My KDE 4.x Desktop Activities Tutorial July 23, 2009
Posted by rm42 in Computers, Linux.trackback
Desktop Activities is a desktop usability concept that allows you to have multiple style and other settings for your desktop or desktops. There you have it, my attempt at a one sentence definition. Of course, that only pleases people who write dictionaries and encyclopedias. As for us, regular users, what we like to see are tutorials that actually show us what we are talking about. So, I will try to do that now for you as well.
For this tutorial, I will be using KDE 4.2.4 as found in Fedora 11.
Creating your activities
Before you start, ask yourself, what are the primary tasks that you use your computer for? Of course, just about all of us use it to access the internet. But, what else? If your answer is “not much else”, then stop right here. No need to read any further. Desktop activities are not for you. You will be perfectly happy without them. However, if your answer includes a few other tasks, then you may find that spending a few minutes configuring some desktop activities is a great way to improve your productivity and of making your use of the computer more enjoyable.
Now that you have though about it a bit, lets start with just one or two activities. You can add more latter once you understand the concept and your needs better. To add an activity we need to first Unlock the Widgets and then Zoom out of the default desktop/activity. Both of those options are reachable through the plasma logo in the upper right corner of the desktop (A.K.A. “the cashew”).
Plasma logo
You will then see your primary desktop activity next to a large empty area where you can place other desktop activities. To do so, click on the Add Activity button that is just below your zoomed out desktop. (Note: If you don’t see that button it is likely because you forgot to unlock the widgets.)
Add activity button
Configure your activities
After you create one or two extra activities click on the desktop settings button, the right most button below the zoomed out desktop, the one that looks like a wrench. That will bring up the Desktop Settings dialog box where you can give a name to that activity and customize it as you wish. When finished, simply zoom in to any of your desktop activities to use it.
I like to create a directory under my home called “Activities”. Under this directory I create one directory for each of my desktop activities where I place items that are particular to each of them, such as links to applications, files, links to other directories, etc. I then configure each desktop activity to show me the contents of its own assigned directory. The process to do this is different depending on the Type of activity you chose in the Desktop Settings dialog box. If you chose the Desktop type, you will need to add at least one Folder View widget to that desktop (through the plasma logo – the cashew) and configure the widget to access the desired directory. If you chose the Folder View type you can right click on the desktop and select Folder View Settings (since the whole desktop is a Folder View widget) and configure it to access the desired directory.
Finally, do make sure to install an “Activity Bar” widget under each of your desktop activities in order to easily switch between them.
Final thoughts
As you can see, it doesn’t really take much effort to configure your desktop activities. Combined with the multiple desktop functionality they offer a very comfortable way to perform multiple tasks. But, there are still some areas where they need to be improved. For example, in KDE 4.3 you will be able to assign a desktop activity to each virtual desktop you have configured. It seems that there is a way to hack that functionality into the current release, but I have not tried it.
I wish there was a way to add a desktop activity without having to go into the Zoomed out workspace. I also wish that the Activity Bar widget could be configured to stack vertically rather than just horizontally. When docked in the panel it should display an icon the current activity name and cascade perpendicular to the panel when clicked, only then showing all the available activities.
But, I am very happy with what we have right now. I hope this little tutorial is helpful to you.
Very cool. Thanks for sharing this tutorial.
I am curious to know if the Activity-Desktops themselves appear as files in some directory. It seems they would have to … ??
I would like to check the file structure to see if manually importing the contents of my existing Desktops would be feasible.
Otherwise, I have to keep running StarOffice … some of those Desktops could have information going back almost 10 years and I don’t know what I want to save, or toss …
I have looked in several of the system directories, even searched from root using the names of my Activity-Desktops, but came up with nothing.
Any ideas?
Thanks for the tutorial. You cleared up a lot of things.
From reading posts here and there, some not making clear which KDE version was under discussion, I thought I had to start by editing my configuration files!
But, if I read you correctly, since I’m experimenting with KDE4.3 RC3, I should go ahead and use it directly, with no editing necessary.
What is needed is a retro option to make it function like 3.5x without having to go through all the gyrations.
I’ve gotten good use out of putting a secondary panel on the top of my screen that’s not very long and that auto-hides with the activity bar in it. That way you don’t have to remember to add a new one onto every new activity you create.
Just an entry to get subscribed to this thread. Don’t see any other way to do it without making another Reply …
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That COOL. Thanks for the great informations.
Hi,
Do you know if is possible the “Activies” show ONLY apps thats is opened only in each one?
E.g.: If I open Firefox on “Activie 1″ it CAN’T be showed on “Activie 2″.
In current config, I see (in Task Manager bar) all apps opened in all “Activies”
You can customize the taskbar to only show tasks that are running on each particular desktop instead of all applications running on the computer.
I already try this, but it don’t work.
I did:
- Right click over Taskbar;
- Choose “config task manager”;
- On field “Filter” I select “Show only tasks of current desktop” and “Show only taks of current screen”.
This works only at differents Desktops (CTRL+F1 / CTRL+F2), but don’t work do ACTIVIES.
True, that is all it does. Activities are not different work spaces. Think of them as different uniforms for your desktops.
its good, i like it, thanks
The best is:
- Workspace totally independent, and I don’t find this kind of option on KDE
Well, there is the option of assigning a different activity per desktop, which would give you that effect. I had a bit of trouble with it when I tried it a while back. I remember telling my self that next time I tried it I would start with only one activity. I think that when enabling that option it will create additional activities for you (one for each of your desktops) that you can customize latter as you wish.
Any way, to get to that option follow this steps:
- Zoom out (through the plasma icon)
- Click on the “Configure Plasma…” option in the floating options widget.
- Select the “Different activity for each desktop” option.
- Click Ok
Wow, thanks for that!
But… It is a litle bit UNSTABLE. Sometimes appear one more Activie, sometimes is impossible remove it, etc.