Desktop View Folder view

[Georgetoon]

Still exploring KDE4. I noticed that there is flder vie and desktop view.  I see no difference. I thought one gives you a screen/window of sorts that floats on the desktop with contents of the desktop (or location of your choice).   I don't see that ineither configuration.  Is there a way to configure this?

Looks like this:

[url=http://abz89.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/kde4.png]http://abz89.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/kde4.png[/url]

[tschommer]

georgetoon, that's the Folder View you've got configured. You can add widgets that represent folders on your desktop (like you have in your screenshot). This is the setup where you can change virtual desktops with the mouse wheel. This was the initial setup in KDE4.

Desktop View is like it used to be in KDE3, where you can place icons directly on your desktop. It was added because it was closer to what people were used to in KDE3 (or other DEs). What you can't do in Desktop View is to use the mouse wheel on the desktop to change virtual desktops, because the whole desktop is a widget.

[Georgetoon]

georgetoon, that's the Folder View you've got configured. You can add widgets that represent folders on your desktop (like you have in your screenshot). This is the setup where you can change virtual desktops with the mouse wheel. This was the initial setup in KDE4.

Desktop View is like it used to be in KDE3, where you can place icons directly on your desktop. It was added because it was closer to what people were used to in KDE3 (or other DEs). What you can't do in Desktop View is to use the mouse wheel on the desktop to change virtual desktops, because the whole desktop is a widget.

In folder view, I don't see that pane of glass (window) floating on my desktop.(My apologies...that's not a screen shot of my desktop...it's merely for showing what I'm trying to find)  the floating window in folder view is not there.  That's my problem. It's why I can't tell which is which.

[tschommer]

georgetoon, that's the Folder View you've got configured. You can add widgets that represent folders on your desktop (like you have in your screenshot). This is the setup where you can change virtual desktops with the mouse wheel. This was the initial setup in KDE4.

Desktop View is like it used to be in KDE3, where you can place icons directly on your desktop. It was added because it was closer to what people were used to in KDE3 (or other DEs). What you can't do in Desktop View is to use the mouse wheel on the desktop to change virtual desktops, because the whole desktop is a widget.

In folder view, I don't see that pane of glass (window) floating on my desktop.(My apologies...that's not a screen shot of my desktop...it's merely for showing what I'm trying to find)  the floating window in folder view is not there.  That's my problem. It's why I can't tell which is which.

Right-click on the desktop, "Unlock Widgets", right-click again and click "Add Widgets". Scroll to the "Folder View" widget and drag it on your desktop. Place it, resize it, and configure which folder you want to display (hover over the widget and click on the wrench).

You can do this multiple times to display several folders, if you like.

By the way, when adding a widget to the taskbar, drag it there and place it where you see a highlighted square (go left to right and back so that a square appears). I usually do this with the trashcan and CWP (Customizable weather applet, it's in Synaptic).

When you're done just right-click and "Lock Widgets".

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[Georgetoon]

georgetoon, that's the Folder View you've got configured. You can add widgets that represent folders on your desktop (like you have in your screenshot). This is the setup where you can change virtual desktops with the mouse wheel. This was the initial setup in KDE4.

Desktop View is like it used to be in KDE3, where you can place icons directly on your desktop. It was added because it was closer to what people were used to in KDE3 (or other DEs). What you can't do in Desktop View is to use the mouse wheel on the desktop to change virtual desktops, because the whole desktop is a widget.

In folder view, I don't see that pane of glass (window) floating on my desktop.(My apologies...that's not a screen shot of my desktop...it's merely for showing what I'm trying to find)  the floating window in folder view is not there.  That's my problem. It's why I can't tell which is which.

Right-click on the desktop, "Unlock Widgets", right-click again and click "Add Widgets". Scroll to the "Folder View" widget and drag it on your desktop. Place it, resize it, and configure which folder you want to display (hover over the widget and click on the wrench).

You can do this multiple times to display several folders, if you like.

By the way, when adding a widget to the taskbar, drag it there and place it where you see a highlighted square (go left to right and back so that a square appears). I usually do this with the trashcan and CWP (Customizable weather applet, it's in Synaptic).

When you're done just right-click and "Lock Widgets".

