Konqueror as a File Manager

Konqueror is a unified web browser, file manager, document viewer, and image viewer. The following paragraphs cover the use of Konqueror for file management. Start Konqueror by clicking the house icon in the panel. The contents of your home directory are then displayed.

The file manager window consists of the menu bar at the top, the toolbar, and the location bar. The lower part of the window is split vertically into the navigation panel and the main window, which displays the contents.

Figure 4.3. The File Manager Konqueror

The File Manager Konqueror

The Konqueror Menu

Location

Using the Location menu, open additional Konqueror windows. If you click New Window, your home directory is displayed in a new window. Duplicate Window produces a second window with the same content. You can also send a file or a link (using the browser function) by e-mail. If you click one of these menu items, the KMail composer opens. Specify the recipient and compose a text. Depending on the selected item, the file is already attached or the link is displayed in the e-mail body. You can also print directly from this menu.

Edit

Most items under Edit only become active if you select an object in the main window. Standard editing functions are available. The Shred function destroys the data permanently. Create new directories and files or change file properties, such as the file permissions. Grant or deny the user, a group with which the user is associated, or all users read, write, and execute permissions. In the main window, one or several files can be selected by moving the mouse pointer over them while keeping the left mouse button pressed or by using the selection functions in the Edit menu.

View

Use the View menu to change views. If a directory is very full, the text view or the tree view may be more efficient. To view HTML pages, activate Use index.html. With Lock to Current Location, stop animated images and, with Unlock View, resume the animation. Icon Size, Sort, Preview, Show Hidden Files, and Folder Icons Reflect Contents control the icons shown in the main window. Also use this menu to choose a color or image for the background.

Go

The Go menu contains the navigation functions. However, you can access these functions more quickly in the toolbar. One interesting feature is available under this menu: the list of recently viewed directories, which can be selected and displayed.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks can be Internet addresses (URL) or paths to specific files or directories on your host. If you select Add Bookmark, the current content of the location bar is saved as a bookmark. To access this location, simply click this bookmark. For practical reasons, arrange bookmarks in folders. The SuSE folder already exists. This folder contains bookmarks of important SuSE web pages. Edit Bookmarks opens the bookmark editor in which to perform tasks like deleting obsolete bookmarks, renaming bookmarks, and moving bookmarks from one folder to another.

Settings

Use the Settings menu to configure the look and feel of Konqueror. Hide the menu bar by deactivating Display Menubar. Press Ctrl + M to display it again. Under Toolbars, hide or display the main toolbar, an extra toolbar, the location bar, and the bookmark list. If you changed the view of a specific directory, save these changes under View Properties Saved in Directory or Remove Directory Properties.

Using view profiles, change the view by means of predefined patterns. The default setting is File Management. Under Load View Profile, switch to File Preview, Midnight Commander, or Web Browsing. For example, when you click the Konqueror icon in the panel, the web browser profile is displayed. Specify individual keyboard shortcuts with Configure Shortcuts, customize the toolbar with Configure Toolbars, and configure global settings for the file manager with Configure Konqueror.

Window

In the Window menu, you can split the main window horizontally and vertically. With Remove Active View, remove the split. New Tab creates an empty window in the Konqueror window. Switch between these windows with tabs. With Duplicate Current Tab, generate a second identical window that can be loaded to a separate Konqueror window with Detach Tab. You can also close the active subwindow.

Help

Under the Help menu, access the Konqueror Handbook or the What's This? function. This function can also be accessed via the question mark symbol at the top right in the title bar. The mouse pointer is then displayed with a question mark. If you click an icon, a brief help text is displayed. The Help menu also provides a short introduction to Konqueror and the possibility to report bugs and other concerns to the developers. About Konqueror and About KDE provide information about the version, license, authors, and translations of the project.

The Toolbar

The toolbar provides quick access to frequently-used functions that can also be accessed via the menu. If you let the mouse pointer rest above an icon, a short description is displayed. Right-click a free space in the toolbar to open a menu with which to change the position of the toolbar, switch from icons to text, change the icon size, and display or hide the individual bars. The configuration dialog can be started with Configure Toolbars. To the right, the toolbar features the Konqueror icon, which is animated while a directory or web page is loaded.

The Location Bar

The location bar is preceded by a black symbol with a white X. If you click this icon, the contents of the line are deleted, allowing entry of a new location. Valid locations can be path specifications, like the one that appears when the home directory is displayed, or web page URLs. After entering an address, press Return or click Go to the right of the input line. Access directories or web pages visited recently via the black arrow to the right of the location bar. This function saves some typing if you need to access certain contents repeatedly. For even more convenience, create a bookmark.

The Main Window

The main window displays the content of the selected directory. If you click an icon, the respective file is displayed in Konqueror or loaded into the respective application for further processing. If you click an RPM package, the description is displayed. Install the package with Install package with YaST.

If you right-click an icon, a menu opens. The kind of menu displayed depends on the file type and offers common actions, such as Cut, Copy, Copy, Paste, and Delete. Furthermore, you can use Open with to select applications from a list of suitable programs. Files can be encrypted directly in Konqueror. However, to use this function, a key must be generated manually or in KGpg. Refer to Chapter Chapter 14, Encryption with KGpg to see how this is done.

The quickest way to perform many actions is the drag and drop method. For instance, easily move files from one Konqueror window to another by simply dragging them there while pressing the left mouse button. Subsequently, you will be asked whether the objects should be moved or copied.

Creating an Image Gallery

To facilitate the management of extensive image collections in a directory, Konqueror can generate an HTML file with thumbnails. Open the respective directory in Konqueror and select Tools -> Create Image Gallery .... A dialog opens in which to specify the background and foreground colors, the page title, the location to which to save the gallery, and other settings. Click OK to start the action. By default, a file called index.html is created. If you click this file in Konqueror, your images are displayed in a miniaturized, well-arranged view. Click an image to access the full-size view.