<chapter id="getting-started">
<title>Getting Started </title>

<epigraph>
<attribution>Help for one of the toughest riddles in <quote>The 7th
Guest</quote></attribution>
<para>Using only what you see, can you get from A to B?</para>
</epigraph>

<para>So far, you may be thinking that &kde; is little more than
another window manager.  Relax, and read this chapter, and we'll
introduce you to some features that will assure you that &kde; is very
much more than a window manager &mdash; it's a full fledged
environment.</para>

<sect1 id="editing-files">
<title>Editing Files </title>

<para>Since you do not only have &kde; applications installed on your
system, you probably know the mess of editing <abbrev>ASCII</abbrev>
style configuration files. But in fact, there are a lot of other file
types that need to be edited this way.  For example, the raw &XML;
source for this guide was written <abbrev>ASCII</abbrev> style, as was
the source code for the &kde; programs themselves. We will now show
you how you can use the &kwrite; facility in &kde; to edit
<abbrev>ASCII</abbrev> files of your own. </para>

<sect2 id="the-filemanager-screen">
<title>Opening a Window Containing Your Home Directory </title>

<para>Click on the <guibutton>application starter</guibutton> and
choose <guimenuitem>Home Directory</guimenuitem>.  A window showing
the contents of your home directory will pop up. To see a more
detailed listing of files in your home directory, select
<guimenuitem>Show Hidden Files</guimenuitem> from the
<guimenu>View</guimenu> menu.</para>

<para>On the left hand of the window, a tree view of your file system
structure should appear, while on the right hand side, you can see
icons for each file in your Home directory, including any
<quote>hidden files</quote> &mdash; files or directories beginning with a
period. </para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>The File Manager Screen </title>

<para>We tried to make the File Manager as easy as possible to use,
and if you know other window managers (including those built into
other Operating Systems) with integrated file management, many of the
following concepts should be familiar to you.</para>

<para>On the top, there is a <guimenu>Location</guimenu> menu which
contains functions to open and close file manager windows. You can
also print the current contents.</para>

<note><para>Want to visit the Internet? There are several paths you
can take.  You could choose
<menuchoice><guimenu>Location</guimenu><guimenuitem>Open
Location</guimenuitem></menuchoice> (or press
<keycombo>&Ctrl;<keycap>O</keycap></keycombo>) and enter a
&URL;.</para>

<para>The simplest way however, is to simply type in the address you
want to go to in the location bar itself.</para>

<para>For example, if you want to visit the &kde; homepage, enter
<userinput>http://www.kde.org</userinput>. You can also quickly
transfer files over &FTP; using this method.  &kde; is <quote>Internet
ready</quote>, which means that you can load and save files not only
on your local hard disk, but also on remote &FTP; and other remote
servers that you have write access to. While other operating systems
and desktops make a distinction between local and remote file systems,
&kde; does not.</para>
</note>

<para>The <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> menu offers functions to select,
copy and move files. We will use them later. Already having used the
<guimenu>View</guimenu> menu, you have probably seen that you can view
the content in many different ways. Just play around a bit and see
what happens.</para>

<para>You will undoubtedly find the <guimenu>Bookmarks</guimenu> to be
extremely useful: Now you can remember virtually any link, be it on
the local machine or somewhere on the Internet.  &kde;'s network
transparency works both ways, allowing you to treat files and
directories on your hard drive as if they were Internet
bookmarks.</para>

<para>The <guimenu>Tools</guimenu> menu helps you find the notorious
file-that-I-put-somewhere-I-do-not-remember-anymore.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Navigating Through Directories </title>

<para>We will now pick one of your configuration files and edit
it. First, we must change the directory in the File Manager.</para>

<para>&konqueror; started with your home directory as the top of the
<quote>tree</quote>.  For most day-to-day purposes, this is where you
are likely to be working, so it's a practical default.  Sometimes you
need to see the broader picture though, so the rest of your file
system is not far away.</para>

