User Guide to Using the Linux Desktop

Nah Soo Hoe and Colin Charles

Published by
the United Nations Development Programmes
Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (UNDP-APDIP)
uala !umpur" #alaysia
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/he material in this guide may be reproduced" republished and incorporated into further 'or0s
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Preface
/his user guide is meant as an introductory guide for a user
to use a modern personal computer (P1) running the !inu6
operating system( /he main aim is to provide a self-learning
guide on ho' to use a modern !inu6 des0top system( It
assumes that the user has no prior 0no'ledge of !inu6 or P1
usage(
After going through the guide the reader should be in a
position to start using a !inu6 des0top for both personal and
office use( In particular she should be able to%

access the Internet and use the $$$ and Internet email
manipulate and manage files" folders and the file system
produce and print simple documents and presentation
materials
advance to become a po'er user by further self-learning
and e6ploring
!inu6 has many distributions and sometimes the programs
or tools used to perform a certain function can vary from
distribution to distribution( /his guide tries to be as generic
as possible in the description of the features and
functionalities( 7o'ever" in
some cases" especially some of the 8UI des0top
configuration tools" there is no really independent generic
tool that can be used and each distribution has its o'n tool(
In such cases" 'e have tried to illustrate their usage using
9edora !inu6(
/his guide 'as 'ritten on a 9edora !inu6 system and as such
many of the screen shots reflect this( 7o'ever" this should
not be construed as an endorsement of this distribution of
!inu6 over the others on the part of the authors(
Nah Soo Hoe and Colin Charles
July 2004
Chapter 1: Getting
Started
In order to start using your system you will usually have to
perform what is known as a user login. This procedure is
necessary to identify yourself to the system. The system
allows multiple users to use it concurrently and so it has to
be able to identify a user in order to grant them the
necessary privileges and rights to use the system and
applications. Each user upon successful login will be
assigned to his home directory (folder).
Some systems may have been set up so that upon power-
on a default user is logged in automatically. If this is so
then you will not be presented with a login screen or
prompt as described in the section below. !ou may skip on
to the section entitled "#asic $avigation using the %ouse
on the &esktop'.
Note:
There is a special user called the root or superuser (this
user is usually created during the system installation)
which has unlimited access and rights to all the system
files and resources. You only need to login as root if certain
system level administrative tasks are to be carried out.
Otherwise there is usually no need for a normal user to
login as root. This is to prevent accidentally damaging the
system by deleting or modifying important system files.
LOGGING IN
&epending on how you have set up your system you will
either have a graphical login screen or a te(t-based login
prompt for you to perform the login process.
Fig. Graphical Login Screen
Fig. Text-based Login Prompt
To login enter the username followed by the E$TE) key
and when the password prompt appears enter the
password followed by the E$TE) key.
STARTING THE GRAPHICAL DESKTOP
If you have logged in from the graphical login screen the
graphical desktop will be started automatically for you.
The graphical desktop presents a *raphical +ser Interface
(*+I) for the user to interact with the system and run
applications. If you have used the te(t-based screen login
you will have to start the graphical desktop manually by
entering the command startx followed by the E$TE) key.
Fig. Starting the Graphical Desktop
Note:
The graphical desktop that we will be using throughout
most of this guide is called the GNOME Desktop. There is
another desktop environment in popular use on inu!
systems " the KDE Desktop. There is some coverage of
#$% later& comparing the similarities and differences
between 'NO(% and #$% although we will not be covering
the #$% desktop in detail.
)or the rest of this user guide& when we refer to the
graphical desktop or $esktop we shall be talking about the
'NO(% $esktop unless stated otherwise.
USING THE MOUSE ON THE DESKTOP
,roper usage of the mouse is essential in order to have a
rewarding and productive e(perience on the graphical
desktop. %ost -inu( graphical desktops are designed for
use with a .-button mouse. If you are using a /-button
mouse during installation it should have been configured
to emulate the middle-button of a .-button mouse by
pressing both buttons simultaneously.
To click on a mouse the left button is depressed. (0 mouse
configured for a left-handed user will will need to have its
right button depressed.) The right (or left button for a left-
handed mouse) and middle buttons are usually used to
invoke special or specific features of the *+I and
instructions to do so will be e(plicitly given.
The term "clicking on the mouse' means that you click on
the mouse once.
The term "double clicking' means that you click twice in
succession on the mouse.
To "select' an item means clicking it once with the mouse.
The term "drag and drop' means that you will have to click
on an item and while continuing to hold the mouse button
down drag the item to another place and on reaching its
destination drop it by releasing the mouse button.
EXERCISES
1. 2pen the home folder from the &esktop.
/. 3lose the home folder window by clicking on the close
window button at the top right-hand corner.
.. )ight-click on the trash icon view its properties and
close it back.
4. %ove the trash icon to another location on the desktop
by using the mouse to drag it to the new location and
releasing the mouse.
MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE DESKTOP
The figure below shows a typical view of the graphical
-inu( desktop.
[anita@localhost anita]$ startx
Fedora Core release 1
Kernel 2.4.22-1 on an i686
localhost login:
Fig. A Typical Linux Desktop
There are . main components on the desktop5
the %enu System
the ,anel
the &esktop itself
THE MENU SYSTEM
The main menu can be accessed by clicking on the %ain
%enu button located at the e(treme lower left hand corner
of the desktop. This may be portrayed by one of several
icons depending on the desktop environment used.
*eneric *$2%E %ain %enu button
6edora7)ed 8at %ain %enu button
3licking on this will bring up the %enu System as shown in
the figure below.
Fig. The enu System
6rom the %enu System you can start many of the
applications installed on your -inu( system. $ote that the
%enu System consists of a %ain %enu panel and sub-menu
panels. Each entry in the %enu System which has an arrow
on its right means that it is an entry point to a sub-menu
and there can be sub-menus within each sub-menu. In
this way applications in the %enu System can be organised
and categorised for easy reference and access.
To access a the sub-menu associated with a menu entry
move the mouse and rest it on the menu entry in 9uestion
and a sub-menu panel will appear.
Fig. ain enu and Sub-menu
3licking once on a menu entry will cause an application
associated with it to be launched i.e. e(ecuted.
THE PANEL
The long bar across the bottom of the desktop screen is
called the ,anel. The ,anel contains the %ain %enu icon
the application launcher icons a notification area and
applets.
Fig. The Panel
Installed by default are several application launcher icons
on the ,anel. 3licking on one of these will run an
application. 3ommonly accessed applications can be
added to the ,anel and those that are less fre9uently used
can be taken off.
The notification area holds alert icons so that the user can
be alerted to critical messages.
0pplets are small applications that run on the ,anel. These
usually perform useful and informative tasks like setting
the sound level of the soundcard monitoring whether the
system software needs an update etc. #y default the
following applets are run.
The Workspace Switcher
The graphical desktop can be regarded as a workspace
drawing an analogy with the working area on a real
physical tabletop. ,rograms are run documents displayed
and files opened on the workspace. To cut down on
workspace clutter and to enable the user to organise his
workspace more efficiently the graphical desktop
environment allows the usage of multiple workspaces.
Each workspace can be considered as a virtual desktop.
Fig. The !orkspace S"itcher
#y default the user has 4 desktop workspace areas to work
on. The workspace switcher represents each workspace as
a small s9uare and shows the applications running in each
of them. To access a workspace click on the s9uare with
the mouse.
The Taskbar
The Taskbar applet is located ne(t to the workspace
switcher and shows the titles of all the running applications
in a virtual desktop (a workspace).
THE DESKTOP SPACE
The &esktop space refers to the rest of the screen. It
contains icons which are graphical representations of short-
cuts to application launchers file folders files and
peripheral devices like floppy disks 3&-)2% drives and
printers. &ouble-clicking on an icon representing an
application will launch or e(ecute the application.
3ommonly used applications and7or files7folders are usually
placed on the desktop space.
Fig. The Desktop Space
USING THE WINDOW MANAGER
0n interactive application that is run on the graphical
desktop is usually displayed inside a window. This window
can be accessed and manipulated using the window
manager.
Fig. An Application !indo" Frame
THE TITLEBAR
:hen an application is started an application window opens
and a frame (see figure above) is placed around the
window of the application. The top edge of the frame has a
titlebar that contains the title of the application.
Fig. The !indo" Titlebar
0t the left hand corner of the titlebar is the :indow %enu
button. 3licking on this button will open up the :indow
%enu.
Fig. The !indo" enu
!ou can perform operations such as minimise (un)
ma(imise roll up move and resi;e the window from this
menu. 0t the right edge of the titlebar there are three
buttons which allow you to minimise (un)ma(imise and
close the window.
