In KDE 4 there are some great ways of managing those desktops. One of my favorite ways is using Active Edge Screen Actions to enable the Compiz Cube to switch workspaces. But the Active Edge Screen Actions can be used for much more than just switching workspaces. Let’s take a look at this feature and see just what it can do.

What are Active Edges?

To put it simply, Active Edges are locations on the screen where you can place the cursor and an action will occur. As the name implies, we’re dealing with the edges of the screen — specifically, the four corners and the center spot of each edge (center left, center top, center right, center bottom). That means there are eight different locations where an action can be set. When the cursor hovers over that location (the timing can be specified in the settings) the action configured will happen.

What actions can be configured? Any of the following:

• No Action.
• Show Dashboard.
• Show Desktop.
• Lock Screen.
• Prevent Screen Locking.
• Present Windows — All Desktops.
• Present Windows — Current Desktop.
• Desktop Grid.
• Desktop Cube.
• Desktop Cylinder.
• Desktop Sphere.
• Flip Switch — All Desktops.
• Flip Switch — Current Desktop.

For actions such as Desktop Grid/Cube/Cylinder/Spere and Flip Switch, those must be set up to work before the Action Edge can be set up. But once the action is working, it can be associated with an Action Edge.

Configuring an Action Edge

Figure 1

To do this click K > Computer > System Settings > Workspace Behavior > Screen Edges. When that new window opens (see Figure 1), right-click on one of the eight edges. When you do that a pop-up menu will appear where you can choose the action you want to associate with the edge. Select the action you want, and click Apply.

Once configured, test the Action Edge out. Remember, there is an Activation Delay for the edges. By default that delay is 150 milliseconds, so that action will not happen instantly.

A small conflict

You will notice, in this same screen, you can set edge flipping and window tiling. The Edge Flipping feature can be set up to flip to activate when either only dragging a window or always. Here’s the problem, if you have edge flipping and window tiling both set up, the window tiling will allow the edge flipping to work, but it’s a bit confusing and you could wind up with a tiled window instead of a flipped edge. I would recommend either one or the other. Also, if you configure Edge Flipping to be always on, you will lose four of your Action Edges (top/bottom center, right/left center).

Final thoughts

I’m a big fan of using multiple workspaces and Action Edges in KDE. These features do a great job of making your work more efficient and organized.

In this article I am going to show you a few more nifty tips and tricks you can do with good old Konqueror.

Auto scrolling

If you are one that reads a lot of lengthy pages on the web, you will certainly appreciate this feature. While on a web page hit either <Shift>Down Arrow or (for down) or <Shift>Up Arrow (for up). When you do this Konqueror will very slowly auto scroll either up or down (depending upon which arrow you hit), so you can read without having to continually scroll through the page. You can stop this action by hitting <Shift> alone.

Browser identification

How many times have you been to a web site only to see that site “only supports” a certain browser? Although this is getting more and more rare, there are some dinosaurs that refuse to give up the ghost and finally become universal. For those sites you need to be able to switch your user agent string, Konqueror has some pretty spiffy tools for that.

Click on Settings > Configure Konqueror > Browser Identification. In this section you will find the means to configure site specific user ID strings. All you need to do is click New and then, in the new window, fill out the necessary information.

Zooming

With Konqueror you can quickly change the size of the fonts on a web page. To make a font larger hit <Ctrl>+ and to make a font smaller hit <Ctrl>-.

Shortcuts

Konqueror has numerous short cuts that can make your life much easier. To see this entire list click on Settings > Configure Shortcuts which will popup a new window. In this new window you can edit any of the shortcuts to better fit your needs as well as create new shortcut profiles. By creating a new shortcut profile you can retain the default as well as create your own specialty shortcut profile.

Terminal window

Figure 1

Konqueror allows you to have an attached terminal window which can be helpful in a number of ways. One of the most helpful is for website design. If you are working on coding a design, and need to see updates quickly, what better way than to have a terminal “embedded” into your browser (see Figure 1) so you have immediate access to that terminal.

What I do is enable the shortcut for this option (see above) and that way you can quickly toggle the terminal window on. To exit the terminal window, just enter exit and hit Enter.

Final thoughts

Konqueror is one versatile browser. As you can see there are some things this app can do that others can not. Like in the true Linux spirit, if you want Konqueror to do something, most likely you can make it so.

Pardus has a few features that most will have never heard of or seen before. In this article I will introduce you to some of these features as I introduce you to Pardus Linux.

Installation

The installation of Pardus is really quite simple. Pop in the install CD, answer a few simple questions, and your off and running. It’s not until you have logged in for the first time that you will find anything really unique (other than the color scheme and very well done graphics).

After first boot you are asked to customize your desktop. But it’s not just the usual customizations. You walk through a wizard that has you do the following:

• Mouse configuration
• Themes
• Menu
• Wallapaper
• Search
• Network
• Smolt
• Packages

and more.

Figure 1

Figure 1 illustrates this wizard with the theme section. There are not a ton of themes to choose from (you can add more later), but at least you get a say in what your initial desktop will look like. You can also choose how many desktops and either if it functions like KDE 3 or KDE 4.

The next step is to choose if your menu is a KDE 4 Kick-off menu, a simple menu (KDE 3-like), or an advanced Lancelot menu.

The wallpaper selection, in the next section, offers a number of lovely desktop wallpapers to choose from (or you can select from a file).