<para>You can quickly display the <filename
class="directory">/</filename> or <quote>root</quote> directory
several ways: click the small <guiicon>folder</guiicon> icon beside
the navigation pane to switch to a full filesystem tree, use the
<guiicon>Up</guiicon> arrow on the toolbar above to go to the top of
your filesystem in the right hand pane, or type in
<userinput>/</userinput> in the location bar.</para>

<para>For the purpose of following this guide, press the small blue
folder icon beside the navigation pane, so that the navigation pane
switches to a full filesystem view.  Notice that part of the tree is
expanded, and your home directory is still selected.  Now you can see
how your home directory fits into the whole hierarchy, and your home
directory files are still visible in the right hand pane.</para>

<para>Scroll down the navigation pane on the left side of the window
until you find the directory <filename>/etc</filename>. Double-click
on <filename>etc</filename>.  You will see a long list of files in the
right window.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="opening-a-file">
<title>Opening A File </title>

<para>Some of the files you see here are at the heart of your
operating system, so making permanent changes to them require you to be
the <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> or superuser.
We're going to practise on a file that won't hurt anything if a
mistake is made, called <filename>motd</filename>.</para>

<para>Scroll down until you find the file <filename>motd</filename>
and click on it with the <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> mouse
button. In the <guimenu>context menu</guimenu>, select
<guimenuitem>Open With</guimenuitem>. A new menu will pop up. Choose
<guimenuitem>&kwrite;</guimenuitem>. Voila!</para>

<para>There are many ways to open a file, and this is just one of
them.  &kwrite; is an editor with a simple and probably familiar
interface.  You could also have navigated down the small tree in the
popup dialog to the <guilabel>Editors</guilabel> section, and chosen
another editor, or simply double click the file to open it in the
default editor.</para>

<para>In the meantime, you have the file
<filename>/etc/motd</filename> open in &kwrite; and we're ready to do
some editing.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>The Editor Screen </title>

<para>The more you work with &kde;, the more you will notice that most
screens and applications look and feel the same. The &kwrite;
<guimenu>File</guimenu> menu is a great example of this. Almost every
other &kde; program has the same menu, allowing you to create new
files, open existing files from your local file system or (coming
soon) even the web, save them (soon even on the web, too!), print it
or mail it to somebody else.</para>

<para>The <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> menu can also be found in most &kde;
applications, allowing you to cut and paste information between
programs. You can also search and replace text. Using the
<guimenu>Settings</guimenu> Menu, you can customize the editor in many
different ways. For example, you can increase the font size to suit
your monitor resolution &mdash; and your eyes. Of course, as in any
other &kde; application, you find a <guimenu>Help</guimenu> Menu,
offering you on-line help whenever you need it. </para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Using the Editor </title>

<para>Most <filename>motd</filename> files contain useless stuff like
<quote>Do not forget to back up your data</quote> or <quote>Do not
annoy the system manager</quote>. Boring. Let's change the text so
that users logging in get the really important information. You can
navigate through the text using the arrow keys, and mark sections of
text with <keycombo>&Shift;<keycap>Arrows</keycap> </keycombo>or by
using the mouse with the <mousebutton>left</mousebutton> button
pressed. Use the <guimenu>Edit</guimenu> Menu to cut and paste
text. Enter whatever you want, or use the following (great) example:
</para>

<screen><userinput>Welcome!
 
This machine now has KDE installed, providing you with a great, 
easy-to-use interface and a consistent Look-and-Feel for all your 
applications. For more information on how to get KDE running on your 
account, please email the administrator. </userinput></screen>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="saving-files">
<title>Saving Your Work </title>

<para>Now that you have changed the <filename>motd</filename> file, it
is time to save the file, putting the changes into effect. To do this,
you can use either the <guimenu>File</guimenu> Menu, or you can use
the <guiicon>Save</guiicon> Icon on the toolbar.</para>

<para>At this point, reality hits us.  You need to have <systemitem
class="username">root</systemitem> permission to save the changes to
this file.  &kde; handles this by asking you for the <systemitem
class="username">root</systemitem> password.</para>