To perform an operation in the :indow %enu open the
menu by clicking on the :indow %enu button and then
select the desired operation.
MANIPULATING THE WINDOW
Some basic instructions to manipulate the windowing
system are given here. %ore details can be obtained by
running the "8elp' application on the %ain %enu. 0fter
running the 8elp application choose5
&esktop --< :indows --< %anipulating :indows
Focus
In order for a window to receive input from the mouse and
the keyboard it has to be the window "in focus'. 2nly one
window can have focus at a time. :indows that are not in
focus have their titlebars greyed-out. To focus on a
window place the mouse on the titlebar and click on it.
(!ou can actually click anywhere within the window but it
is safer to click on the titlebar since there is no possibility of
accidentally clicking on some item selection or functionality
of the application running within the window.) If the
window is not visible you can click on the taskbar on the
,anel at the bottom of the &esktop to bring into focus the
window you want.
Maximise and Minimise
%a(imising a window means that the window is e(panded
to cover the whole desktop while minimising it means that
the window is taken off the desktop and it appears as an
icon in the taskbar on the ,anel.
!ou can ma(imise a window which has focused from the
:indow %enu or by clicking on the ma(imise button on the
titlebar. !ou can similarly minimise the window. If the
window does not have focus bring it into focus first by
clicking on the taskbar on the ,anel.
Resize
!ou can resi;e a window i.e. change its si;e by placing the
mouse at an edge of the window and then drag the window
to the desired si;e.
Move
To move a window to another place on the desktop place
the mouse on the titlebar and drag the window to the
desired location.
Roll Up and Unroll
To roll up a window allows you to "roll up' the window
frame until what can be seen of the window is =ust the the
titlebar. !ou can perform this operation from the :indow
%enu.
To restore the window back to its original shape select the
unroll option from the :indow %enu.
Close
!ou can close a window which has focused from the
:indow %enu or by clicking on the close window button on
the titlebar. If the window does not have focus bring it into
focus first by clicking on the taskbar on the ,anel.
Note: *losing the window will terminate your application.
Move to Workspaces
The :indow %enu can be used to move the application
currently opened to another workspace or to all the
workspaces.
EXERCISES
1. 2pen your home folder from the %ain %enu. ,erform
the following operations on the opened window5
ma(imise it
minimise it
resi;e it
roll it up
unroll it
move it to another position on the &esktop
place it on workspace .
close the window
ENDING THE SESSION
To end this chapter you can e(it your session on the
desktop by performing what is known as a logout.
If you do not want to use the system anymore you can
turn it off by performing a system shutdown.
LOGOUT
:hen you have finished working on the system you will
need to logout. -ogging out will inform the system that
you are no longer using the system>s resources. 0ll the
files opened and programs run by you will be closed and7or
stopped unless you have specifically informed the system
to keep them open or running for you.
To logout at the %ain %enu select5
%ain %enu --< -ogout
and at the dialog window select logout and click 2?
Fig. Logout Dialog !indo"
SHUTTING DOWN THE SYSTEM
:hen you have finished using the computer and want to
power it off you will have to perform a system shutdown.
Note:
+t is very important that a proper system shutdown is
performed. You should not ,ust turn off the power switch
of the computer to shut it down. )ailure to observe this
may lead to system software and data corruption and
failure.
To shutdown at the %ain %enu perform a logout. Then at
the graphical login screen select the "Shut down' option at
the bottom of the screen. Sometimes (depending on the
login screen chosen) the Shutdown option is available as a
sub-option under the 0ctions option at the bottom of the
screen.
0lternatively on some systems you may be able to
perform a shut down by performing a log out operation as
described in the previous section but instead of selecting
"-og out' select the "Shut down' option from the -ogout
dialog.

Chapter 2: Using the
Desktop
BASIC DESKTOP CUSTOMISATION
The desktop can be customised to your preferences and
tastes in a variety of ways. Here we will explore some basic
customisations. More details can be obtained by running the
Help application on the Main Menu. After running the Help
application choose
!esktop ""# $asic %references
Desktop Background
The background image displayed on the desktop can be
changed by running the $ackground application from the
Main Menu &this is in the %references sub"menu'.
Main Menu ""# %references ""# $ackground
To change the background image( click on the s)uare
marked *elect picture. An image selector dialog is
displayed. +hoose an image from the dialog. ,f you want to
choose an image from another directory( click the $rowse
button. -hen you have chosen an image( click ./.
Fig. Selecting a New Background image
Desktop Themes
The desktop theme specifies the visual appearance of the
panels( applets( and windows. The desktop theme may also
specify the appearance of interface items in applications. 0or
example( the theme affects the appearance of buttons(
scrollbars( check boxes( and so on in the applications.
The theme used by the !esktop can be changed by running
the Theme application from the Main Menu &this is in the
%references sub"menu'.
Main Menu ""# %references ""# Theme
An theme selector dialog is displayed. To change the theme(
click on a new theme. The screenshot below shows a sample
of some of the themes which may be available. 1ote that
the actual themes available can vary from system to system.
Fig. Selecting a New Theme
Default Fonts
The default fonts used to display applications and the
desktop background can be changed by running the 0onts
application from the Main Menu &this is in the %references
sub"menu'.
Main Menu ""# %references ""# 0ont
A selector dialog for the application( window title( dialog and
terminal fonts are displayed. To change the font for each
category of usage( click on the space listing the font.
Fig. Selecting New Fonts
Menus and Toolbars
The Menus 2 Toolbars tool is used to customise the
appearance of menus( menubars( and toolbars. Again this
can be run from the %references sub"menu in the Main Menu.
Main Menu ""# %references ""# Menus 2 Toolbars
3xperiment on each of the settings to get the ones preferred.
Fig. Customising Menus and Toolbars
EXERCISES

3xperiment with each of the following desktop preferences
background
themes
fonts
menus and toolbars
USING THE DESKTOP
The !esktop provides a useful metaphor for a modern office
work environment. *o on the !esktop we find that the
applications that we want to run can easily be started or
launched and the information and data that we need can
easily be located.
RUNNING APPLICATIONS
Applications that we can run from the !esktop are to be
found either from the Main Menu &and sub"menus therein'( or
as icons on the %anel and the !esktop itself.
To run an application from the Main Menu( open up the menu
&or sub"menu' and click on the application listed in the menu
bar.
To run an application from the %anel( click once on the icon
representing the application.
To run an application from the !esktop itself( double"click
on the icon representing the application.
*ometimes it is more handy to have the application as an
icon on the %anel or !esktop where you can launch it more
easily by 4ust clicking on it( rather than in the Main Menu(
especially if it is buried deep within several sub"menus. To
achieve this open the Main Menu and select the application
item listed in it by clicking with the right mouse button. +lick
on the selection Add this launcher to panel and a copy of
the application icon will be placed on the %anel.
To make a copy of this on the !esktop( you can drag the icon
from the %anel over to the !esktop.
To delete an application icon from the %anel right"click on it
and select the 5emove from %anel option.
To delete an application icon from the !esktop( right"click
on it and select the Move to Trash option.
THE PANEL
The %anel houses many useful utilities called applets.
Applets are small applications that run on the %anel. As
discussed in +hapter .ne( by default( the taskbar and the
workspace switcher applets are placed and run on the %anel.
.ther useful applets that may be placed on the %anel
include
clock
sticky notes
volume control
Placing an Applet on the Panel
To place an applet on the %anel( move the mouse over to an
empty space on the %anel and right"click it. *elect the item
6Add to %anel6 and from the sub"menus select the applet to
place on the %anel. 0or example to place the 6sticky notes6
applet( select
Add to %anel ""# Accessories ""# *ticky 1otes
To prevent accidental removal of an applet( you can lock it
on the %anel by right"clicking on its icon and selecting
67ock6.
Removing an Applet from the Panel
To remove an applet( right"click on the applet icon and select
65emove from %anel6. ,f the applet is locked( you will have to
unlock it first by right"clicking on the icon and selecting
68nlock6.
Configuring the Panel
To change the properties of the %anel( right"click on the
%anel and select 6%roperties6.
Fig. General Properties of the Panel
0rom the general properties menu you can change the
orientation( si9e and &un'hide the %anel.
0rom the background properties menu( you can change the
colour of the %anel as well as its visual appearance.
LAUNCHERS
7aunchers allow the user a )uick way to access specific
resources on the system. 0or example if a user needs to
access a specific file in one of the folders often( he can
create a launcher to run an application to open the file and
this launcher can be placed it on the !esktop. ,n this way
the resource &the file' can be accessed very )uickly by 4ust
double"clicking on it.
