| Created: | Sunday, 19 April 2009 | |
| Last modified: | Monday, 25 May 2009 |
This video tutorial will teach you how to modify your KDE desktops and applications to give you better placement and organization. You'll arrange your applications' windows according to the functionality that each application provides.
To understand this tutorial you'll need only a basic understanding of KDE 4.2: how to access desktops, how to launch applications and how to manipulate windows.
In this short tutorial, we'll take a look at modifying your KDE desktops and applications to give you optimal placement and organization. Your applications' windows will be arranged according to the functionality that each application provides. To understand this tutorial you'll need only a basic understanding of KDE 4.2: how to access desktops, how to launch applications and how to manipulate windows.
So, what are desktops? You can think of desktops as collections of windows. You can quickly switch between your desktops, having different windows on each, so that no one desktop becomes too cluttered and you can work more effectively and efficiently.
Most default installations of KDE give the user four desktops, but as we'll see later, you can change the number of desktops available.
You can switch between your desktops using the pager widget or a keyboard shortcut. In my configuration of KDE, the pager widget is located in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, but your setup may vary.
The first step is to organize and name your desktops according to the functionality of the applications each desktop will run. I have six named desktops: Communications, Web Browsing, Office Suites and Text Editing, Programming and Shells, Multimedia and Wild Card. So, for example, on the Office Suites and Text Editing desktop I run OpenOffice and Kate, while on Programming and Shells, I run Eclipse and Konsole. You'll want to give some serious thought to the functionality of your desktops so you can come up with names that work best for you. For example, if you keep financial books, you might want to have a desktop called "Accounting".
Now let's take a look at a new Linux account so I can show you how to set up KDE for named desktops. Find your KDE menu. In my configuration, it's at the lower left-hand corner of the screen. Open the menu and choose "System Settings". Open up "Desktop" and click on "Multiple Desktops". Here's where you can choose the number of desktops for your system. Let's up this to six and give them names. I'll call the first "Communications", the second "Web Browsing", the third "Document Processing & Office Suites", the fourth "Programming & Shells", the fifth "Multimedia" and the sixth "Wild Card". I'll use Wild Card for any applications that don't fit in the first five categories.
Back in the regular Linux desktop, we need to train the applications so they open on the correct desktops. Configuring how your applications launch under KDE is frequently overlooked which is a shame because KDE offers a robust set of launching parameters.
Let's use Kate, KDE's text editor, as an example. I have a desktop set up for text editing. I've called it "Office Suites & Text Editing". I'll launch Kate and send it to the proper desktop by clicking on the icon on the upper left-hand corner. (Depending on the theme you're using, your icon might not be in the same place and you'll have to hunt around for it. You can also use the keyboard shortcut of ALT-F3.) Let's send Kate to the Office Suites & Text Editing desktop. Choose To Desktop → Office Suites & Text Editing. Now that we've got Kate on the correct desktop, go to the Office Suites & Text Editing desktop and under the same icon select Advanced → Special Window Settings.... You'll get a pop-up window. The most important setting for our purposes is Desktop. Check it, choose "Force" and confirm that we are forcing it to open on the correct desktop. I also like to set "Maximized horizontally" and "Maximized vertically" to "Apply initially" because I like the Kate window to be as large as possible.
Now you'll need to go through your applications, forcing them to open where and how you want.
Before we close, let's take a look at the keyboard shortcut for moving between desktops. Let's go back to System Settings and choose Keyboard & Mouse → Global Keyboard Shortcuts. Select "KWin" under "KDE component". In the search field, type "desktop". You'll see that you can set a lot of keyboard shortcuts for working with your desktops. I like "Walk Through Desktops" and "Walk Through Desktops (Reverse)", which I'll set to CONTROL-ALT-RIGHT and CONTROL-ALT-LEFT. Set them by clicking on the wrench and typing the shortcut you want.
As you use this technique of multiple desktops, you'll have windows opening in desktops other than the one you are working in. If your KDE is set to the default settings, you should be able to switch to any window that is demanding attention by pressing CONTROL-ALT-A. We are in the Communications desktop, let's launch the GIMP. The taskbar tells me that the GIMP has launched and, therefore, wants my attention. I can switch to Kate by pressing CONTROL-ALT-A.
I believe you'll find organizing your desktops by functionality will help you work faster and with less stress.
Thanks for watching this tutorial, brought to you by David Fisco Consulting. Please consult the website for the text version of this tutorial and more tips on productivity and software.