Yes! I think I see! but I do thisin Desktop mode. Cuz in Folder view mode the entire area becomes whichever folder I designate. Correct?  so, in Desktp view, I add a folder view widget.  Is this correct?

[tschommer]

Now I'm confused 

I just checked it - you're right, of course. The whole desktop can display a folder (usually "Desktop") in folder view and have icons.

You can actually add the folder widget in both cases, but only in desktop view mode can you switch desktops with the mouse wheel.

And now I'll start writing this down 10 times so I don't have to look it up again and again and... 

[cirehawk]

Maybe this will shed a little light on things.  When KDE4 (4.0) was introduced, they got rid of the concept of storing icons on your desktop.  You could place "widgets" on the desktop, but not traditional "icons".  Many traditional users did not like this and wanted the ability to have traditional icons on the desktop.  So the concept of a "folder view" was introduced in a subsequent release.  Since the desktop is actually a folder (even in MS Windows), the devs made the "folder view" a lot more flexible in that it can display the contents of any folder.  Although this was a step in the right direction for traditional users, it was still not quite the same.  So... the devs introduced the ability to use a "folder view" as your desktop.  This, in essence, duplicated the functionality of the traditional desktop.

With the in mind, tschommer is right.  You can either place a "folder view" widget on your desktop (as shown in your picture), or you can set your whole desktop as a "folder view" activity.  Also, you can indeed place a "folder view" widget on either type of desktop (be it the new KDE4 type desktop or the folder view as desktop).  Hope that clears it up a bit.  It took me a while to get it down.

[Georgetoon]

Maybe this will shed a little light on things.  When KDE4 (4.0) was introduced, they got rid of the concept of storing icons on your desktop.  You could place "widgets" on the desktop, but not traditional "icons".  Many traditional users did not like this and wanted the ability to have traditional icons on the desktop.  So the concept of a "folder view" was introduced in a subsequent release.  Since the desktop is actually a folder (even in MS Windows), the devs made the "folder view" a lot more flexible in that it can display the contents of any folder.  Although this was a step in the right direction for traditional users, it was still not quite the same.  So... the devs introduced the ability to use a "folder view" as your desktop.  This, in essence, duplicated the functionality of the traditional desktop.

With the in mind, tschommer is right.  You can either place a "folder view" widget on your desktop (as shown in your picture), or you can set your whole desktop as a "folder view" activity.  Also, you can indeed place a "folder view" widget on either type of desktop (be it the new KDE4 type desktop or the folder view as desktop).  Hope that clears it up a bit.  It took me a while to get it down.

Thank you!:)  That's an excellent explanation.  Both of you have cleared this up for me.  I was playing around with it and now have four desktops.  All are set to Desktop view and I have a Desktop folder on one and a Home folder on the other.  I gotta tell ya, I like it!:)  The only thing I'm a little fuzzy on is how to place little plasmoid widgets for apps on the desktop area.    Not a big deal, because I can just create these shortcuts in the desktop folder and then there they are in the Desktop folder widget.

KDE 4 is starting to grow on me.

[cirehawk]

Glad my explanation helped a bit.     When you say plasmoid widgets for apps, are you talking about icons to launch applications (which do become plasmoids if placed on a "desktop" activity)?  Or do you mean plasmoids that are added via the "add widgets" manager?

[Georgetoon]

Glad my explanation helped a bit.     When you say plasmoid widgets for apps, are you talking about icons to launch applications (which do become plasmoids if placed on a "desktop" activity)?  Or do you mean plasmoids that are added via the "add widgets" manager?

I'm talking about icons to launch applications on a "desktop", not the Add Widgets manager.

[tschommer]

georgetoon, this should work when you set the desktop activity to "Folder View".

The easiest way would then be to open Dolphin (or Konqueror, whatever you prefer), navigate to /usr/share/applications (or /usr/share/applications/kde4 for KDE4-specific apps) and drag the icon to your desktop (you should use "Link here").

You can do the same directly from the program menu (the "PC" button) by just dragging the menu item to the desktop.

In "Desktop View" you'd create a link to the appropriate application in a folder of your choice and have that displayed in a folder widget on your desktop (same way as above).

Just as an option: I put a "QuickAccess" widget in my taskbar and pointed it to my Desktop folder. In there I have an "Apps" sub-folder with links to various applications I often use.

Just some ideas...  

Torsten

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