To create a launcher on the !esktop( right"click on an empty
area on the !esktop and select the item 6+reate 7auncher6.
3nter the 1ame and the +ommand to run and if you want
you can select an icon for it by clicking on the icon button.
Fig. Creating a auncher
EXERCISES
:. The Mo9illa web browser is a popular web browser
application for 7inux systems. ,t has an easily
recognisable icon ; a red dinosaur head.
7ocate the Mo9illa application in the Main Menu and place
it on the %anel as well as the !esktop.
7aunch the Mo9illa application from
the !esktop
the Main Menu
the %anel
<. +onfigure the %anel so that it has the following
properties
a background colour of solid blue
contains the =eyes and *creenshot &locked' applets
>. +reate a launcher to run the text editor command 6gedit6
on the !esktop. 8se an appropriate icon for the text
editor.
SETTING THE DATE AND TIME
,t is important that the date and time are set correctly in
your system. This will make it easier to manage the system
resources and files and also aid in troubleshooting any
problems. To set the date and time( run the !ate 2 Time
application tool from the *ystem *ettings sub"menu under
the Main Menu.
Main Menu ""# *ystem *ettings ""# !ate 2 Time
Alternatively you can right"click on the clock &time' applet
display on the %anel and choose Ad4ust !ate 2 Time.
A dialog box asking for the root password will appear if you
are not logged in as root. This is because the system date
and time are important system parameters and so only the
system administrator or root is allowed to do it. After
entering the correct root password( you can change the date
using the displayed calender and the time in the boxes
provided. *elect the Time ?one tab and check to see that
the time9one selected is correct. ,f not( correct it by
selecting the appropriate time9one region. 8sually the
system uses the local time( so do not select the *ystem
clock uses 8T+ checkbox.
Fig. Setting the !ate and Time
+lick on the ./ button after all is done to enable the new
date and time. @ou can check for the new date and time by
resting your mouse over the clock &time' applet display on
the %anel at the bottom of the screen.
EXERCISES
:. %ractice setting the date and time.
<. %ractice changing the appearance of the desktop clock
Chapter 3: Files and
Folders
THE FILE SYSTEM
One of the most powerful features of a modern computer
system is the ability to store data in a form which can be
easily retrieved and transported or copied across to other
computer systems or media. Data created and accessed by
a user in the computer is stored in what is called a file. This
concept of an electronic file to store electronic data mimics
the physical world usage of a file to store data written on
paper. This mimicry is carried further by the organisation of
these electronic files into electronic folders or directories.
Like a physical folder, an electronic folder can contain very
many files. A folder may also have sub-folders or sub-
directories.
Note:
We shall be using the terms folder and directory
interchangeably, unless stated otherwise.
Fig. The Hierarchical File System
iles and folders can be created, copied, moved !i.e.
transferred" and deleted. The folders themselves are
organised in a hierarchical manner starting at the root of the
file system. #ach user is given a home directory and upon
logging in, the user is placed in his home directory.
OWNERSHIPS AND PERMISSIONS
As the system is set up to handle multiple users
concurrently, it needs to have in place mechanisms with
which it can control the security and privacy of the file
system. $t needs to be able to control access to the file
system resources for each individual user. $n addition it also
has to be able to control access at a group level i.e. users
who belong to the same group can be given certain
privileges with respect to the file system operations. To be
able to perform these features, associated with each file or
folder are the categories%
owner
group
others
and the file permissions%
read !r"
write !w"
e&ecute !&"
and the directory permissions%
read !r"
write !w"
access !&"
Associated with a file are the categories owner, group and
others and the permissions which these have on the file.
The userid of the user who creates a file by default becomes
the owner of the file. 'serids on the system are assigned to
one or more groups. (hen a userid is created on the
system, a group which has the same name as the userid is
also created and the new userid belongs to this group. )y
default this group !which has the same name as the file
owner" is associated with the file. All of the other userids on
the system which are not the owner of the file or belong to
the group associated with the file, are placed in the category
others .
)y default the owner has read and write permission for a
non-e&ecutable file and read,write and e&ecute permission
for an e&ecutable file. The group associated with the file has
read permission for a non-e&ecutable file and read, e&ecute
rights for an e&ecutable file. The others group has read only
permission for non-e&ecutable file and read, e&ecute rights
for an e&ecutable file.
The rights and ownership concepts described above apply to
directories too. *owever since a directory cannot be
e&ecuted, access rights is substituted for e&ecution rights.
Access to a directory means that the userid with the
appropriate permission can descend into the directory !i.e.
change directory to it".
The ile +anager application described below may be used
to view and modify the ownership and permissions of a file or
folder. Only the owner of a file,folder can change its
permissions and only the superuser or root can change the
ownership of a file,folder.
USING THE FILE MANAGER
As it is possible for a user to create and store hundreds and
thousands of files and folders, a ile +anager is needed to
assist the user to manage and manipulate these files and
the file system on which it resides.
$n this section a brief description of the ile +anager and
how to use it is given. or more details you should consult
the -*elp. application on the +ain +enu. rom the *elp
application choose%
Desktop --/ 0autilus ile +anager
To start using the ile +anager double-click on the home
directory icon on the desktop. !This may be named
-username's *ome. where username is the username of the
user currently logged in."
Fig. The File Manager
)y default, the ile +anager window consists of a side pane
and a main view pane. At the top of the window 1ust under
the window titlebar, are the menu bar and the location bar.
The view pane displays the files and folders contained in the
current directory that the user is in. These can be displayed
folder
sub-folder file
file file
as icons !default" or changed to display them as a listing of
filenames.
The side pane contains an icon that represents the current
file or current folder. The side pane also contains information
about the current file or current folder. A hierarchical !tree"
view of the file system on the computer can be obtained
from the side pane. )y navigating through this, you can
access files and folders outside your home directory
!provided of course that you have the permission to do so".
Fig. The Side Pane with a Tree View of Folders
ACCESSING FILES AND PROGRAMS
rom the view pane of the ile +anager, you can open files
as well as run !launch" e&ecutable programs by double-
clicking on the icon representing them.
Creating New Folders
To create a new folder under the folder you are currently in,
move the mouse to the menu bar at the top !1ust beneath
the titlebar of the window" and click on ile and then click on
2reate older. A new folder will appear on the view pane and
you will have to type in the name of the new folder.
2opy iles and olders
To copy a file, click on the file in the view pane to select it.
Then select from the menu bar at the top,
#dit --/ 2opy ile
0e&t open up the folder in which you want to copy the file to
and then select from the menu bar at the top,
#dit --/ 3aste iles
Another way to copy a file is to right click on the file icon and
then select -2opy ile.. Then navigate to the icon of the
folder where you want the copy to be placed in and then
right click on the folder icon and select -3aste iles into
older..
The procedures above can be done with folders too.
To copy more than one file or folder at a time, select multiple
files,folders by holding down the 2T4L key while clicking on
the files or folders.
Moving Files and Folders
+oving a file or folder is different from copying in that a copy
of the file,folder is not made, i.e. only one copy of the
file,folder e&ists, and the file,folder is transferred from one
folder to another.
To move a file, click on the file in the view pane to select it.
Then select from the menu bar at the top,
#dit --/ 2ut ile
0e&t open up the folder in which you want to move the file to
and then select from the menu bar at the top,
#dit --/ 3aste iles
Another way of moving a file is to drag and drop the file into
the destination folder.
The procedures above can be done with folders too.
To move more than one file or folder at a time, select
multiple files,folders by holding down the 2T4L key while
clicking on the files or folders.
Renaming Files and Folders
To rename a file, click on the file in the view pane to select it.
Then select from the menu bar at the top,
#dit --/ 4ename
and then type in the new name.
Alternately you can also right-click on the file and then select
-4ename. .
The procedures above can be done with folders too.
Deleting Files and Folders
To delete a file, click on the file in the view pane to select it.
Then select from the menu bar at the top,
#dit --/ +ove to Trash
Alternately you can select the file and then use the D#L#T#
key on the keyboard to delete the file. This has the same
effect as above of moving the file to the Trash folder.
$t is still possible to salvage a deleted file from the Trash. To
do this double-click on the Trash icon on the desktop to open
up the Trash folder. Then you can move the file you want to
salvage to the desired folder. 0ote that if you delete the file
from the Trash then it cannot be recovered anymore.
The procedures above can be done with folders too.
To delete more than one file or folder at a time, select
multiple files,folders by holding down the 2T4L key while
clicking on the files or folders.
