Double-clicking on the titlebar of any window "shades" it, which means that only the titlebar stays visible. Double-clicking the titlebar a second time will make the window visible again.
Of course, you can change this behavior within the Control Center.

You can cycle through the windows on a virtual desktop by holding the Alt key and pressing Tab or Shift+Tab.

You can assign keyboard shortcuts to your favorite applications in the KDE menu editor (K-menu -> System -> Menu Editor). Select the application (e.g. Konsole), then the tab "Advanced" and enter e.g. "Ctrl+Alt+K" (or use the "Change" button).

That's it! Now fire up Konsoles with Ctrl+Alt+K!

You can configure the number of virtual desktops by selecting Preferences/Look&Feel/Desktop/Number of Desktops from the K menu.

The KDE project was founded in October 1996 and had its first release, 1.0, on July 12, 1998.

You can support the KDE project with work (programming, designing, documenting, proof-reading, translating, etc.) and financial or hardware donations. Please contact kde-ev@kde.org if you are interested.

You can stay up to date with new developments in KDE and releases by regularly checking the web site http://www.kde.org.

KDEPrinting (I)

kprinter, KDE's new printing utility supports different print subsystems. These subsystems differ very much in their abilities.

Amongst the supported systems are:

• CUPS, the new Common UNIX Printing System;
• LPR/LPD, traditional BSD-style printing;
• RLPR (no need for "printcap" editing or root privileges to use network printers);
• print through external program (generic).

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KDEPrinting (II)

Not all print subsystems provide equal abilities for KDEPrint to build on.

The KDEPrinting Team recommends installing a CUPS-based software as the underlying print subsystem.

CUPS provides easy usage, powerful features, broad printer support and a modern design (based on IPP, the "Internet Printing Protocol"). Its usefulness is proven for home users as well as for large networks.

Contributed by Kurt Pfeifle

KDE is based on a well-designed C++ foundation. C++ is a programming language well suited to desktop development. The KDE object model extends the power of C++ even further. See http://developer.kde.org/ for details.

You can use Konqueror to browse through tar archives, even compressed ones. You can extract files simply by dragging them to another place, e.g. another Konqueror window or the desktop.

You can cycle through the virtual desktops by holding the Ctrl key and pressing Tab or Shift+Tab.

You can start kprinter as a standalone program from any xterm, Konsole window or from the "Mini-CLI" (started by pressing Alt+F2). Then select the file to print. You are allowed not just one piece or one type at a time, but many, which you can print at once...

Contributed by Kurt Pfeifle

You may at any time switch kprinter to another print subsystem "on the fly" (and you don't need to be root to do it.)

Laptop users who frequently change to different environments may find RLPR a useful complement to CUPS (or any other print subsystem they use as their preferred one).

Contributed by Kurt Pfeifle

KDE's help system can display not only KDE's own HTML-based help, but also info and man pages.

Clicking with the right mouse button on panel icons or applets opens a popup menu that allows you to move or remove the item, or add a new one.

If a toolbar is not large enough to display all buttons on it, you can click on the small arrow at the far right end of the toolbar to see the remaining buttons.

Need comprehensive info about KDEPrinting?

Type help:/kdeprint/ into a Konqueror address field and get the KDEPrint Handbook displayed.

This, plus more material (like a FAQ, various Tutorials, a "TipsNTricks" section and the kdeprint mailing list) are available at printing.kde.org...

You can run non-KDE applications without problems on a KDE desktop. It is even possible to integrate them into the menu system. The KDE program "KAppfinder" will look for known programs to integrate them into the menu.

You can quickly move the panel to another screen edge by "grabbing" it with the left mouse button and moving it to where you want it.

If you need to kill some time, KDE comes with an extensive collection of games.

You can quickly change the background image of the desktop by dragging a graphics image from a Konqueror window to the desktop background.

You can change the background color of the desktop by dragging a color from a color selector in any application to the desktop background.

A fast way to get your favorite application onto your panel is to right-click the panel (Panel Menu) and select Add/Button/whatever.

You can add more applets to your panel by selecting Panel Menu/Add/Applet from the K menu.

You can add a little command line to your panel by selecting Panel Menu/Add/Applet/Application Launcher from the K menu.

Want to see the local time of your friends or business partners around the world?

Just press the middle mouse button on the panel clock.

Your panel clock can be configured to display the time in plain, digital, analog or fuzzy-style mode.

If you know its name, you can execute any program by pressing Alt+F2 and entering the program name in the command-line window provided.

You can browse any URL by pressing Alt+F2 and entering the URL in the command-line window provided.

If you are using Konqueror and want to type another location into the location field below the toolbar to get there, you can clear the whole field very quickly with the black button with a white cross to the left of the "Location" label and start typing.

You can also press Ctrl+O to open a dialog to enter another location.

You can access a man page by entering a hash mark (#) and the name of the man page wherever you can enter a URL, like in the location field of the web browser or the Alt+F2 command-line.

You can access an info page by entering a double hash mark (##) and the name of the info page wherever you can enter a URL, like in the URL line of the web browser or the Alt+F2 command-line.

If you can't access the titlebar, you can still move a window on the screen by holding the Alt key, clicking anywhere into the window and "dragging" it with the mouse.

Of course, you can change this behavior by using the Control Center.

Want KDE's printing power in non-KDE apps?

Then use 'kprinter' as "print command". Works with Netscape, Mozilla, Galeon, gv, Acrobat Reader, StarOffice, OpenOffice, any GNOME application and many more...

