Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1390 mails)
| < Previous | Next > |
Re: [opensuse] Making sense of KDE4
- From: Charles Obler <joyinstruggle@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:23:20 -0800 (PST)
- Message-id: <652392.38683.qm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
--- On Fri, 2/26/10, Charles Obler <joyinstruggle@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Wow! KDE 4.4 is beautiful! -- now that I know
what I'm doing. I've set up a well-organized
"Activity Tree" -- a "Desktop Activity" at the
root, "Folder View Activities" as the branches,
and applications, URL's, links, and widgets as
the leaves on each folder. I can also use pager
to switch to my "parallel world" -- to the same
Activities Tree, but with different applications
running. This is NEAT! :) :)
- -
My reply to John earlier tonight explains how I
set this up. Here is that reply:
I started out confused by KDE 4.4 too, but
now I'm coming to love it. Although pager
still functions, and is very useful, the
"Activity" now takes the place of the pager
"desktop". For this reason, it is better
to think of the pager "desktops" as parallel
"activity trees".
The root of the "Activity Tree" is called a
"Desktop Activity", and the branches are
called "Folder View Activities". The leaves
are the things you place on the "Folder"
window. They can be applications or files or
URLs -- or "widgets".
A widget is button or bar that performs a
special system or KDE function. The "Clock",
for example, is a widget. There are widgets
that monitor system resources, dictionary
widgets that look up words, and KDE widgets
that do window switching for you.
Finally, at the edge of the screen, you have
"Panels". The Panels remain fixed, as the
Activity changes -- i.e., the Panels are
accessible from every activity. The taskbar,
for example, is a panel. It's only one of
several kinds of panels you can create.
pager tree 1:
--> Desktop Activity:
----> Folder View Activity (Internet)
------> Browser 1, e.g., opera
------> Browser 2, e.g., firefox
------> URL 1,
------> kconsole
----> Folder View Activity (Preferences)
------> YaST
------> KDE 4 preferences
------> KDE 4 help
etc..
To switch between Activities, you need an
"Activity Bar" widget. I recommend, at least
initially, that you have a separate panel for
the "Activity Bar" -- then you can access any
Activity from any other Activity.
Later, you may want to adopt a more compact
approach: Put the Activity Bar on each
Folder, and put a little "Show Desktop"
widget on your taskbar panel. You can then
right-click on the "Show Desktop" widget and
add a shortcut key that takes you directly to
your current Folder, where you have your
Activity Bar
To create these Activities and Panels, you
right-click on a screen, and select "Unlock
Widgets". Then right-click again: You now
see additional options, such as "Add Panel",
"Add Widget".
If you click on "Add Widget", the "Activity
Bar" widget is the first widget in the list.
The list groups widgets by category -- other
window-related widgets are in the last
category.
If you right-click on a Panel, Unlock
Widgets, and right-click again, you will see
a "Panel Options" option. If you select this
and then click on "Panel Settings", you will
get a form that allows you to resize the
Panel and move the icons around inside the
panel.
Panels and Activities have what is called a
"Cashew" at the corner of the screen. If you
click on the Cashew, you get a list of
options that includes the options you get
when you simply right-click on the screen.
To close the list, click on the Cashew again,
once or twice.
One additional option the Cashew gives you is
"Add Activity". Use this to extend your
activities tree.
The Activity you add comes up as a "Desktop
Activity". Since you already have a Desktop
Activity at the root of the tree, you
probably don't need another. What you want
instead is a Folder View Activity.
Right-click on the screen, select "Desktop
Activity Options", then select the "Activity"
tab in the dialogue box. Open the pulldown
list and change to a "Folder View Activity".
The dialogue box then changes. You get to
specify the "Location" of the folder and the
folder name. The "Location" is the directory
where the folder items will be stored. The
default is "Desktop". You should change
this. I use "Desktop" subdirectories as my
folder locations, but you can use any
directory you want.
The dialogue box allows you to set your
wallpaper. This is another thing I like
about KDE 4: I use paintings as wallpaper,
and have a different painting for each
Folder.
Close the dialogue box and you have a Folder
View Activity. The folder shows whatever is
in the Location directory. If it's a new
directory, the folder is blank.
To add things to the folder, right-click and
select "Create New". Then select URL or link
or whatever. To add applications to the
folder, open the kicker application tree (if
you're using classic KDE), but instead of
opening the application, drag it to the
folder -- i.e., press, drag and then release.