Viewing and Modifying the Permissions of a
File or Folder
To view the owner and group of a file,folder and,or to modify
its permission settings, select the file,folder and select from
the menu bar at the top,
ile --/ 3roperties
2lick on the 3ermissions tab. The owner and group of the
file,folder are displayed as well as the associated
permissions.
Fig. Ownership and Permission Properties of a File
To change the permissions, modify the check bo&es
accordingly to the new permissions desired. 2lick on 2lose
to apply the changes.
Note:
It is recommended that you do not modify the default
file/folder permission settings unless you know what you are
doing. This is to minimise the risk of compromising the
security of the files and folders.
THE TRASH CAN
The trash can icon on the desktop contains files and folders
which you have deleted using the ile +anager or an
application run from the desktop. As noted above it is a
special folder in which in is still possible to move back the
deleted items to another folder so as to -undelete. them.
*owever over time, the trash folder will be filled up as many
files and folders get deleted through usage. 5o it is a good
idea to periodically empty or delete the items found in the
trash.
To empty the trash, right-click on the trash icon and select
-#mpty Trash.. Otherwise you can open the trash by
double-clicking on it and then select to delete all the items in
the trash folder using the ile +anager functions described
above.
EXERCISES
6. 'se the ile +anager to perform the following%
2reate a new folder called testdir under the home
directory
2opy the following files into the folder testdir:
,etc,services, ,etc,hosts
Access the testdir folder%
Open the two files there to view their contents, then
close them
4ename the file hosts to hosts.backup and serices to
serices.copy
+ove the file hosts.backup to the ,usr,tmp directory
Delete the file serices.copy
+ove up to the home directory
Delete the folder testdir
Launch the application !eyes found in the folder /usr/"##
$%/bin
7. 2heck the trash can and restore the deleted file!s" there
USING A TEXT EDITOR
8ery often it is necessary to use the computer to input some
te&t or to modify the data in a te&t file. (hile a full-fledged
word processor like OpenOffice.org9s (riter may be used, it
can be an overkill since the sophisticated features and
formatting available with a word processor are not needed in
many cases. A te&t editor can be used instead. The Linu&
system comes installed with many te&t editors. $n this
section we shall be looking at how to use a te&t editor which
comes with the :0O+# Desktop - gedit.
Note:
& te!t file here refers to a a file which contains pure te!t
printing characters only. 'ome types of files e.g. those created
by a word processor, while appearing to be te!t(only actually
contain other non(printing characters and hence are not pure(
te!t files.
Starting Gedit
:edit may be started from the +ain +enu,
+ain +enu --/ Accessories --/ Te&t #ditor
Fig The Gedit Text Editor
After gedit has started, you can immediately type in te&t into
the main edit window. The mouse is also used e&tensively in
gedit, to move around the document as well as to perform
editing functions.
Inputing e!t
Te&t can be entered by simply typing into the main gedit
window. )y default the te&t will wrap to the ne&t line when it
reaches the border of the editing window.
Mar"ing e!t
The mouse may be used to mark a block of te&t by clicking
on the beginning of the block and dragging the mouse to the
end of the block before releasing it.
Deleting e!t
Te&t can be deleted one character at a time by moving the
mouse to the character in ;uestion and using the D#L#T#
and )A2<53A2# keys in the normal fashion.
$f there is a lot of te&t to be deleted, a more efficient way to
delete te&t is to mark it first and then press the D#L#T# key
on the keyboard.
Copy# Cut and Paste
Te&t can be edited by marking it first and then selecting 2ut,
or 2opy from the buttons at the top. =2utting= will result in
the marked te&t being copied into a storage buffer and then
deleted from the editing window, while =2opying= will result
in 1ust a copy of the te&t being copied into the storage buffer
without the deletion of the original te&t. The te&t cut,copied
in this way can then be pasted into another part of the
document by moving the mouse to the desired location and
selecting the 3aste button at the top.
Another way of invoking these functions is to click on the
#dit option on the top menu bar and selecting the desired
function, e.g.
#dit --/ 2ut
#dit --/ 2opy
#dit --/ 3aste
$ndo
After performing an editing function, e.g. deleting a block of
te&t, you can undo the action by clicking on the 'ndo button
at the top. The 'ndo function can also be invoked using the
#dit menu selection at the top.
Saving e!t
The te&t typed in can be saved by clicking on the ile option
on the main menu bar at the top and selecting,
ile --/ 5ave As ...
+ove to the folder you want to save the file in and enter the
name of the file to save.
Find and Repla%e
The ind button can be used to locate a te&t string. )y
default this search is not case sensitive and will also locate
the te&t if it is part of a word. These default options can be
changed from the ind dialog.
The 4eplace button can be used to locate a te&t string and
replacing it with another. Again the default options of non-
case sensitive and matching part of a word can be changed.
The ind and 4eplace functions can also be performed using
the 5earch menu selection at the top.
&pening ' File
>ou can edit a te&t document already saved on the system
by opening it. rom the main menu at the top choose,
ile --/ Open
and select the file to open.
Preferen%es
3references can be set from the 3references menu selection,
#dit --/ 3references
The 3references you can set include the font, colour and
point si?e to be used, tab spacing, autowrapping, and
autoindenting.
(elp
+ore information on how to use gedit can be obtained by
selecting *elp from the menu at the top.
EXERCISES
6. 'se the gedit te&t editor to type in the first page of this
guide. 5ave the document in a file on your home folder.
7. Open the saved file and edit it by%
deleting the second paragraph on page one
adding the statement -#nd of 2hapter. to the last
page
save the edited document as a new file
Chapter 4: Using
Common Mass Storage
Peripherals
Besides the main components which make up the modern
PC, there are many optional peripherals which can be
attached to it and when these are properly utilised they can
contribute to make the computing environment and
experience more convenient, productive and pleasant. The
more common peripherals include:
printer
scanner
mass storage devices

In this chapter we shall be looking at how to access and use
the common peripheral mass storage devices,
loppy disk drive
C!"#$% drive
&'B mass storage device
C!"#( drive
'etting up and using a printer and scanner will be covered in
the next chapter.
Note:
The method for accessing the mass storage peripherals
described below are based on GNOME version 2.4. A new
version of GNOME version 2.! came o"t while this g"ide is
being written. #n GNOME 2.! the right$clic%ing on the &es%top
and selecting &is%s method has been deprecated. The new
method is to "se the 'omp"ter icon located on the &es%top.
&o"ble$clic% on the 'omp"ter icon and it will displa( all the
s(stem devices as well as the files(stem.
Fig. Accessing System Devices and Filesystem in
GNOME 2.6
THE FLOPPY DISK DRIVE
(hile most o the work is done using the hard disk or drive
and system and user data are stored on the hard drive,
sometimes you may want to transer or copy iles to another
PC. $ne convenient way to perorm this provided that the
ile si)es are not too large is to use a loppy disk or diskette.
!iskettes are very useul as a portable storage medium or
small iles.
Mounting and Using the Diskette
Beore a diskette can be used, you have to perorm an
operation called *mounting+ the diskette. This is to let the
system know that you are going to use and access the
diskette in the loppy drive.
To mount a diskette, move the mouse to an empty area on
the !esktop and right"click it. ,rom the pop"up menu select,
!isks ""- ,loppy
Fig. Mounting a Floppy
.&nder the new version o /0$%1, disk access is done by
right"clicking on the Computer icon on the desktop and
selecting ,loppy. 'ee the 0ote at the top o this chapter.2
This will mount the loppy and add a loppy icon on the
desktop. !ouble"clicking on this will list out the iles and
olders in the loppy under the ,ile %anager.
$nce you have successully mounted the diskette and listed
out its directory contents under the ,ile %anager, you can
treat it like another older to read and write iles and olders.
3owever, you have to bear in mind some dierences
between the loppy diskette older and the normal older you
have been working with.
The diskette has a very low storage capacity compared with
the hard disk4 a loppy diskette typically will have about 5.66
%B o storage capacity only. In contrast a hard disk will have
at least a ew hundred %B o storage capacity at the
minimum7
I the write"protect tab on the diskette is enabled, then the
diskette can be used or reading only, i.e. you can read the
contents o the iles on it only. 8ou cannot write to the iles,
and so you cannot modiy and9or create new iles or olders.
:ter using the diskette, you will need to unmount it beore
you take o the diskette rom the loppy drive. To unmount
the diskette, right"click on the loppy icon on the desktop and
select *1;ect+. This will unmount the diskette and the loppy
icon will disappear rom the !esktop. $nce this has
happened, you can saely remove the diskette rom the
loppy drive.
