The Standard Menu Entries
One of the main ways that you'll control programs in KDE is via the program's menus. They provide access to nearly everything you'll need to do with that program. So that you can more easily remember where things are in the menus, and to help you learn new programs more easily, the menus have a standard layout. This means that once you know how to open a file in one program, you know how to open a file in any KDE program. Let's take a look at the standard menus:
The Menu
This entry will start a new, blank document that's appropriate to the program you're using. For example, in Kate (the KDE Advanced Text Editor) this entry creates a new text file.
The menu entry displays the KDE “Open File” dialog box, where you can choose a file to open in the program you're using. The “Open File” dialog is also standardized, so it's the same for all KDE programs. You can find out more about using this dialog somewhere else in this guide .
You probably noticed that this menu entry had an ellipsis (...) after the name of the entry. This means that clicking on the entry will open a dialog box of some kind. If you make any changes in the dialog box that appears, they won't take effect until you click on the button in the dialog. You can always ignore any changes you made, and close the dialog, by clicking on the button.
This menu entry will save any changes you've made to the file that you are currently working on. If this is the first time that you've saved the file, the KDE “Save File” dialog will appear, and ask you for a name and location for the file.
The menu entry will save the file you're working on with a different name. The “Save File” dialog appears, and you can choose a name and location as usual. Note that after you save the file with , you will be working on the new file. If you save changes, they will be saved under the new filename. To make this a bit clearer, let's take an example:
You are working on a file called
hello.txt that contains the text “Hello
World!”
You use the menu
entry to save the file with the new name
newhello.txt.
You add the text “Nice to see you!” to the file, and use the menu entry to save these changes.
Now, the file newhello.txt contains the text
“Hello World! Nice to see you!”, while the file
hello.txt contains only the text “Hello
World!”.
This menu entry displays the KDE “Print” dialog, read to print the current document. Youcan find more information about the options available in this dialog in the section called “Printing From Applications”.
This menu entry closes the current document. If you have made any changes since you last saved the document, you will be asked whether you want to save those changes. You can choose to or those changes. If you didn't really want to close the file, just click .
Use this entry to close the program you're using. If you have unsaved changes in any files, you will be asked whether you want to save them.
The Menu
Use this entry to remove the effect of the last action you performed in the application. For example, if you deleted a line of text, the menu entry will replace that line.
Use this menu entry to perform the last action that you removed with the menu entry. For example, if, as in the example above, you had replaced a deleted line of text with , the entry would redo the action of deleting the line.
This menu entry cuts the contents of the current selection to the clipboard. See the section called “Using the Clipboard” for more information.
This menu entry copies the contents of the current selection to the clipboard. See the section called “Using the Clipboard” for more information.
This menu entry inserts the contents of the clipboard in the current document. The clipboard contents are inserted where the cursor is currently positioned.
Use this item to select the whole of the current document.
This menu entry displays the Find Text dialog, which you can use to search for a particular word or phrase in the current document.
Use this item to find the next occurrence of the most recent text you searched for using .
The Menu
In the dialog displayed by this menu entry, you can change the keyboard shortcuts used by the application. See the section called “Configuring Keyboard Shortcuts”.
In the dialog displayed by this menu entry, you can change which buttons appear on the application's toolbars. See the section called “Configuring Toolbars”.
In the dialog displayed by this menu entry, you can change the notifications (sounds, error messages, etc.) used by the application. See the section called “Configuring Notifications”.
In the dialog displayed by this menu entry, you can change settings relating to how the application works in general.
Invokes the KDE Help system starting at the
KApp help pages. (this document).
Changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and
question mark. Clicking on items within KApp will open a help
window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's
function.
Opens the Bug report dialog where you can report a bug or request a “wishlist” feature.
This will display version and author information.
This displays the KDE version and other basic information.