If you are using pager, with multiple pager
trees, each Activity has a separate screen
for each tree. When you do the pager switch,
you get the same Activity screen, but a whole
new set of open applications. That's why I
call the pager trees "parallel".
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@xxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Charles Obler <joyinstruggle@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [opensuse] Making sense of KDE4
To: opensuse@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Friday, February 26, 2010, 2:55 AM
Since we seem to be stuck with KDE 4
for a
while, I decided that I might as well learn
something about it. I've found several
helpful tutorials, and I'm looking for
others.
http://techgage.com/article/ten_kde_4_tricks_worth_knowing_about/1
http://techgage.com/article/ten_kde_4_tricks_worth_knowing_about/2
http://hanswchen.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/how-do-you-use-activities
-- 17 Nov 2009
http://userbase.kde.org/Plasma -- 24 Feb 2010
The first tutorial got me interested in
Dolphin. I found out that I can split
the screen, just as mc does. And I also
have a konsole panel -- like mc, except
that I don't have to do Ctrl-O to see the
output. So Dolphin might actually be
helpful, now and then!
The other two tutorials introduced me to
the "New KDE4 Concept" that we've all
heard so much about. There must be
something wrong with me, because I think
I'm finally beginning to get it.
In KDE 3.5, I organize my dozen or so desktop
icons by putting all icons pertaining to a
particular activity together on a row. For
example, I have a row for configuration
applications, a row for office applications,
a row for pdf viewers -- believe it or not,
there are four of them!
If I understand KDE 4 correctly, I use
"activities" instead of "rows" to group
related applications together. On my
desktop, I would have no applications at all
-- only an "activity selector" bar.
To get this "activity selector" on the
desktop, I click on pager desktop-one twice
-- to bring up the desktop -- then I click on
the cashew. If I don't like cashews or can't
find the cashew, I can right-click on the
desktop itself. I then click on "unlock the
widgets", and finally, on "add widget".
The "activity bar" is the first widget I see.
It's also the most important widget, as I've
found out: Without it, there is no way to GET
to my "activities".
Now, I can start adding "activities". I do
seem to need the desktop cashew for this. I
click on "add activity" and a blank green
wallpaper comes up. I right-click on the
wallpaper and select "Desktop Activity
Settings". I then select the "Activity" tab
and turn the dummy "Desktop" into a "Folder".
I get to give the "Folder" a name. When I
close the "Desktop Accitivy settings" icons
appear out of nowhere, all nicely aligned!
Who selects these icons, I don't know. I
just know that they are not exactly the icons
I want.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out
how to add new icons to the folder. I tried
using the application launcher, and
right-clicking before starting the
application -- but there is no "add to
folder" option.
Finally, I right-clicked on the green area
again. I noticed that the last option has
changed from "Desktop Activity Settings" to
"Folder Activity Settings". And I also
noticed the first option: "Create New". I
selected it and then selected "new link to
application" -- the only suboption that made
sense. Up came a properties box. I filled
in the blanks with opera and selected the
opera icon. What do you know?! -- opera
appeared on my ghastly green folder!
The problem is that I hate filling out
property boxes. I'm never quite sure what
working set to use, what operand codes to add
to the command, etc.. It would be nice if
there were template files I could just copy.
Where would such files be? Probably in
/opt/kde4 someplace. Except that they're
not. So what about /usr?
/usr/share/applications sounds like a good
possibility. Yeah, there it is:
opera.desktop.
The next question: Where does the new
property file end up? I specified a
distinctive comment property, to make the
file recognizable, and then started searching
for it. I didn't find it in .kde or in .kde4
or in .local or anywhere else that made
sense. Finally, I noticed a "Desktop"
directory, and there I found my new file.
This suggests that there may be a simple way
to add icons to the folder -- just copy the
property files from
/usr/share/applications
to
~/Desktop.
However, I doubt that it is really that
simple. What if I have several different
"Folder" activities, each with a different
"opera"? Because there is only one "Desktop"
directory, all of these opera property files
would have to have unique names. What am I
missing?
I discovered most of the procedures above
through trial and error. And one of the
errors I made was rather scary: I found
myself with NO desktop, nothing but a white
screen, with no cashews, no right-click
functionality, and seemingly no escape. I
did have the taskbar panel, however, and
clicking on the "Show plasma dashboard"
restored things, for reasons I do not
understand.
My recommendation then is to create a backup
copy of the following directories before
experimenting:
~/.kde
~./.kde4
~
I realize that this must sound hopelessly
simple-minded to 95% of the people on this
list. But that still leaves 5% that may find
my experience helpful.