Note:
#t is important that (o" "nmo"nt the dis%ette before removing
it from the flopp( drive especiall( if it has been mo"nted for
writing. )ail"re to do so ma( res"lt in incomplete data being
written to the dis%ette and corr"ption of the file s(stem on the
dis%ette.
Formatting the Diskette
Beore a diskette can be used it has to be *ormatted+ irst.
This will create the directory structures and other
inormation needed or the system to keep track o where the
data is stored on the diskette. 8ou need to ormat a diskette
once only. 8ou can subse<uently ormat it again ater using
it or some time but re"ormating will result in the loss o the
original contents o the diskette.
To ormat a diskette, you can use the loppy ormatter
selection rom the %ain %enu.
%ain %enu ""- 'ystem Tools ""- ,loppy ,ormatter
Fig. Floppy Formatter Dialog
Choose the deault loppy density o 5.66 %B and the !$'
.,:T2 ile system type. This will enable the diskette to be
read on almost all commonly used operating systems
including %icrosot (indows.
EXERCISES
5. ,ormat a loppy diskette, mount it or read"write and copy
the ollowing iles9olders ound in the 9etc directory to it:
hosts, termcap, motd and rc.d.
=. &nmount the diskette, mount it again and copy its entire
contents to the older tmp in your home directory .create
this older i it is not there2. &nmount the diskette ater
the copying.
THE CD-ROM DRIVE
0owadays the C!"#$% is widely used as a means to store
and distribute data and inormation. : typical >.=>+ C!"#$%
can store up to ?@@ %B o data. It is thus ideal as a medium
or distributing large iles, multimedia games and sotware
packages.
By deault when a C!"#$% is placed in the drive it is
automatically mounted and the ,ile %anager will open it to
display its directory contents. I it is not automounted, then
it can be mounted by moving the mouse to an empty area on
the !esktop and right"click it. ,rom the pop"up menu select,
!isks ""- C!"#$%
.&nder the new version o /0$%1, disk access is done by
right"clicking on the Computer icon on the desktop and
selecting C!"#$%. 'ee the 0ote at the top o this chapter.2
This will mount the C! and add a C! icon on the desktop.
!ouble"clicking on this will list out the iles and olders in the
C!"#$% under the ,ile %anager. The ,ile %anager can then
be used to access the iles and olders on the C!. 'ince the
C!"#$% is a read"only medium, you can only read the
contents o the C! and not write to it.
:ter using the C!, you will need to unmount it beore you
take it o the C!"#$% drive. To unmount the C!, right"click
on the C! icon on the desktop and select *1;ect+. This will
unmount the C! and the C! icon will disappear rom the
desktop.
THE USB MASS STORAGE DEVICE
:nother popular portable storage medium is the &'B mass
storage device .sometimes also known as a thumb drive2.
Aike the loppy diskette you can read and write to a thumb
drive but it has the advantage o storing much more data
than a diskette. Thumb drive devices o capacities B= %B,
C6, 5=D %B etc. are common.
To access the thumb drive, place it in the &'B slot .port2
provided and move the mouse to an empty area on the
desktop and right"click it. ,rom the pop"up menu select,
!isks ""- usb
Note:
This ass"mes that the s(stem (o" are "sing has been set "p
with the name of *"sb+ for the th"mb drive, it can be another
name -c"stomisable..
/nder GNOME 2.! -see the Note at the beginning of this
chapter. the th"mb drive is accessed b( do"ble$clic%ing on the
'omp"ter icon on the &es%top and is refered to b( the name
*)lash+
'omp"ter $$0 )lash
This will mount the &'B thumb drive and add a thumb drive
icon on the desktop. !ouble"clicking on this will list out the
iles and olders in the thumb drive under the ,ile %anager.
8ou can then treat it like another older to read and write
iles and olders.
:ter inishing with the thumb drive, you will need to
unmount it by right"clicking on the thumb drive icon on the
desktop and selecting *&nmount Eolume+, beore removing
it rom the &'B port.
THE CD-RW DRIVE
(hile the C!"#$% drive is very useul as a portable storage
medium due to its high capacity and low cost, it suers rom
the disadvantage that it is a read"only medium.
To overcome this, many PCs are sold nowadays with drives
which enable you to record data onto C!"# .C! recordable2
and C!"#( .C! rewritable2 disks. The ormer reers to a C!
medium which allows you to record to it only once, while
with a C!"#( disk it is possible to rewrite data to it multiple
times.
Note:
1hile a '&$21 drive s"pports both '2$2 and '&$21
f"nctionalities the '& medi"m that (o" "tilise determines
whether (o" can write data to it onl( once -'2$2. or m"ltiple
times -'&$21.. 3o it is important that (o" b"( the correct
medi"m t(pe for the f"nction that (o" want.
CD-CREATOR
The ,ile %anager has a acility which enables a user to copy
iles and olders very easily to a C!"#( drive. To use this
eature, start the ,ile %anager and rom the menu bar at the
top select,
/o ""- C! Creator
and the C! Creator window will be displayed. The iles and
olders which are to be copied .burned2 onto the C!"#.(2
disk are to be placed here in this window. To do this, open
up another window on the ,ile %anager,
,ile ""- $pen 0ew (indow
In the new ,ile %anager window, select the iles and olders
you want and drag and drop them into the C! Creator
window. :ter you have inished selecting and dropping all
the iles and olders you want, go to the Cd Creator window
and click on the F(rite to C!F button at the top. : dialog
box will open up and rom here you can choose the writing
speed, the C! name and other options. The deault settings
may be used i you do not know what to ill in here.
To start the burning, click on the F(rite iles to C!F button in
the dialog box. : status window showing the status o the
C! burning will be displayed.
GNOMETOASTER
(hile the C! Creator application described above is very
convenient and easy to use, its unctionality is mainly limited
to the copying o iles9olders to a C!"#.(2. : more versatile
C! burning application is /nomeToaster. To start it select,
%ain %enu ""- 'ystem Tools ""- %ore 'ystem Tools
""- C! (riter
Fig GnomeToaster
Top Window - Data Sources
The /nomeToaster window has = main window sections. The
top window shows a list o data sources " &nix Tree, Internal
'tructure and C!#$% drives. The data sources are the
sources or the data to be copied and burned into the C!"#
.(2.
The &nix Tree represents the ile system on the computer.
Clicking on the G icon o the tree will expand it to display the
ile system, i.e. the hierarchical tree structure comprising
iles and directories .olders2. Clicking on a directory will
cause the iles in the directory to be displayed on the right
panel o the top window.
Clicking on C!#$% drives will expand into a listing o the C!"
#$% drives present in the system and clicking on one o the
drives will display the tracks in it on the right panel.
Note:
#f (o" have a '&$2OM drive and it is not displa(ed on the
GnomeToaster '&2OM drives listing (o" ma( have to
ph(sicall( enter (o"r '&$2OM drive device information into the
GnomeToaster config"ration set"p so that the application can
recognise it. To perform this clic% on the 4references b"tton
at the top and select *'&2OM and 2ecorder 3et"p+. 'lic% on
the Add b"tton at the bottom to displa( the set"p window.
Enter the '&$2OM drive data for (o"r s(stem. )or the model
and man"fact"rer (o" can enter the information mar%ed on
(o"r '&$2OM drive or if (o" do not %now what the( are (o"
can 5"st enter an( meaningf"l te6t description. The &evice )ile
entr( will probabl( be *7dev7cdrom+ while the Mo"ntpoint
entr( is "s"all( *7mnt7cdrom+. )or the 3csi #& "se the defa"lt
val"e of *88+. Ens"re that the bo6es entitled *This &rive is a
'& writer+ and */se 3'3# #nterface for &AE+ are not mar%ed.
'lic% on O9 to appl( the settings and clic% on O9 again to e6it
the *'&2OM and 2ecorder 3et"p+ window.
Fig GnomeToaster D!OM and !ecorder Setup
The '&$2OM drive sho"ld now be visible in the '&2OM drives
tree listing panel. :o" can now "se it as a so"rce of data for
b"rning.
'lic%ing on #nternal 3tr"ct"res will displa( the *GnomeToaster$
)iles(stem+ on the right panel.
Bottom Window
(riting data to the C!"#.(2 involves selecting the data rom
the data sources window described above and dragging and
dropping them into the bottom window panel. The bottom
window has three possible selections H the virtual ilesystem,
the track editor and the recorder settings. 1ach o these can
be selected by clicking on the icons in the let panel o the
bottom window.
The virtual ilesystem represents a view o the ilesystem
setup in a track o the C!"#.(2 to be written to later. 0ote
that this is not part o the actual ilesystem on your
computer and so manipulating the iles here will not aect
the ones in the computer ilesystem. The virtual ilesystem
can be managed and edited by right"clicking the mouse .
