Personalization

Personalize Mandriva Desktop

andriva Linux offers a number of that individual users can make, rather than options to personalize your desk- system wide changes. Mtop environment. We have chosen KDE for the benefit of this article although Widgets / plasmoids Mandriva Linux offers other environments A key concept KDE4 has adapted is to use such as GNOME or LXDE which can also be the desktop space better. The desktop and personalized. We are focusing on changes menu at the bottom used to be separate applications. This has been replaced with a single application called Plasma that dis- plays the entire desktop, panels and wid- gets and allows the user to customize the desktop as he wants. Widgets, plasmoids or gadgets are small applications which are displayed on the desktop one or more times, including in panels and may interact with the user. Wid- Figure 1. Cashew menu gets are managed by a menu accessible via the cashew icon in the top right hand corner of the desktop (see Figure 1), or by right clicking on the desktop (see Figure 2), unlocking the widgets, then choosing Add Widgets. After unlocking your widgets, the Add Widgets dialog will allow you to add and re- move widgets from your desktop. You add widgets from the list by dragging them to the desktop, or clicking the Add Widgets button. Once you have added some wid- gets, you can then lock widgets, so you don’t accidentally move them around when working on the desktop. If you want to re- move widgets, you can remove them when unlocked by either clicking the red minus sign in the add widgets dialog, or by mov- Figure 2. Right click menu on desktop ing the mouse over the widget, which will

20 LINUX IDENTITY OFFICE pop up the widget menu where you Getting more can close the widget by clicking the widgets X icon. As a user, you can also in- The Add Widgets dialog window stall your own widgets, in lists all the widgets available on the addition to the widgets in- system. These are installed by RPM stalled by RPM. It is recom- packages and are available to all us- mended to install widgets ers. It is possible for users to also using rpm packages if they install widgets via the Install New are available, via Mandriva Widgets button. In the list beside Control Center, as these each available widget you will find tend to be better tested, three indicators: however, the Install new widgets button will connect JJ A star, if yellow it means the to the Internet and find new widget is a favorite. This is a widgets available. You can way of marking widgets you then install them with a like. simple click and use them JJ A red dash indicates the wid- on your desktop. get is on the desktop and you Mandriva Linux has can deactivate it by clicking around 80 different wid- the dash. gets already available as Figure 3. Managing widgets JJ A blue exclamation mark signi- RPMs. These have been fies you can access informa- chosen for their stability and ef- Panels tion about the widget. ficiency. KDE also supports using Another very useful feature of KDE native Mac OS X widgets and wid- is the ability to add more panels. As an example, choose the picture gets from Google. Panels can be added by right click- frame widget. You can searching for it if you wish using the search bar in Figure 3. To add it, drag it on to the desktop. The picture frame used to appear empty, which made it hard to find on the desktop, but now appears with a picture dis- played when you add it. Move your mouse over the picture frame you dragged to the desktop and you’ll get a menu pop up. The menu has a few configuration buttons. The first icon allows you to change the size of the widget. This is very handy for photos, although the wid- Figure 4. An example of a widget and widget menu: the picture frame get will change its shape depend- ing on the picture you display. The second icon allows you to rotate the widget and the third gives you access to configuration menu for the widget. You can also move the widget around by dragging it where that there is not icon, like around the edges. You can remove the wid- get by clicking on the X icon at the bottom. Open the configuration for the picture frame in Figure 4. This will show you a dialog window that al- lows you to choose a picture to dis- play, or choose Slide show, which displays a folder full of pictures one at a time. Figure 5. Activities

