Plasma/FAQ/HowTo

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Plasma is one of the key technologies of KDE 4 (also known as the "Pillars of KDE"), and one of the most visible to users. As Plasma treats the user interface differently than a traditional desktop, there may be confusion as to what Plasma is, what it does, and how to perform common tasks.

The purpose of this document is to show how to perform common tasks in Plasma. Each HowTo consists of one topic and a short animation, which is reached by clicking on the link.

The animations are encoded in the GIF format and can thus be viewed in most modern web browsers without any additional plugins installed. Note that the animations are looped.

Note

Almost all HowTos assume that the widgets are unlocked. See Unlock widgets for instructions on how to unlock them.

Note

Due to distribution-specific customizations, your desktop might differ from those in the HowTos. In particular, if you miss the top-right toolbox (shown as a yellow icon), you can reach most options by right-clicking on the desktop.

[edit] HowTo

[edit] Widgets

• Unlock widgets
• Lock widgets
• Move toolbox

[edit] Desktop Widgets

• Add widget to desktop
• Configure widget
• Move widget
• Resize widget
• Rotate widget
• Remove widget
• Drag widget from desktop to panel

[edit] Panel Widgets

• Add widget to panel
• Configure widget ^[1]
• Move widget
• Remove widget ^[1]
• Add spacer
• Drag widget from panel to desktop

[edit] Desktop

• Change wallpaper
• Change theme
• Change to traditional desktop

[edit] Panel

• Change panel height
• Change panel width ^[2]
• Move panel
• Change panel alignment
• Make panel autohide
• Add new panel
• Remove panel ^[3]

[edit] Extenders

• Drag extender to desktop
• Restore extender
• Stack extenders ^[4]

[edit] Activities

• Add new activity
• Switch activities
• Rename activity
• Remove activity ^[5]
• Link activities to virtual desktops
• Use separate activity for dashboard

[edit] Further information

• The Plasma FAQ
• Glossary

[edit] For reuse

To link to an animation from another UserBase article, a thumbnail can be posted. Here's an example (edit this page to see the syntax):

How to unlock your widgets

The animations can also be used outside of UserBase. The BBCode (used in most forums) to post a linked thumbnail is:

[url=GIF][img]http://userbase.kde.org/images.userbase/e/e8/Plasma_howto-thumbnail.png[/img][/url]

Replace GIF with the URL to the GIF file. The corresponding HTML code is:

<a href="GIF"><img src="http://userbase.kde.org/images.userbase/e/e8/Plasma_howto-thumbnail.png" /></a>

A description of making the animated gif is here.

[edit] Thanks

• Anne Wilson - thanks for all the help with UserBase!

[edit] Contributors

• Hans Chen - current maintainer

Do you want to help out with making animations? See the Talk page to find out how!

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Note the small green arrow. You can also right click instead of pressing the arrow.
2. ↑ See How can I change the height and the size of the panel? for more information.
3. ↑ The right mouse button is used in this animation.
4. ↑ It's not necessary to drag the extender to the desktop first.
5. ↑ You can't remove the activity you "zoom out" from.