The track editor shows you the tracks that you have selected
to be burned to the C!"#.(2. 8ou can edit them using the
track editor by right"clicking the mouse beore committing
them to be burned.
The recorder settings view enables you to change rom the
deault, the various parameters or recording, e.g. recording
speed etc.
FillstateStatus
:t the bottom o the /nomeToaster window is the ,illstate
status panel. This shows you the current space that will be
taken up by the selected tracks as a percentage o the space
available on the C!"#.(2. This space utilisation is also
displayed in megabyte .%B2 units as well as the audio
playing time.
Duplicating CDs
It is easy to make a duplicate o a C! using /nomeToaster.
The source C! should be placed into the C! drive and the
drive selected in the data source top window. The tracks in
the source C! will be displayed in the right window panel.
'elect the tracks you want .or all o it i you are duplicating
the C!2 and drag them into the tracklist panel in the bottom
window. The tracklist panel is displayed in the bottom
window right panel when the trackeditor is selected or the
bottom window.
:ter you have selected all the tracks you want, you should
select the recorder settings parameters. This is done by
clicking on the recorder settings button in the bottom
window let panel. &sually you need to change only the
recording speed to one which can be ade<uately supported
by your drive. The %ultisession box should usually be o
while the ,ixate box turned on.
To start the actual recording .burning2 o the C! click on the
#ecord button at the top o the /nomeToaster window.
Creating a Data CD
This section will discuss how you can copy iles and olders
rom the mounted ilesystem and record them into a C!"#
.(2. 'elect the iles and olders you want to copy rom the
&nix Tree in the !ata 'ource window at the top and drag
them into the virtual ilesystem right panel in the bottom
window .the virtual ilesystem will have to be selected irst in
the bottom window2. The iles and olders in the virtual
ilesystem can be edited by right"clicking on the mouse. 8ou
can create, delete and rename iles and directories .olders2.
8ou can also provide your own volume name to the data
trackIs volume id .deault name is C!#$%2 by selecting the
root entry in the ilesystem Is editor let panel and right"
clicking it. 'elect the *#ename E$A&%19!irectory+ option
and choose a new name or the volume.
:ter you have selected all the iles you want, you should
select the recorder settings parameters as above and then
start the recording.
Writing ISO Images
It is possible to copy and store all o the data on a C! in the
orm o what is known as an I'$ image ile ormat. I this I'$
image ile is then written to a C!, the new C! will be a
duplicate o the original one rom which the I'$ image was
created. This provides a convenient way o duplicating a
data C! i you can copy or download the I'$ image ile rom
another source to the ilesystem on your computer.
To write I'$ images to a C!"#.(2, select the I'$ image ile
rom the &nix Tree ilesystem data source window and drag
it into the tracklist panel window in the bottom window. :ter
that ensure that the recording settings are correct and click
on the record button at the top to start the burning.
elp
There are many more options and eatures which
/nomeToaster have, e.g. multisession burning, mixing audio
and digital data, working with C!"#( media etc. The
/nomeToaster documentation should be consulted or these
more advanced eatures. The /nomeToaster &serIs /uide
may be obtained rom:
"ttp#$$gnometoaster.rule%.org
Chapter 5: Using the
Printer and Scanner
While the holy grail of office computing may well be the
paperless office, for many users, it is often desirable and
indeed sometimes necessary to be able to put on hard copy
the information available on the computer. The printer
allows you to do that. The printer is essentially an output
device with which you are able to output text and graphics
onto paper from digital data stored on the computer. To
complement this, the scanner is an input device with which
you can transfer text and graphics from paper to the
computer and stored in the form of digital data which can
then be further manipulated by other software applications.
THE PRINTER
PRINTER SETUP AND CONFIGURATION
If you have a printer attached to your system you will need
to configure and set it up before you can use it properly. To
do this, click on the Print Manager icon on the Panel
Note:
To enable the system to detect your printer properly, you
should turn on the printer before trying to configure it.
When you are prompted to run the printer configuration tool
select !. "ou will then need to enter the root password
since you are now attempting to set and change some
system parameters and configuration. #t the printer
configuration screen click on the $ew button to add and
configure a new printer.
Fig. Printer Configuration
The #dd new print %ueue screen will be displayed. &elect
'orward.
Fig. Print Queue
'ill in the details for the print %ueue. (nter a uni%ue name for
the printer in the $ame field. This name must begin with a
letter and cannot contain spaces. "ou may also want to
enter a brief description of the printer. (nter 'orward to go
to the next screen.
Fig. Queue Type
&elect locally)connected for the %ueue type. &elect the
printer device by clicking on the device displayed on the
screen. If no device is shown click on *escan device button
for the system to check for the availability of the printer
device.
Note:
For a parallel printer the device name is usually /dev/lp0 and
for a US printer the name is usually /dev/usb/lp0.
&elect 'orward to go to the Printer model screen.
Fig. Printer Model Selection
The model of the printer should have been auto detected by
the system. If it is not, click on the pull)down menu to select
the manufacturer and the model of the printer. +lick on
'orward to go to the next screen.
Fig. Finish and Create New Print Queue
+onfirm that the printer information displayed on the screen
is correct. If so click on the 'inish button, otherwise click on
the ,ack button to go back and make further changes.
#fter clicking 'inish you will be asked whether you want to
print a test page. (nsure that the printer is connected and
online and answer yes to it. +heck to see if the test page is
printed properly. If it is, click on the #pply button in the
Printer configuration screen to add this printer to the system.
#fter setting up the printer you can delete it or edit its
properties anytime by clicking on the Print Manager icon on
the Panel. The Print Manager screen will be displayed.
Fig. Print Manager
*ight click on the printer in %uestion and select Properties.
&elect the print %ueue in %uestion and click on the (dit
button to make changes or the -elete button to remove it
from the system.
Note:
!f you delete all the print "ueues associated #ith a printer , the
printer itself #ill be deleted from the system too and you #ill
have to set up a ne# printer again in order to print.
MANAGING PRINT JOBS
When you send something for printing from your application,
the data to be printed is stored in the print spooler area and
a print .ob is added to the print spooler %ueue. In this way
many printing .obs can be carried out without waiting for the
printer to finish printing a .ob first before accepting another
printing .ob. The Print Manager is used for managing the
print .obs associated with a given printer.
The Print Manager can be utilised to check on the status of
the printing .obs that you have submitted to the printer and
to cancel .obs still in the %ueue if you need to. To do this,
launch the Print Manager and then double)click on the icon
of the printer that you want to monitor. # list of current print
.obs in the %ueue is displayed. To cancel a print .ob,
highlight the .ob in %uestion and then click on the (dit button
on the menu bar on top and select +ancel -ocuments from
the pull down menu.
Fig: Status of Print Jobs in the Queue
USING THE PRINTER
$ormal usage of the printer from an application is
straightforward. &elect the printing function from your
application and a print .ob is then automatically submitted
to the printer %ueue.

EXERCISES
/. (dit the printer properties to change it to another printer
THE SCANNER
The scanner is a device which allows you to convert analog
graphics e.g. a photograph or a printed page into digital
format where it can be stored on the computer and further
manipulated by appropriate software. 'lat)bed scanners for
personal use are %uite common nowadays.
Most scanners connect to the computer using the 0&,, &+&I
or parallel ports. To use the scanner, suitable software to
control and drive it is re%uired. The &#$( backend drivers
may be used to drive the scanner hardware while the 1&ane
20I front)end acts as the end)user interface. To check
whether the scanner you have can be used, the &#$(
website at http344www.sane)pro.ect.org should be consulted.
USING THE SCANNER
"ou can start the scanning software on the -esktop, from
the Main Menu,
Main Menu ))5 2raphics ))5 &canning
This will invoke the 1&ane program and by default two
windows will be displayed, the Main 1sane window and the
Preview window.
Fig Sane Main !indow
There are 6 modes of viewing for this Main window 7 viewer,
save, copy, fax, mail3
viewer mode ) an image is scanned and displayed in the
viewer
save mode ) an image is scanned and saved to a file
copy mode ) an image is scanned and sent directly to a
printer
fax mode ) the scanned image can be sent to a back)end
fax software
mail mode ) an image is scanned and sent via email to
intended recipients.
The above modes can be selected in the Main window. In
addition, the following selections are also available 3
Scan"ode:
&elects the mode of scanning choices including colour,
grayscale, lineart.
Scansource:
&elects the source of scanning, e.g.3 'latbed, Transparency,
#utomatic -ocument 'eeder. This is only displayed if there
is more than one possible source of input for scanning.
