Configuring KDE Behavior

Procedure 3.8. Adjusting the Mouse Settings

1. Open the Personal Settings and select Keyboard & Mouse.

2. To switch to double-clicks to open files and folders, select the corresponding option in the Icons group.

3. To change the mouse pointer appearance, switch to the Cursor Theme tab and select a different cursor theme.

4. To change the default values of double-click intervals or the distance that the pointer moves over the screen on movement of the mouse, adjust the settings on the Advanced tab.

5. Click Apply to apply the changes and close the configuration dialog.

Procedure 3.9. Modifying KDE Keyboard Shortcuts

KDE comes with a set of predefined keyboard shortcuts. You can easily create more keyboard shortcuts or change existing shortcuts, especially if they should conflict with other application-specific shortcuts.

1. Open the Personal Settings and select Keyboard & Mouse.

2. Click Keyboard Shortcuts.

3. Select the KDE Component for which to view or change the shortcuts. For example, to change the shortcuts for switching between the virtual desktops, select the KWin entry from the drop-down list. To change the shortcuts for locking the screen or logging out, select the Run Command Interface entry.

4. Browse through the list of shortcuts for the selected entry. To filter for certain keywords, enter a search string in the search field above.

5. To change or add a shortcut, select the respective list entry and in the dialog that opens, select Custom.

6. Click the wrench icon to switch to the input mode.

7. Press the desired key or key combination. If this shortcut cannot be accepted or in case of conflict with another existing shortcut, a notification shows. If your input was successful, the new or modified shortcut appears in the list.

8. If you want to switch back to the default keyboard shortcut for the selected action, just click the entry again and select Default.

9. To save the altered settings, click Apply. To reset all shortcuts to the default values, click Defaults then Apply.

Procedure 3.10. Changing Default Applications

There are certain default applications defined in KDE: For example, when you click a link to a Web page, KDE opens the Konqueror Web browser, when you click an e-mail address, KMail starts.

1. To change this behavior and set your preferred Web browser or e-mail client as default, open the Personal Settings and click Default Applications.

2. To change the Web browser:

   1. In the list of components, select Web browser.

   2. Select Open http and https URLs in the following browser and click the browse button beneath.

   3. A dialog opens, showing the main menu structure. Select the Web browser to set as default and click OK. The component chooser now shows the selected application in the display field.

3. To change the e-mail client:

   1. In the list of components, select Email Client.

   2. Select Use a different email client and click the browse button.

   3. A dialog showing the main menu structure opens. Select the e-mail client to set as default and click OK. The component chooser now shows the selected application in the display field.

4. If desired, change other default applications for KDE, like the application for the terminal window or the instant messenger client.

5. When all options are set according to your wishes, click Apply.

Similar to setting the default Web browser or e-mail application, you can change file associations in KDE. File associations determine which application should be used to open a file, for example, if you want to start a file from Konqueror.

1. Open the Personal Settings, click the Advanced tab and select File Associations.

2. To search for an extension, enter the extension in Find File Type or File Name Pattern. Only file types with a matching file pattern appear in the list. For example, to modify the application for *.png files, enter png in Find File Type or File Name Pattern.

3. In the Known Types list, click the file type to open the setting dialog for this file type. You can change the icon, the filename patterns, description, and the order of the applications.

   If your tool is not listed, click Add in Application Preference Order then select the program for the file type.

   To change the order of the list entries, click the program to move. Give it a higher or lower priority by clicking Move Up or Move Down. The application listed at the top is used by default when you click a file of this type.

4. When all options are set according to your wishes, click Apply.