The VERIFIED 2026 KDE User Guide

The KDE User Guide

, The KDE User Guide




Contents

I Introduction 1
1 Welcome to the KDE User Guide 2
1.1 What this book aims to be . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 What this book is not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Conventions used in this book .................................................................. 3
1.4 System Locations ......................................................................................... 3
1.5 Overview, or ‘Where to look in the User Guide’ . . . . . . . . . . 4


II The Desktop 5

2 The Basics 6
2.1 Logging In and Logging Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.1 Logging in Graphically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.2 Logging in via the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1.3 Logging Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.1 User Manuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.2 Context and ‘What’s This’ Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.2.1 Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.2.2 ‘What’s This?’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.3 Mailing Lists, Newsgroups and IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.3.1 Mailing Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.3.2 IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.4 More Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Windows, How To Work Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3.1 Basic Window Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

, The KDE User Guide


2.3.1.1 Switching Between Windows . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.1.2 Moving Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.1.3 Resizing Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.3.1.4 Hiding Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.1.5 Cascading Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.1.6 Uncluttering Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3.1.7 Closing Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.2 Advanced Window Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.2.1 kstart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.2.2 Other Special Window Settings . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.2.3 The System Tray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.2.4 More Complex Uses of ksystraycmd . . . . . . 16
2.3.2.5 Improving Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.3 Using Multiple Desktops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.3.1 Switching Virtual Desktops . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.3.2 Windows and Virtual Desktops . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4 The File Manager ....................................................................................... 18
2.4.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 18
2.4.2 Folders ........................................................................................... 19
2.4.3 The Navigation Panel (aka ‘The Sidebar’) ................................. 21
2.4.4 Icons ............................................................................................... 23
2.4.5 Links and Shortcuts...................................................................... 23
2.4.6 The Trash....................................................................................... 23

3 The Panel and the Desktop 24
3.1 Kicker, the KDE Panel............................................................................... 24
3.2 Configuring Kicker ................................................................................... 24
3.2.1 Customizing the icons on the panel ........................................... 24
3.2.2 Adding extras and applets .......................................................... 25
3.2.3 The System Tray ........................................................................... 25
3.2.4 Removing Panel Items ................................................................. 25
3.3 The Taskbar ............................................................................................... 26
3.4 Using the Clipboard .................................................................................. 26
3.4.1 The Selection ................................................................................. 26
3.4.2 The Clipboard ................................................................................ 26
3.4.3 More Advanced Clipboard Use .................................................. 27
3.5 Related Information .................................................................................. 27

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, The KDE User Guide


4 Programs and Documents 28
4.1 Launching Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.2 Controlling Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.3 Opening and Saving Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.3.1 The File Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.4 Configuring Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4.1 Application Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.4.2 Configuring Keyboard Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.3 Configuring Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.4 Configuring Toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.4.4.1 Customizing Toolbar Displays . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.4.4.2 Customizing the Icons on the Toolbar . . . . . . 33



III KDE Components 35

5 The KDE Control Center 36
5.1 Appearance & Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
5.2 Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.3 Internet & Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.4 KDE Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.5 Peripherals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.6 Power Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.7 Regional & Accessibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.8 Security & Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
5.9 System Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

6 The Base KDE Applications 45
6.1 Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.2 Personal Information Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.3 Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.4 Office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.5 Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.6 Multimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50



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