Scan"ediu":
&elects the scan medium, e.g.3 slide, standard negative or
full colour range.
Scan resolution:
&elects the resolution that is to be used for scanning.
Preview
,efore the actual scanning of an image takes place, the
preview operation is usually carried out to preview the
scanned image. To perform the preview, place the image to
be scanned into the scanner and click on the 8#c%uire
preview9 button in the Preview window.
Fig Pre#iew !indow
#s the scanner will scan its entire scanner bed by default, if
you are scanning an image which occupies only a part of the
bed you will want to select only the area which holds the
image to be scanned. This can be done from the Preview
window in several ways. ne way is to manually select the
scan area frame by pressing and holding the left mouse
button to define one edge, moving the mouse so that the
area to scan is completely inside the frame :which is marked
by a dashed white line; and then releasing the mouse
button. #nother way is to select the #utoraise button and
then clicking on the image to be scanned. # frame is created
to mark the scan area. The mouse may be used to ad.ust
the scan area if it is not fully correct.
Scan
#fter the appropriate scan area has been chosen in the
Preview window, the image can be ad.usted and4or enhanced
for colour correction, contrast, and brightness. The gamma
value, brightness and contrast can be ad.usted manually in
the scan window before performing the scan. In addition, the
#utoenhancement button may be used to automatically
enhance and sharpen the scanned image for brightness and
contrast.
#fter a satisfactory image is seen in the preview window,
perform the actual scan by clicking on the scan button in the
main &can window. The scan will be performed and the
scanned image displayed in the <iewer window.
Save
The scanned image that is displayed in the <iewer window
can be saved to a file by selecting the operation, 'ile ))5
&ave image. The file name and image format to be saved in
can be chosen from the drop down menu selection.
#nother way of saving is to select the &ave mode, select the
filename and format to save the image in and then perform
the scan.
Help
More detailed information on how to use the scanner
software as well as changing the default configuration can be
obtained from the =elp menu selection. It also contains
useful general information about scanner and scanned
image technologies.
EXERCISES
/. Perform a scan of an entire photograph containing
several people or ob.ects.
>. 0sing the same photograph as for the previous exercise,
this time perform the scan for only the image of one
person or ob.ect.
Chapter 6: Multimedia
and Graphics Access
MULTIMEDIA ACCESS AND PLAYERS
Apart from being able to view and create graphics and other
images, the PC is capable of supporting a wide range of
audio and video features and facilities. These include the
playing of audio CDs, audio digital files, VCD and DVD as well
as multimedia games.
Note:
While support may be available in the software, the necessary
hardware has to be available before these multimedia facilities
can be used, e.g. a DVD drive is required to be present on the
system before you can play a DVD.
By default most modern PCs come with a CD!"# drive
capable of playing audio CDs and VCDs as well as a
soundcard and spea$ers. As such in this chapter we shall
discuss how you can listen to an audio CD, play audio digital
files and view VCDs.
%n the following sections we shall be discussing several
media players. &ome of these e.g. mplayer and 'ine are
multimedia players in that they can be used as generic
players for audio CD, digital audio files, VCD and DVD.
THE VOLUME CONTROL APPLET
&ince almost all the multimedia applications re(uire some
form of audio production and mi'ing, it is useful if we $now
how to control the various channels of audio available from
the sound card using the Volume Control Applet on the
Panel. This may be launched by rightclic$ing the Volume
Control icon on the Panel and selecting "pen Volume
Control. %f it is not there you can also launch it form the #ain
#enu,
#ain #enu ) &ound * Video ) Volume Control
Fig Volume Control Applet
The Volume Control application is essentially an audio mi'er
which enables you to mi' the audio for a +channel sound
card. As can be seen from the figure above the main
component for each audio channel is the ,fader-,
represented by a control $nob slider icon. The fader controls
the volume of the channel. %n addition each channel also
has a mute, record and loc$ button. The mute button mutes
the channel. The loc$ button loc$s the left and right
channels together so that when the fader is ad.usted both
channels are syncronised. The rec button is a toggle to turn
on or off the recording function of the soundcard on a
channel.
/sually the main channel that is controlled is the Volume
fader. To turn up 0or down1 the volume of an application, the
Volume fader may be manipulated. This can also be done by
clic$ing on the Volume Control applet on the Panel.
PLAYING AUDIO CDS
2ou can play an audio CD by placing the CD into the CD!"#
drive. The CD player application will be run automatically to
play the CD. 3nsure that your spea$ers are turned on so
that you can hear the CD4 2ou can also manually start the
CD Player application from the #ain #enu5
#ain #enu ) &ound * Video ) CD Player
Fig. CD Player
2ou can control the CD Player .ust li$e a normal CD player
with the buttons shown on the CD Player screen. These
include volume control, trac$ forward6bac$ward, play6pause,
stop, e.ect as well as .umping to any trac$ on the CD directly.
PLAYING DIGITAL AUDIO FILES
The 7##& 07 #ultimedia &ystem1 application can be utilised
to play a wide variety of digital audio file formats. These
include the popular #P8 as well as the open "gg Vorbis
formats. To launch 7##&, select 5
#ain #enu ) &ound * Video ) Audio Player
Fig. XMMS Player
Note:
X! may need additional plug"ins to be able to play some of
the audio file formats. #f these are not already installed on
your system they can be downloaded from the #nternet.
Again, you can control the 7##& player using the graphical
$nobs and buttons displayed. %n addition, you can select the
source of the audio files to play. To do this, rightclic$ on the
7##& player and from the popup menu select Play 9ile to
select the audio file to play. %f you want to be able to play an
audio file from the %nternet select Play :ocation and enter
the %nternet location of the file.
XMMS Skins
&$ins allow you to change the appearance of an application.
;ote that this change is cosmetic only and the functionalities
of the application are unaffected. To change the appearance
of the default 7##& Player, you can install the 'mmss$ins
pac$age which may be included in your :inu' distribution CD
%f it is not there then you will have to download it from the
7##& website. To change the s$in of the 7##& player, start
the 7##& application and then rightclic$ on it and select,
"ptions ) &$in Browser
to choose the s$in you want. 3'periment until you find a
s$in to your li$ing.
Fig XMMS Player using a Different Skin
PLAYING VCD AND DVD
There are several e'cellent applications readily available for
you to use to play VCD and DVD media. <ere we shall loo$
at two of them5 7ine and #player. These can also play CD
and digital audio music files.
Xine
The 'ine application may be used to play VCD and DVD. 2ou
can start 'ine from the #ain #enu5
#ain #enu ) &ound * Video ) 'ine
The 'ine user interface is highly intuitive as it resembles a
normal VCD6DVD player with all the basic control $nobs and
buttons.
Fig. Xine Control Panel
To play a VCD place the VCD into the CD!"# drive and clic$
on the VCD" button on the 'ine control panel.
To play a DVD place the DVD into the DVD drive and clic$ on
the DVD button on the 'ine control panel.
The volume control can be ad.usted by clic$ing on the
volume control button.
%n the event that the 'ine control panel interferes with the
playing screen image, you can hide it by rightclic$ing on the
panel itself and select =/% visibility. This will hide the 'ine
control panel. To bring bac$ the 'ine control panel rightclic$
on the playing screen and select =/% visibility again.
7ine is a very powerful multimedia application with many
features. %t can also play audio CDs as well as digital audio
files.
MPlayer
#player is a popular movie player for :inu'. %n addition to
being able to play VCD and DVD it is also able to handle a
wide variety of audio and video file and streaming data
formats. <ence it is useful to use #player as the universal
multimedia player. The #player =/% can be started from the
#ain #enu,
#ain #enu ) &ound * Video
) #ore &ound and Video Applications
) #ovie Player
"n start up, the main #player control screen and the
#player video output screens are displayed.
Fig. Mplayer Control Screen
Fig. Mplayer Video Screen
The control screen enables you to control the operations of
#player while the video screen displays any video that is
being played. %n addition rightclic$ing on the mouse when it
is inside either the control or video screens will also bring up
a menu for controlling the use of #player.
The #player control screen enables you to perform the
following5
start, stop and pause play
go to the ne't and previous stream
.ump to the first and last trac$s
ad.ust the sound balance
ad.ust the volume and mute
select files to play
set up a playlist
set the video and audio e(uali>er
configure preferences
e'it the #player application
All of the above functions are represented by intuitive $nob,
dial and button icons on the control screen ma$ing it very
easy to use #player.