See printing.kde.org for more detailed hints...

Contributed by Kurt Pfeifle

You can resize a window on the screen by holding the Alt key, right-clicking anywhere into the window and moving the mouse.

KDE's mail client (KMail) provides seamless PGP/GnuPG integration for encrypting and signing your email messages.

You can find KDE developers all over the world, e.g., in Germany, Sweden, France, Canada, USA, Australia, Namibia, Argentina, even in Norway!

KDE's CD player accesses the Internet CD database freedb to provide you with title/track information.

Some people open many terminal windows just to enter one single command.

• Use Alt+F2 for just firing up programs (Alt+F2 "kword") or
• use Konsole sessions ("New" in toolbar) if you need text output.

You can change the color of the window titlebars by clicking on the title bar of the color example in the Appearance & Themes module within the Control Center.

KDE Command Line Printing (I)

Want to print from command line, without missing KDE's printing power?

Type 'kprinter'. Up pops the KDEPrint dialog. Select printer, print options and print files (and yes!! you may select different files of different types for one print job...).

This works from Konsole, any x-Terminal, or "Run Command" (called by pressing Alt+F2)

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KDE Command Line Printing (II)

You may specify print files and/or name a printer from the command line:

 kprinter -d infotec \
          /home/kurt/paragliding.jpg \
          ../kdeprint-handbook.pdf \
          /opt/kde3/flyer.ps

This prints 3 different files (from different folders) to printer "infotec".

Contributed by Kurt Pfeifle

The difference between window manager styles and old-fashioned themes is that the former even reflect window titlebar color settings from the Control Center and might implement different features.

The K in KDE does not stand for anything. It is the character that comes before L in the Latin alphabet, which stands for Linux. It was chosen because KDE runs on many types of UNIX (and perfectly well on FreeBSD).

If you want to know when the next release of KDE is planned, look for the release schedule on http://developer.kde.org. If you only find old release schedules, there will probably be some weeks/months of intensive development left before the next release.

Under the "B II" window decoration, the title bars automatically move by themselves so they are always visible! You can edit your title bar decoration by right clicking on your title bar and selecting "Configure...".

If you don't like the default completion mode, e.g. in Konqueror, you can right-click on the edit-widget and choose a different mode, e.g. automatic or manual completion. Manual completion works similar to completion in a UNIX shell. Use Ctrl+E to invoke it.

If you want another panel, to make more space for your applets and buttons, press right mouse button on the panel to invoke the panel menu and select "Add->Extension->Child Panel".

(You can then put anything on the fresh panel, adjust its size and so on.)

If you want to contribute your own "tip of the day", please send it to kalle@kde.org, and we'll be happy to integrate it for the next release.

If you drag a file from Konqueror or from the desktop to Konsole, you will have the choice between pasting the URL or entering that folder.

Choose the one you want, so you do not have to write the entire path in the terminal window.

Contributed by Gerard Delafond

You can hide mixer devices in KMix by clicking on "Hide" in the context menu that appears when you click with the right mouse button on one of the sliders.

Contributed by Stefan Schimanski

You can add your own "Internet Keyword search provider" by selecting Settings->Configure Konqueror->Enhanced Browsing. Click "Add..." and complete the fields.

Contributed by Michael Lachmann and Thomas Diehl

Each UNIX user has a so-called Home folder in which his or her files as well as user-dependent configuration files are saved. If you work in a Konsole window, you can easily change to your home folder by entering the cd command without any parameters.

Contributed by Carsten Niehaus

You might wonder why there are very few (if any) files whose names end in .exe or .bat on UNIX systems. This is because filenames on UNIX do not need an extension. Executable files in KDE are represented by the gear icon in Konqueror. In the Konsole window, they are often colored red (depending on your settings).

Contributed by Carsten Niehaus

If you want to make your desktop look more interesting, you can find tons of themes on www.kde-look.org.

Contributed by Carsten Niehaus

Did you know that you can use the middle mouse button to paste text? Try selecting some text with the left mouse button and click elsewhere with the middle mouse button. The selected text will be pasted at the click position. This even works between different programs.

Contributed by Carsten Niehaus

Want to print by using "DragNDrop"?

Drag a file and drop it on the "Files" tab of an opened kprinter dialog.

Then continue as you would normally: select a printer, job options, etc. and click the "Print" button.

Contributed by Kurt Pfeifle

If you need to calculate a distance on the screen, the program kruler can be of great help.

Furthermore, if you need to look closely at the ruler to count single pixels, kmag may be very useful. (It is not part of the KDE base installation but needs to be installed separately. It might already be available on your distribution.) kmag works just like xmag, with the difference that it magnifies on the fly.

Contributed by Jesper Pedersen

Sound in KDE is coordinated by the artsd sound server. You can configure the sound server from the Control Center by selecting Sound->Sound Server.

Contributed by Jeff Tranter

You can associate sounds with KDE events. This can be configured from the Control Center by selecting Sound->System Notifications.

Contributed by Jeff Tranter

Most non-KDE sound applications that do not know about the sound server can be run using the artsdsp command. When the application is run, accesses to the audio device will be redirected to the artsd sound server.

The command format is:
artsdsp application arguments ...

Contributed by Jeff Tranter

By holding down the Shift button while moving a container (button or applet) on the Panel, the container can then be used to push forward other containers.

You can let KDE turn the NumLock ON or OFF at startup.

Open the Control Center -> Peripherals -> Keyboard and make your choice.

This is the last tip in the tips database. Clicking "Next" will take you back to the first tip.