[COLUG] KDE Questions

[Rob Funk]

Mark Erbaugh wrote:
> I'm trying to get up to speed with Kubuntu / KDE. It seems slower
> navigating in Dolphin than in Nautilus.

You might try using Konqueror instead.  Dolphin was recently introduced as 
a friendlier file manager, but Konqueror is the more advanced program, 
capable of both web browsing and file management.

> I can't find any way to disable the animated bouncing wait cursor.

KDE Control Center -> Appearance & Themes -> Launch Feedback

> One of the things that has really increased my productivity in Nautilus
> is shell scripts. I often use different application to work with a file
> so I don't want to rely on the mime type to pick an application for me.

When you right-click on a file, you can pick "open with" to open it with 
any app that's configured to know about that file type.

Or you can create custom actions to use your shell scripts:
http://developer.kde.org/documentation/tutorials/dot/servicemenus.html
http://legroom.net/2007/04/20/adding-custom-actions-kde-context-menus

(The second link is more of a tutorial than the first, and may help you 
more.)

> Is there something similar to Nautilus shell scripts in Dolphin?  I've
> come across service menus but that looks like a lot of work to set one
> up as compared to dropping a shell script into a folder.

There's not really all that much work.  Any complexity is because there 
are so many variables in how to work with a file.
I'm not familiar with Nautilus, but how does it know how to call your 
shell scripts?  How does it know what name to put on the menu?


Here are some of my servicemenu files:

$ cat ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/chmod664.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
ServiceTypes=all/allfiles
Actions=Chmod664;Chmod664Staff

[Desktop Action Chmod664]
Name=Permissions 664
Exec=chmod 664 %F

[Desktop Action Chmod664Staff]
Name=Permissions 664/staff
Exec=chgrp staff %F ; chmod 664 %F


$ cat ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/abiconvert.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
ServiceTypes=application/vnd.ms-word,application/msword
Actions=abiHTML;abiRTF;abiText;abiLatex;
X-KDE-Submenu=Abi Convert to

[Desktop Action abiHTML]
Name=HTML
Exec=abiword -t html %f

[Desktop Action abiRTF]
Name=RTF
Exec=abiword -t rtf %f

[Desktop Action abiText]
Name=Text
Exec=abiword -t txt %f

[Desktop Action abiLatex]
Name=LaTeX
Exec=abiword -t latex %f


$ cat ~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/xls2csv.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
ServiceTypes=application/vnd.ms-excel,application/msexcel
Actions=xls2csv

[Desktop Action xls2csv]
Name=Convert To CSV
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'cd "%d";xls="%f"; csv=`basename "$$xls" .xls`.csv; 
$HOME/bin/xls2csv "$$xls" > "$$csv"'


-- 
==============================|   "A microscope locked in on one point
 Rob Funk <rfunk at funknet.net> |Never sees what kind of room that it's in"
 http://www.funknet.net/rfunk |    -- Chris Mars, "Stuck in Rewind"