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that you assemble. You can navigate by gliding over them with then switch between these your mouse. The Kickoff menu has sets, based on the type of a search bar for items in the current work you are doing. tab. The first tab shows applications For example, you could marked as favorites. You can add to have an activity that has a favorites by right clicking on an ap- collection of news widgets, plication in the menu choosing Add and another activity with a to favorites. different wallpaper and widgets that you use for Configure your shortcut writing documents. keys To add an activity, Short cut keys allow you to ac- choose Zoom out from the cess parts of the KDE interface cashew. From there you can that are not easily accessible with click the Add Activity button the mouse. You can configure which will add another shortcuts by opening KDE’s main desktop. You can then add configuration tool Configure your widgets, or click Zoom in to Desktop, then choosing Keyboard switch to that desktop. & Mouse −> Global Keyboard Figure 6. Kickoff menu If you use Activities, you Shortcuts, and select the KDE will find the Activity bar wid- Component. ing and choosing Add panel. In the get useful as it allows you to switch Some common default short- activities screen shot in Figure 5 you between activities quickly. You can cuts are: can also see I have added a panel at also see in the Figure 5 example I the top and one at the side. These have added a few widgets on both JJ Display dashboard, this will then have some icons and widgets the desktop activities. show you your widgets, even added into the panels. Panels can if windows are on top of them. auto hide and can be configured Choose your menu type By default this is [Ctrl] + with different sizes and widths. Mandriva Linux has two very differ- [F12]. You will also notice that panels ent types of start menu. A classical JJ Switch Desktops, default is are not part of activities and stay start menu is the default, however [Ctrl] + [F1] to [F4]. visible, regardless of which activity you can also choose a Kickoff menu. JJ Krunner, which is the quick- you are using. The Kickoff menu is often better for est easiest way to launch ap- new users and for systems with a plications. You just start typ- Activities small screen. You can switch menu ing the name of the applica- Activities are not desktops in the styles by right clicking on the menu tion and it shows you a list. usual sense of the desktop switch- button. You first have to unlock your Default is [Alt] + [F2]. I usually er that shows different applications widgets to do this. change this to [Ctrl] + [K] (old on different desktops. Activities The kickoff menu in Figure 6 is habits from the days of using are different collections of widgets in the form of tabs in which you can Katapult). JJ Close window: [Alt] + [F4]. Changing the look and feel your desktop You are able to modify your desk- top theme in KDE. Mandriva Linux uses Aya by default but you can choose alternatives. Start by searching for “desk- toptheme” in rpmdrake (software manager) and adding in other plas- ma themes. After installing a few themes that come with Mandriva, you can enable them by right click- ing on the desktop and accessing the settings, either called “Folder View Settings” or “Desktop Set- tings”, depending on the type of Figure 7. The KDE configuration interface desktop view you are using. This

22 LINUX IDENTITY OFFICE dialog is also where you change the wall paper, icon sizes, and which folder to use for desktop icons. If your system is connected to the Internet you can download desktop themes by clicking the New Theme button. This will display a list of desktop themes or you can search for one. You can click on Install and the theme will be downloaded for your user ready for use. Installing themes this way are not installed for all users. Some older themes may not work with KDE 4.3, so if it does not appear, trying checking out the comments on http://www. kde-look.org/. The KDE configuration tool of- Figure 8. Adjust the appearance of your environment fers a large amount of configura- tion options. You will find a short- drivers before you can enable the the shortcut used to activate the cut icon on the default panel, or effects. Do this by making sure effect. you can choose it from the menu you have the non-free sources en- The third item on the left Screen Tools –> System tools −> Config- abled in rpmdrake, then choosing Edges allows you to set actions ure your Desktop. It is made up of Hardware −> Set up the graphical when you move your mouse to a two tabs: the most commonly used server from the Mandriva Control corner of the screen. The default functions and the more advanced Panel. It will prompt you to use the setting is to show all windows when functions. proprietary drivers and download you move the cursor to the top right If we look at appearance, it lets them. Once you activate the desk- hand corner of the desktop. Click on you adjust the look and feel of win- top effects, you will have a number the square indicating the corner you dows by changing the style, colors, of options. wish to set and it will pop up a menu icons, fonts, window decoration The All Effects that shows avail- as pictured. and more. The first thing to play able desktop effects. Only some with is the Widget style. These wid- effects are activated by default. To Configuring default gets are not the same as the ones activate an effect in the list simply applications you have been playing with on the check the corresponding box. Each Another setting that people often desktop. Here widgets refers to the effect has an information button change is the default applications, components of a window, like scroll supplying information of its nature also accessed from Configure your bars, buttons, tabs, etc. Mandriva’s and most also have a configuration desktop. You can configure which default style is called LaOra-Kde. button, allowing you to customize application is started for some com- However, there is a range of other how the effect works, for example, mon tasks like Email. good styles available like Oxygen. Try changing the style and pressing apply. This will affect all KDE based applications. Some applications like Firefox for example, are not KDE ap- plications, so won’t be affected by these changes. From the Configure your desk- top settings, click on the desk- top icon. This lets you enable the “desktop effects” that make use of your graphics card to display neat effects like the famous spinning cube desktop. These effects are not activated by default as certain graphic card drivers do not support the effects. For example, if you have an NVIDIA graphics card, you will need to install the proprietary Figure 9. Add effects to your KDE desktop