<para>You probably don't really want to save this file, so you can
press <guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> in the password dialog and
<guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> again in the save dialog.</para>

<para>Finally, finish your work by closing the editor and file manager
window. You can do this by clicking the <guibutton>X</guibutton>
button on the top left of the window, by using the window menu of the
title bar, or by choosing <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu>
<guimenuitem>Quit</guimenuitem></menuchoice>. Simple and elegant,
isn't it?
</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="creating-new-files">
<title>Creating New Files</title>

<para>As with everything in &kde;, there are several ways to create a
new file.  You could open up the file manager,
<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on an empty space in a
directory you own, and choose <menuchoice><guisubmenu>Create
New</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Text File...</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.
A new empty file will appear, which you can open just like any other.
You can even do this right on the desktop itself.</para>

<para>More often you are already in an application and want to start a
new file.  Most &kde; applications offer a
<menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New</guimenuitem></menuchoice>
menu item, and an icon on the toolbar to complement it.  A new empty
document will appear that you can immediately begin working in.</para>

<para>Both these approaches have advantages, so use the one that is
most practical at the time.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="moving-files-with-drag-and-drop">
<title>Moving Files With Drag and Drop </title>

<para>As you have seen in the previous section, working with files is
as easy as 1-2-3. However, when you want to copy and move files, the
whole copy-and-paste business can get annoying. Don't worry &mdash; a
procedure called <quote>drag and drop</quote> allows you to copy and
move files more quickly and easily. </para>

<sect2>
<title>Opening Two File Manager Windows </title>

<para>Before you can start, you will need to open two file manager
windows. The simplest way to open a new window is to press the gear
wheel button on the right of the icon bar. If you do not see the tree
view in the new window, activate it
(<menuchoice><guimenu>Window</guimenu><guimenuitem>Navigation
Panel</guimenuitem> </menuchoice>).</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Dragging a File From One Window To Another </title>

<para>In the first window, open the <filename>/etc</filename> folder
and scroll until you see the <filename>motd</filename> file we
modified in the previous section.</para>

<para>In the second window, open your home directory.</para>

<para>Click on the <filename>motd</filename> file. Hold your
<mousebutton>left</mousebutton> mouse button and drag your file into
your home directory. Release the <mousebutton>left</mousebutton> mouse
button (this is called <emphasis>dropping</emphasis> the file). You
will be presented three options: <guimenuitem>copy</guimenuitem>,
<guimenuitem>move</guimenuitem> and
<guimenuitem>link</guimenuitem>. <guimenuitem>Link</guimenuitem> will
create a symbolic link to the file, while
<guimenuitem>copy</guimenuitem> and <guimenuitem>move</guimenuitem> do
exactly what they say. Select <guimenuitem>copy</guimenuitem>. You
should now have a copy of the <filename>motd</filename> file in your
home directory. </para>

</sect2>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="using-command-line-and-terminals">
<title>Using Command Line And Terminals </title>

<para>So far, you have only worked with the tools and programs &kde;
provides. Undoubtedly, you will want to use other &UNIX; programs as
well. There are two ways of running them: The quick command line and
the terminal.</para>

<sect2>
<title>Quick Command Line </title>

<para>Pressing <keycombo action="simul">&Alt;
<keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo> pops up a small window where you can
enter a command to run. Please note that you will not see any text
output generated from a program started in this manner! This method is
only recommended for starting &X-Windows; programs or for running
tools where you do not need to see or type anything. For other
programs, you will still need to use the terminal.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>The &UNIX; Terminal Emulator </title>

<para>From the application menu, choose
<menuchoice><guisubmenu>System</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Terminal</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice>. A terminal window will open.  Here you can use regular
&UNIX; shell commands: <command>ls</command>, <command>cat</command>,
<command>less</command>, and so forth.  Using the
<guimenu>Options</guimenu> menu, you can customize the terminal
emulator to suit your needs. </para>

</sect2>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="finding-your-lost-files">
<title>Finding Your Lost Files </title>

