Configuring Behavior and System Aspects

Procedure 3.13. Changing Default Applications

There are certain default applications defined in KDE: For example, 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.

Procedure 3.14. Changing File Associations

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 specific file type.

  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, 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.

Procedure 3.15. Adjusting Regional Settings

To adjust settings such as time and date format, number format, or currency, select the desired country as the default country in KDE. If more than one system language is installed on your computer, you can also select the different languages in which KDE should show the graphical user interface and application interfaces.

  1. To set your default country options, open the Personal Settings and select Regional & Language.

  2. On the Locale tab, click Change next to the Country or Region entry. In the dialog that opens, select the region and country you want to set as default in KDE and click OK.

    Number, date and time formats are automatically adjusted to the new country's default values that are shown in the display field at the bottom of the Locale tab.

  3. If you need to make further adjustments for those, click the relevant tabs and set the options according to your wishes.

  4. If more than one language is installed on your system (as secondary languages with YaST) and you want to change the graphical interface of KDE to a different language, click Add Language on the Locale tab. This opens a list of languages currently installed on your system.

  5. Select the language for the graphical user interface. The new language is now shown at the top position in the Language list.

  6. To confirm the changes, click Apply. All newly started applications or desktop objects now appear in the new language.

  7. To switch to another language, re-sort the languages in the Languages list until the desired language is at the top position and apply your changes.

KDE runs a session manager that starts after your username and password are authenticated by the login process. It lets you save the status of a certain session and return to that status the next time you log in. For example, it can automatically start the applications that you were running in the most recent session or when you manually saved a session. It can save and restore the following settings:

Procedure 3.16. Adjusting the Session Handling

  1. To change the session handling options, open the Personal Settings and on the Advanced tab, click Session Manager.

    By default, Session Manager restores the applications that were running when you logged out from the previous session, enabling an automatic start of these applications.

  2. To be able to save a certain session manually and restore this session each time you log in to KDE, select Restore manually saved sessions. This adds a new menu item, Save Session, to your main menu. After a session is saved, KDE automatically restores the saved session on each login.

  3. To start with a fresh session each time you log in, select Start with an empty session.

  4. To change the default options that appear when logging out, adjust the relevant options in the General and Default Leave Option groups.

  5. Click Apply to confirm your changes.

Procedure 3.17. Starting Programs Automatically

Apart from the applications from the last session that are restored by the Session Manager, you can configure which applications should be always be started after login.

  1. Open the Personal Settings and on the Advanced tab, click Autostart.

  2. To add an application, click Add Program and from the menu structure, select the program you want to start automatically.

    To add a shell script, click Add Script and click the Open File Dialog icon in the next window to select the script from the file system. The program or script is added to the list and you can view and change the Status.

  3. Click Apply to confirm your changes. When logging in the next time, the applications and scripts start automatically.