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options, which affect dolphin Let’s now look at the use of this as well as Konqueror, can be tool. Open Dolphin, the file manag- found only in the Konqureor er. When you select a file, you will configuration. see additional meta data has been found. You will notice that files can Making the right be given a level of importance by sounds changing the number of stars. You You will have noticed the start can also give a file a tag and de- up music when logging in. To ad- scription. just it and other sounds, choose In Figure 10, I have tagged this Configure your Desktop, then photo with Sunsets and given it a open Notifications. description. You can add your own Various things have notifica- tags by clicking on Add tag. Tags al- tions, for example Kopete will low you to add multiple “tag” words make a sound when you receive to any one file, allowing better cat- a message and the power man- egorization of files than using fold- agement system will let you ers alone. know when your laptop is un- plugged. You'll find the login and Search for files using logout notifications under KDE meta data System Notifications events. For All the information about files can all events, you can change or be searched, note the wealth of disable the sound, show a mes- meta data Neopmuk has found sage, log the event to a file, or about the photo in Figure 10. Meta even run a specific command. data can be searched provided you The player volume for notifica- can enter the correct search string tions can also be adjusted in the in the location address bar. Exam- other tab. ples are: Apart from notifications, you will also have a range of appli- JJ nepomuksearch:/make: Ap- cations that make sounds. Man- ple driva uses PulseAudio, which al- JJ nepomuksearch:/make: Sony lows you to change the volume JJ nepomuksearch:/make: Sony for specific applications and tag:Snow change the sound device they JJ nepomuksearch:/description: use. Opening up PulseAudio Vol- boy ume Control from the menu al- lows you to choose which device You can do these searches by ei- to record and play audio on for ther pressing [Ctrl] + [L] and typ- each application and a default ing it in the address bar, which will device. work in file dialog boxes as well, or you can just type in the search The Social Semantic string in the default search bar Figure 10. Note and annotate your data Desktop displayed in Dolphin. Nepomuk is For example, if you wish to use The last item we will discuss continually evolving and providing an email application other than is a tool that can store additional exciting new ways to keep track of KMail, you can click on KMail and information about a file, often au- your files. then enter the command to start tomatically. Nepomuk allows you to Further information on Nepo- a different email client, like Evolu- add labels for files and/or a note muk is available at: http://doc4. tion. You can select from the menu indicating how important a file is. mandriva.org/bin/view/labs/Nepo- by clicking the three dots icon next You can search for the file using muk-mdv2010-RC. to the command entry box. One these notes in addition to the file The possibilities of personal- thing to note is that if you wish to contents. izing your environment are far change the web browser, you may To activate Nepomuk, look in reaching. Consult the help, the KDE also need to change it in the file as- the Advanced section of Configure website, and the Mandriva website sociations settings, accessed from your desktop and open Desktop for documentation of each of the within Konqueror. Search. You will need to check both components. We have only covered Some of the more advanced boxes to active Neopmuk and it’s a small amount of what is possible, file management configuration indexing engine Strigi. in this article.

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