<para>Everyone has undoubtedly encountered the following problem: You
start <command>ftp</command>, log into a great site like ftp.kde.org
and start downloading files. It is late in the evening and you shut
down your machine after completing the transfer. The next morning, you
are at the keyboard again, and you start wondering into which
directory you placed the recently transferred files. Using &kde;'s
&kfind; utility makes finding those lost files a snap.</para>

<sect2>
<title>Starting &kfind;</title>

<para>Starting &kfind; is simple: Choose <guimenuitem>Find
Files</guimenuitem> in the <guimenu>Application Starter</guimenu>.
&kfind; uses an interface part you probably have not yet met in &kde;:
tabs. When &kfind; starts, you see that
<guilabel>Name/Location</guilabel> is selected. When you click on
<guilabel>Date Range</guilabel>, the tab content changes. Since you
have never run a search before, most of the icons on the toolbar and
most of the menu entries are disabled. We will change this now.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2>
<title>Finding a File by Knowing Parts of Its Name </title>

<para>As long as you know a bit of the file name, searching is
easy. Select the <guilabel>Name/Location</guilabel> tab, and enter the
file name in the <guilabel>Named</guilabel> field. Wildcards may be
used as needed.  As a test, type <userinput>*.tar.gz</userinput>. By
default, the search begins in your home directory, but you can select
any starting directory you wish by clicking on the <guilabel>Look
in</guilabel> or <guibutton>Browse...</guibutton>. To start searching,
press the <guibutton>Find</guibutton> button. After a moment, a list
of files will appear in the search results window. If they do not
appear, you started the search in the wrong directory, made a spelling
mistake in the <guilabel>Named</guilabel> field, or no files ending
with a <filename>.tar.gz</filename> extension are located on your
machine.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="finding-with-complex-criteria">
<title>Finding a File by More Complex Criteria </title>

<para>There are many categories you can use to make your search more
precise. <emphasis>The more you know about the file, the better are
your chances of finding it</emphasis>.</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Date Range</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>Here, you can specify that you only want to see files which were
last touched in a given period of time. You can also specify that you
only want to see files that were touched since a specified number of
months or days ago.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Of type</guilabel> in the
<guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> tab.</term>
<listitem><para>If you know that the file was of a special type
(&eg;, a tar/gzip archive or a jpeg picture), you can tell
&kfind; to find only this type of file.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Containing text</guilabel> in the
<guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> tab</term>
<listitem>
<para>You can specify text that the file must contain. </para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Size is</guilabel>, also in the
<guilabel>Advanced</guilabel> tab</term>
<listitem><para>If you know the file size, you can limit your search in this
regard, as well. </para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>&kfind; has many more options to refine searches, explore them
all!</para>

</sect2>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="using-multiple-desktops">
<title>Using Multiple Desktops </title>

<para>Using multiple desktops helps you organize your work. You can
place your programs on different desktops, and name the desktops so
you know what you do there. This increases and optimizes your
workspace. It also helps you when you are surfing the net instead of
doing your work and your boss comes in. But, of course, this is rare
&mdash; at least in the office where I work. </para>

<para>You can switch between desktops by clicking the desktop buttons
on the &kicker; panel. If you want to rename them, you can do so by
double-clicking on them. </para>

<para>You can use windows on multiple desktops. If you want to have a
window present everywhere, just click the sticky button on the
top-left of the window. To send a window to another desktop, click on
the title bar with the <mousebutton>right</mousebutton> mouse button,
choose <guimenuitem>To Desktop</guimenuitem>, and select the desktop
where you would like the window moved. </para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="quitting-kde">
<title>Quitting &kde;</title>

<para>To quit working with &kde;, you can use the
<guimenuitem>Logout</guimenuitem> entry in the <guimenu>application
starter</guimenu> menu. You will be asked if you really want to quit
&kde;. Quitting will close all windows and return you to your console
or display manager. For information on how programs can save your work
during logout, please read <link linkend="kde-logout">the notes for
logging out.</link> </para>

</sect1>
</chapter>
