Many people assume the KDE desktop environment is just as flexible as the GNOME desktop. In most ways it is. But there are some instances where you might find KDE not quite as intuitive as GNOME. Does that mean it’s less flexible? Not necessarily. But there are certain instances where figuring out how to configure default applications might not be as easy as you would think. That is where Ghacks comes in. And in this article I will show you just how to get KDE icon double clicks to work exactly as you would expect them to.

What to look for

To get all of this working the KDE System Settings will be used for the majority of these tasks. Outside of that you will use, very much like in GNOME, the right click menu from within the file manager Dolphin. You will find the System Settings tool in the Favorites menu of the KDE Kickoff menu.

“Open With”

Figure 1

The “Open With” dialog should be familar to most any PC user (regardless of operating system or desktop). To open this menu all you need to do is right click the file type (icon) you wish to act upon. When you click on the entry a sub-menu will appear containing the “standard” installed applications that associate with that particular file type. To open that file with a particular application just select the application from the sub-menu. If the application you want to use is not within that menu select the entry labeled “Other…”, which will open up a new window (see Figure 1).

What you need to do here is locate the application you want to associate this file type with. Once you have located the application select it and click OK. Now, if you want to always associate that file type with that particular application make sure you check the “Remember application association for this type of file” check box. Now if you can’t find the application in the Known Applications tree you can always just enter the full path to the executable in the text field at the top. For example: If I want to open all .txt files with the Nano editor in the text field I would enter aterm -e nano,  check the “Remember application…” check box, and click OK. Now when I double click a .txt file the Nano  editor will always open in the aterm console emulator.

File associations

Figure 2

Now for the big stuff. If you open up the System Settings tool click on the Advanced tab and then click on the File Associations button (see Figure 2). In this window you will see quite a bit can be configured. Let’s take a look at associating a plain text file with the same editor (just for simplicity).

When you expand the Text section you will see “plain” among the listings. Click on the “plain” entry to reveal everything you can do with this.  Take a look at the Filename Patterns. Here you can associate different file extensions with the plain text file type. You can add and remove extensions for further expand (or limit) the type of file that will be associated with this particular file type.

Below the Filename Patterns section you will see the Application Preference Order. Here you can give preference to various applications as well as add new applications to associate with a file type. If you want one particular application to get top priority over all otheres, select that application and click the Move Up button until it is at the top.

One last section to examine is the Embedding Tab. What you can do here is associate an application, embedded inside of another application, that will be used on this file type. In this section you have to make sure the application in question is one that can be embedded.

After you take care of all your configuration needs, click Apply to save your changes.

Figure 3

From within the System Settings window you can also take care of the Default Applications for a file type. From within the General tab click on the Default Applications button to open up this configuration window (see Figure 3).

In this window you can configure the following:

• Email client
• Embedded text editor
• File manager
• Instant messenger
• Terminal emulator
• Web browser
• Window manager

For the most part these give you the option of selection one or two options from a drop-down list. Some, such as Terminal Emulator, give you the option of configuring a non-standard emulator. For this option you will enter the explicit path to the emulator’s executable file.

After you get through these configurations, click Apply and you’re done.

Final thoughts

Although not quite as flexible as the GNOME system, you can certainly make the KDE default application system work as well as you need. With the help of the “Open With” dialog, Default Applications, and File Associations you should be able to make your KDE desktop react exactly how you want.

In this article I will show you how to change the default application for different files as well as change the preferred applications for the GNOME desktop (in another article I will illustrate the same task in KDE). And, naturally, this action is reversible.

Associated applications

Figure 1

The first step is to change the applications associated with different file types. Now before you do this know that you can selec the application to open a file by right clicking the folder and selecting the application from the “Open With” sub-menu (see Figure 1). You can also add applications to this menu (I’ll explain that in a moment).

But if that action is too many steps than changing the default application is what you will want. NOTE: Even if you change the default application, the “Open With” menu will see be there for you to use.

Figure 2

To change the default application right click the file type you want to associate with a different and click the Properties entry. When the Properties window opens click on the Open With tab (see Figure 2).

In this tab you can select a different application to associate with a file type. If the application is listed simply select that application and click close. If that application is not listed you will need to add the application. When you add an application to this list that application will also appear in the right click “Open With” sub-menu (see ealier).

When you click the Add button a list of installed applications will appear. Just select the application you want to use and click Add which will add the application and dismiss the new window.

With your new application added make sure the check box to the left of the application is selected. The application with the check box checked will be the application that opens when you double click that file type.

When you associated a default application to one file it associates itself to all files of that same type. NOTE: Just because you associate a new application with, say, a .png file does not mean it will associate will all image types. You will have to associate that application with .jpg, .tif, .gif, etc. files seperately.

Preferred applications

Figure 3

This is just as simple as changing the associated application for file types. If you click on the System menu and then on the Preferences sub-menu you will see the Preferred Applications entry. Click on that to open up a small window (see Figure 3) where you can change the preferred application for:

• Web Browser
• Mail Reader
• Multimedia player
• Terminal
• Accessibility (visual and Mobility)

Each of these are a simple selection via drop-down list. Some have options and some do not.

Final thoughts

This is just another way of making your desktop experience an even easier experience. I hope you find this configuration helpful. Next time we deal with default applications it will be in the KDE 4.x environment.