An Brief Introduction to KDE and kwm

Last modified: Mon Sep 20 15:10:54 PDT 1999

The KDE desktop environment is the default desktop for all the linux machines. If you are unhappy with the appearance or behavior of your desktop you are encouraged to examine the configuration settings. All configuration settings can be set through a graphical configuration tool. Go to the K-menu and select "KDE Control Center" to start it.

You may use this tool to customize virtually all aspects of your graphical environment. You may set focus-policy, window colors, desktop background, window button placement, language (currently 33 langauges are available, ranging from English to Chinese, to Breton), and much else. In addition, many individual applications have their own configuration options. These are usually accessed by right clicking on the window background.

You are encouraged to skim through the KDE Desktop Quick Start Guide, asscessible from the kdehelp tool.

Here's a small list of useful tips

The panel and task bar (the bar listing the running applications) be placed on any side of the desktop. Right click on the panel to configure this.
The panel can be made very small, or very large from this configuration screen
You may drag a window from anywhere in its body by holding the Alt key while you drag. This is useful if the window's title bar is covered, as may happen when the task bar has many rows.
You can delete an icon from the taskbar by right-clicking on it and choosing "Remove."
You can add an entry to the taskbar by going to K-menu->Panel->"Add Application" then following the menus until you find the application to be added. Click on it an a button will appear on the panel.
If no panel entry exists for an application, you can create one. Click on your home directory on the panel. Now choose Edit->Applications. Right click in the window and choose New->Application. Fill out the appropriate information and now there will be an entry for that application under K-menu->Personal.
Alternatively, you can just make an icon on the desktop for you program (right-click on the desktop, pick New->Application, and go from there).
You may change the number of virtual desktops, and their names. Do this from the panel configuration screen, (right click on the panel).
You may change the colors and font sizes of xterms (actually kvts) by right clicking in their window area. In addition, scrollbars and menu bars may be hidden.
Every file in your ~/Desktop directory appears on your desktop as an icon. If the file type is known, clicking on the icon opens with file with an appropriate viewer.
You can create desktop folders by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing New->Folder. In addition, you can move files and directories by dragging them between folders.
The KDE file manager (kfm) is also a lightweight web browser. It is much faster than netscape, but doesn't support java, or javascript, and may not render pages as well as netscape. Use it at your own discretion. If you create URL objects on your desktop (right-click->New->URL) the will be opened by kfm by default.