Wow! KDE 4.4 is beautiful! -- now that I know
what I'm doing. I've set up a well-organized
"Activity Tree" -- a "Desktop Activity" at the
root, "Folder View Activities" as the branches,
and applications, URL's, links, and widgets as
the leaves on each folder. I can also use pager
to switch to my "parallel world" -- to the same
Activities Tree, but with different applications
running. This is NEAT! :) :)
- -
My reply to John earlier tonight explains how I
set this up. Here is that reply:
I started out confused by KDE 4.4 too, but
now I'm coming to love it. Although pager
still functions, and is very useful, the
"Activity" now takes the place of the pager
"desktop". For this reason, it is better
to think of the pager "desktops" as parallel
"activity trees".
The root of the "Activity Tree" is called a
"Desktop Activity", and the branches are
called "Folder View Activities". The leaves
are the things you place on the "Folder"
window. They can be applications or files or
URLs -- or "widgets".
A widget is button or bar that performs a
special system or KDE function. The "Clock",
for example, is a widget. There are widgets
that monitor system resources, dictionary
widgets that look up words, and KDE widgets
that do window switching for you.
Finally, at the edge of the screen, you have
"Panels". The Panels remain fixed, as the
Activity changes -- i.e., the Panels are
accessible from every activity. The taskbar,
for example, is a panel. It's only one of
several kinds of panels you can create.
pager tree 1:
--> Desktop Activity:
----> Folder View Activity (Internet)
------> Browser 1, e.g., opera
------> Browser 2, e.g., firefox
------> URL 1,
------> kconsole
----> Folder View Activity (Preferences)
------> YaST
------> KDE 4 preferences
------> KDE 4 help
etc..
To switch between Activities, you need an
"Activity Bar" widget. I recommend, at least
initially, that you have a separate panel for
the "Activity Bar" -- then you can access any
Activity from any other Activity.
Later, you may want to adopt a more compact
approach: Put the Activity Bar on each
Folder, and put a little "Show Desktop"
widget on your taskbar panel. You can then
right-click on the "Show Desktop" widget and
add a shortcut key that takes you directly to
your current Folder, where you have your
Activity Bar
To create these Activities and Panels, you
right-click on a screen, and select "Unlock
Widgets". Then right-click again: You now
see additional options, such as "Add Panel",
"Add Widget".
If you click on "Add Widget", the "Activity
Bar" widget is the first widget in the list.
The list groups widgets by category -- other
window-related widgets are in the last
category.
If you right-click on a Panel, Unlock
Widgets, and right-click again, you will see
a "Panel Options" option. If you select this
and then click on "Panel Settings", you will
get a form that allows you to resize the
Panel and move the icons around inside the
panel.
Panels and Activities have what is called a
"Cashew" at the corner of the screen. If you
click on the Cashew, you get a list of
options that includes the options you get
when you simply right-click on the screen.
To close the list, click on the Cashew again,
once or twice.
One additional option the Cashew gives you is
"Add Activity". Use this to extend your
activities tree.
The Activity you add comes up as a "Desktop
Activity". Since you already have a Desktop
Activity at the root of the tree, you
probably don't need another. What you want
instead is a Folder View Activity.
Right-click on the screen, select "Desktop
Activity Options", then select the "Activity"
tab in the dialogue box. Open the pulldown
list and change to a "Folder View Activity".
The dialogue box then changes. You get to
specify the "Location" of the folder and the
folder name. The "Location" is the directory
where the folder items will be stored. The
default is "Desktop". You should change
this. I use "Desktop" subdirectories as my
folder locations, but you can use any
directory you want.
The dialogue box allows you to set your
wallpaper. This is another thing I like
about KDE 4: I use paintings as wallpaper,
and have a different painting for each
Folder.
Close the dialogue box and you have a Folder
View Activity. The folder shows whatever is
in the Location directory. If it's a new
directory, the folder is blank.
To add things to the folder, right-click and
select "Create New". Then select URL or link
or whatever. To add applications to the
folder, open the kicker application tree (if
you're using classic KDE), but instead of
opening the application, drag it to the
folder -- i.e., press, drag and then release.
If you are using pager, with multiple pager
trees, each Activity has a separate screen
for each tree. When you do the pager switch,
you get the same Activity screen, but a whole
new set of open applications. That's why I
call the pager trees "parallel".
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@xxxxxxxxxxxx
| < Previous | Next > |