert the object.
3
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Copying, Moving, or Delete Files or Folders
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