Next you are asked if you want to use file indexing with Strigi.

Figure 2

The next section wants you to set up a network connection. What this does is open the standard network connection tool within the first-run wizard (see Figure 2). After you have created your profile, make sure you also add nameservers to the network. Do this by clicking the Nameserver Settings, adding a nameserver (unless you are using DHCP), and click the Add button. After you have created your connection, make sure you click the check box associated with your newly created connection to bring it up. Once you’ve done that, click the Next button to move on.

The final interactive section allows you to select options for updates (if you want the update icon in the system tray and how often you want to check for updates) and if you want to add extra repositories for your package management. NOTE: The More section allows you to further customize your system System Settings (such as Display, Firewall, Keyboard, etc).

Figure 3

Once you get into the desktop you will have a fairly normal KDE 4 experience. The only item out of the ordinary that you will find is the Pardus Package manager. The package manager is called PiSi and really doesn’t look all that different from any other package manager (see Figure 3). You can either search for the package you want to install or you can narrow the selection down by categories. PiSi does take advantage of Delta Packages, so it won’t be necessary to download the full package of an updated file (only the differences in the update), saving a lot of bandwidth.

Final thoughts

I was told that Pardus is very close to Windows 7 in look and feel. I was told wrong. Pardus offers a fairly straight-forward KDE 4 experience with a few tweaks of its own. It’s not going to fool the user into thinking they are using either OS X or Windows 7, but it will offer a very solid, user-friendly desktop experience that all Linux fans should try at least once. My only gripe? Why not stick with that interesting burgundy theme they had going during the installation?

KDE 4.3 is out now and the KNetwork Manager has matured quite a bit. Now this KDE tool has reached a point where it not only works consistently, it’s also quite easy to use – almost surpassing the GNOME Network Manager in user-friendliness.

But for those who have grown to depend on other means of connecting to the net (in KDE 4.x) by other means, the KNetwork Manager might seem a bit unfamiliar. In this tutorial you will see just how easy it has become to connect to a network (specifically a wireless network) with the help of KNetwork Manager.

Installation

You will be glad to know that there is no installation necessary for KNetwork Manager. But you will want to make sure you have the latest KDE updates. But you will want to make sure you are using the most recent version of KDE (As of this writing, KDE 4.3.2). To find out what version you are using open up the Dolphin file manager, go to the Help menu, and click “About KDE”. If you are using a version prior to 4.3.2 you will want to go to your update manager and check to see if there are any updates for KDE.

Accessing KNetwork Manager

Figure 1

If you look in the notification area you will find the KNetwork Manager icon (see the icon in the black square in Figure 1). If you click this icon (either right or left click) a menu will pop up that:

• Shows you if you are connected to a network.
• Allows you to stop an active network connection.
• Connect to a new network.
• Enable/disable wireless.
• Open the connection manager.

Figure 2

To create a new wireless connection either select “Connect to Other Network” or open the Connection Manager. Let’s start from the Connection Manager. Select that entry to open up the Connection Manager (see Figure 2).  As you can see there are already two network connections available. Let’s create a third.

Figure 3

In order to create a new network click the Add button, which will open up the New Network tool (see Figure 3). In this tool you can either add all of the information manually or you can click the Scan button to find the network you want to add. The scan tool is one of my favorite aspects of the new KNetwork Manager.

The Access Point Scanner (see Figure 4) gives you a graphical representation of all available wireless networks and their relative signal strength.

Figure 4

Obviously the network that appears closest to the PC icon in the window will have the strongest strength. And since that is the network I want to connect to I will select it and click OK. Unfortunately, by selecting a particular access point, the only configuration this adds to your connection is the SSID. You will have to go through the rest of the configuration and set the connection up. Make sure you  click on the Wireless Security tab (see Figure 5), select the proper security type, and enter the correct password for the security.

Figure 5

Once you have configured the connection you can OK this window to apply the changes and dismiss the connection wizard. All you then need to do is click the KNetwork Manager icon and select your new network connection to connect.

Final thoughts

I am very pleased with how the KNetwork Manager tool has matured. Prior to 4.3.2, the network tool was nothing I would ever recommend. Now, however, I can safely recommend this network manager to anyone.

The default behaviors we are going to change are:

• Focus
• Auto-raise
• Title Bar double click

These behaviors are configured in the System Settings window. To get to the System Settings window go to the main menu and select System Settings in the Favorites tab. Once the System Settings window opens click on the Window Behavior and you’ll see a number of tabs.

Window Behavior Settings

The first configuration is the Policy. From the Policy drop-down select “Focus Follows Mouse” (The window directly under the mouse has focus). Now click the Auto Raise option (When a window has focus it raises above all other windows). If you want to configure an delay for the auto raise you can enter a value (in milliseconds) in the Delay text area.

Now click on the Titlebar Actions tab. In this tab you will want to take a look at the Titlebar Double-Click action. One of the best options is the Shade option. When you enable the Shade option your window will roll up into the titlebar on a titlebar double click.

Once you have made the changes click the Apply button and the changes will be in place.

Shaded Windows

Above you can see how a grouping of shaded windows can help to keep your desktop organized. Need to use one of your windows…double click it to unshade it.

There are plenty of options to configure in KDE 4. But for some quick and simple configurations that will make your desktop workspace much easier to use, you can’t be these Window Behavior settings.