Re: KDE activities
On 27/11/11 23:21, Alan Chandler wrote:
> On 27/11/11 10:43, Scott Ferguson wrote:
>> On 27/11/11 20:00, Alan Chandler wrote:
>>> With the problems I seem to be having with Gnome3 (not the problem
>>> that most people have with the shell, which I like - but other
>>> applications which seem to have become flakey - Gedit crashes on
>>> closing a tab, Nautilus FTP doesn't seem to work half the time,
>>> issues I have been discussing here about the applications launched
>>> with file associations ...) I decided to give KDE 4 another try (I
>>> had switched to Gnome from KDE when KDE 4 was first introduced).
>>>
>>> I am struggling with the concepts behind Activities, Desktops,
>>> Workspaces and Screens.
>>
>> Have you read the fine documentation in the KDE Help Centre?
>> $ khelpcenter
>>
>> You can also access it from the entry on the Programs Menu, or from the
>> Help menu in any KDE application.
>> I'd strongly suggest you refer to Debian specific documentation on KDE.
>>
>>
>>> This is not helped by the fact that I am trying to follow the advice
>>> from various web pages - but I don't seem to see what I should see.
>>>
>>> In particular - I use Super Q
>>
>> What is Super Q?
>
> It is the default KDE Key Combination that brings up the Activity
> Manager - Super is (I think) the KDE word for the "Logo" key that sits
> between Cntl and Alt
It doesn't work here....
What does work is:-
Alt+D, Alt+S
>
>
>>
>>> to bring up the activities manager pane.
>>
>> Are you talking about "Desktop Activities"?
>>
>> (many things have "activities").
>
> I am talking about Desktop Activities
OK.
I normally choose various Virtual Desktops (Desktop Pager on the Panel),
creating more if necessary, and name them according to what I want.
Usually the first one is Private, and the others for various clients (so
Private, and various Works).
Then I create the Activities that use those Virtual Desktops.
There are a number of ways of assigning (and using) Activities.
>
>>
>>> This shows I have two activities both named "New Activity". I
>>> should then right click on a desktop and select "Desktop Settings" I
>>> should see a window with the left pane having three options
>>> "Wallpaper", "Activity" and "Mouse Actions".
>>
>> That sounds like a description of the "Desktop Activity Manager":-
>> http://ge.tt/9U7gqQA/v/0
>>
>> NOTES: Options in the "left-hand pane" are determined by "Activity Type".
>> In the pictured case the Activity Type is Wallpaper. (the other
>> "Activity Type" is "Folder View")
>
> That is indeed the screen I was talking about - I think in your notes
> you mean to say that Options in the Right Hand pane ...
No, I mean the left-hand pane.
If I were to select the Activity option in the left-hand pane, and then
change the Activity type in the right-hand pane (which changes when
Activity is selected on the left) I'd then be able to change the
activity type to "Folder View":-
http://ge.tt/9KsJzQA/v/0
After applying that change - the options in the left-hand pane would
change also.:-
http://ge.tt/9KsJzQA/v/1
NOTE: those folders open and display contents on mouse-over
>
> What I was saying is I DON'T see WallPaper and Activity in the Left Hand
> pane - instead I see Just "View" - but with the same options as you show
> in the right hand pane - and "Mouse Actions".
It may be that you're looking at is the properties of a plasmoid.
Also, if widgets are locked, try unlocking them (or the other way around).
>
>
>>
>>> Instead I see a window with only two options, "View" and "Mouse
>>> Actions".
>>
>> Perhaps some screen shots and links to them would better illustrate what
>> you are asking about?
>>
>
> Unfortunately KDE seems to be particularly unstable - KWin seems to
> crash on me - so I had to switch back to Gnome3 (but its only a log
> out/log in away if I need to)
If you have Desktop Effect enabled in System Settings - try disabling
it. Though your instabilities may just be the result of running Sid (I
have no bleeding edge hardware, so I don't use it).
>
>>>
>>> Have I not installed something I should have? or has this changed
>>> and all these web pages are out of date?
>>
>> What "web pages" are you referring to?
>
> Here is one
>
> http://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=90091
That's fairly old (given what you are running). The Debian and Aptosid
posts were relevant - SuSE uses a quite (very) different packaging of KDE.
>
>
>
>>
>> Which Debian release are you running?
>
> Sid
>
>
> This means I am running KDE 4.6.5
That makes a big difference.
I only run Squeeze (4.4.5) - so you have features I won't see for a few
years.
>
>
>>
>> What is it that you are trying to achieve?
>
> In order to better understand what the activities were doing I was
> trying to rename them so they both didn't say "New Activity"
Ah. You're going to have fun :-)
Maybe set up a throw-away user just for the purpose of playing/learning
with KDE until you break something (make a config change you don't like
but don't know how to undo).
Activities are great, and there are many ways to arrange them.
I find the "type" (reading, listening, editing) of activity less useful
than the "intent" (work, client, private etc) for the purpose of
organising spaces.
You might want to start with Virtual Desktops, right-click on the Pager
and explore the Pager, and, Virtual Desktop settings.
Within the Multiple Desktop dialog, select "Different Activities for
each Desktop".
Then create activities within those Desktops.
Just to confuse you - activities can "span" Desktops, and as with most
Plasmoids (if not all) they can be "shared"
>
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>
>
In case you haven't noticed yet, locking widgets removes some options,
and is how things should be left after you've made changes.
Also your choice of themes will modify how things appear and act (and
what is configurable).
As Martin suggested - the Debian KDE lists is a good place to ask KDE
questions (no problem asking here, but KDE lists are mostly read by
people who primarily use KDE).
Cheers and I hope you enjoy KDE (it's well worth learning).
--
Iceweasel/Firefox extensions for finding answers to Debian questions:-
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collections/Scott_Ferguson/debian/
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