To play a VCD, place the VCD in the CD!"# drive, move the
mouse over the control screen or video screen and rightclic$
it. &elect,
VCD ) "pen dis$
To play a DVD, perform the above for VCD but instead
select,
DVD ) "pen dis$
The si>e of the video screen can be controlled by right
clic$ing on the mouse and selecting normal si>e, double si>e
or full screen. ?hen you are in the full screen mode, to
return to normal si>e, rightclic$ on the mouse and select
normal si>e.
EXERCISES
@. Play an audio CD using the CD Player
+. Play an audio digital music using 'mms
8. Play a VCD using 'ine and mplayer
GRAPHIC IMAGES ACCESS
Very often it is useful if we are able to view graphic image
files on their own, or in thumbnail fashion if there are many
of them. %t is also useful if there are simple tools available
which will enable us to manage these image files, e.g.
catalog and classify them and recall them for viewing. %n this
section, we shall loo$ at several tools available on your
system which provide some of these functionalities.
FILE MANAGER
The 9ile #anager itself provides a simple and convenient
means to access and view image files. To view an image file
from the 9ile #anager, navigate to the folder containing the
file and double clic$ on it. %f a folder contains image files,
you may also set the ,View as %mage Collection- option from
the View menu selection.
Fig. Image Collection View in File Manager
This will result in only the image files present in the folder
being displayed. 2ou can then select an individual image to
view and also perform >oom in or >oom out views. %f you
want to view all the images in se(uence, the &lide &how
option may be invo$ed from the View menu.
GTHUMB IMAGE VIEWER
The gThumb image viewer is a powerful tool for viewing, and
organising graphic image files. To start this application
perform5
#ain #enu ) =raphics ) gThumb %mage Viewer
Fig. g!um" Image Viewer
"n start up gThumb by default will chec$ your home
directory for any image files and if detected the gallery panel
will automatically generate thumbnails of the images.
View
"nce the thumbnails of the images in a folder have been
generated by gThumb the simplest way to view an image is
to doubleclic$ on the thumbnail and it will be displayed in
full. 2ou can also navigate to the ne't6previous image as well
as go to fullscreen viewing. The Aoom function can be used
to >oom in or out of the image currently being displayed.
Clic$ on the 9olders button at the top of the screen to go
bac$ to the thumbnail view. A preview of the image will be
displayed in the preview area if you .ust select the
thumbnail.
"ne useful feature of gThumb is the slide show. Clic$ing on
this button will start a full screen slide show of the images in
the folder.
Image Manipulation
2ou can also manipulate the images under gThumb.
&upported functions include rotation, flipping, resi>ing, colour
balancing, brightness control. To access these functions
select %mage from the menu bar at the top.
Libraries and Catalogs
gThumb allows you to organise your images in libraries and
catalogs. Catalogs are logical views of a group of images
and are an alternative to physical organisation in folders. A
catalog enables you to group together images with a similar
theme or category even though physically the image files
may be in the same or different folders. 9or an even higher
level of organisation you can create libraries and then place
catalogs under a library.
:ibraries and catalogs can be created and manipulated
under the catalog view mode. Doubleclic$ on the Catalog
icon to enter this mode. "n entering this mode the folder
list panel 0at the top left1, becomes the library6catalog list
panel. 9rom this panel you can access and navigate your
catalogs and libraries.
To create a new library, select
9ile ) ;ew :ibrary
and enter the name of the library. The created library will be
displayed in the catalog list panel.
To create a new catalog select
9ile ) ;ew Catalog
and enter the name of the new catalog. The created catalog
will be displayed in the catalog list panel.
To organise a catalog under a library, you can either create
the new catalog directly under the library or create the
catalog first on its own and then move it under the library in
(uestion. The library6catalog list panel is used for navigating
the library list.
To organise images into a catalog, go to the folders view
mode 0by doubleclic$ing on the 9older icon1, select the
image0s1 you want and then select
3dit ) Add to Catalog
The Choose a Catalog screen will pop up, choose a catalog
from the list. %f the catalog you want is under a library select
the library first and then the catalog.
Convert Format
The Convert function of gThumb allows you to convert your
image files from one format to another. &upported formats
are5
Portable ;etwor$ =raphics 0P;=1
Boint Photographic 3'perts =roup 0BP3=, BP=1
Tag %mage 9ile 9ormat 0T%991
TA!=A format 0T=A1
To use the Convert function, select an image first and then
from the top menu bar, select,
Tools ) Convert 9ormat
Help
gThumb has many other useful features. The online help
guide should be consulted for more details on how to use
gThumb.
EXERCISES
/se gThumb for the following5
@. View the images in the following folder5
usr6share6bac$grounds6images
+. View a slide show of the images in the folder above.
8. Copy one of the images from the above folder into your
home directory and scale it down to +CD of its original
si>e and save it.
Chapter 7: Accessing
the Internet
The Internet has revolutionised information usage and
dissemination. It has made the global village a reality
whereby almost anyone any where in the world is reachable
if the person has an Internet connection. The most common
way to get Internet connectivity is by using the PC, be it at
home, in the place of work, the community hall or even a
cybercafe.
In this chapter we shall examine some of the more common
methods in which a PC can gain access to the Internet.
THE INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER (ISP)
For a personal or home user, before you can access the
Internet you will need to sign up with an Internet ervice
Provider !IP". The IP usually has a network which is
connected to the Internet by a permanent
telecommunication link, i.e. one can view the IP#s network
as part of the Internet. The IP provides the necessary
networking infrastructure to enable you to connect to its
network. Thus once your PC successfully connects to the
IP#s network, it can then access the resources and services
provided by other computers on the Internet.
The Internet can be accessed from your system using a
variety of methods, depending on the type of access
methods supported by the IP you sign up with and the type
of networking devices you have installed in your system.
Currently the most common methods of connectivity by a
home or personal user to an IP are$
dial%up
x&'
DIAL-UP CONNECTIVITY
The simplest way to access the Internet is to use a dial%up
telephone line connection. (lmost all IPs provide dial%up
access connectivity to the Internet using the existing
telephone line in the home or office. To do this you will need
the availability of a telecommunication device called a
)modem*. +ost modern PCs come with a built%in dial%up
modem card or if it does not, you can purchase an external
dial%up modem and use the serial port available on your PC
for connection.
,efore you can dial up to your IP and access the Internet,
you have to configure your system to recognise the modem
and then dial the correct number to your IP. -ou will need
to have at hand the following information needed for the
modem configuration$
telephone number to dial to the IP for the Internet
access
Internet access login name and password provided by
the IP
MODEM CONFIGURATION
To configure your modem for Internet access, start the
)Internet Configuration .i/ard* tool from the +ain +enu$
+ain +enu %%0 ystem Tools %%0 Internet Configuration
.i/ard
-ou will be prompted for the root password as this is an
attempt to change the system settings and so only the
system administrator is allowed to perform this. 1nter the
root password and the Internet configuration wi/ard main
screen will be displayed.
Fig. Internet Configuration Wizard
2. elect modem connection. Click on the Forward button.
3. If your system cannot detect the modem you will be
prompted to enter the modem device name and related
communication information. -ou can choose as follows$
+odem device$ 4dev4modem
,aud rate$ 225366
Flow control$ 7ardware !C8TCT"
+odem volume$ +edium
Fig. Select Modem Screen
Click on the Forward button.
9. 1nter the phone number of the IP !Internet Provider". If
you need to use an area code and4or a dialling prefix to
reach the IP, you should enter them in the boxes
provided, otherwise :ust enter the telephone number.
1nter the name you want this connection to be known by,
usually the name of the IP is used !this is is :ust a
nickname provided by you so that you can recognise this
connection". 1nter the login name and the password in
the boxes provided.
Fig. Filling in the ISP Provider Information
Click on the Forward button.
;. For the IP ettings screen the default settings may be
used if your IP assigns IP addresses automatically !the
default for most IPs". <therwise you will have to enable
the )tatistically set IP addresses* button and enter your
IP address and related information.
Fig. Filling in the IP Settings
Click on the Forward button.
5. Click on (pply to accept and end the set up.
=. The >etwork Configuration window will pop up? exit from
it.
ACTIVATING THE MODEM
To test your modem and Internet connectivity, select the
>etwork &evice Control tool from the +ain +enu$
+ain +enu %%0 ystem Tools %%0 >etwork &evice Control
Fig. Activating the Modem
elect the profile you have set up !remember the IP
nickname you used in the set up above@" by clicking on it
and then click on the )(ctivate* button. The modem will
start to dial and connect to the IP and after awhile upon
successful login the status of the profile in the >etwork
&evices Control screen will change to )(ctive* from
)Inactive*. -ou are now connected to the Internet. -ou can
now perform the web browsing and other services discussed
in the next few chapters.
To disconnect from the Internet bring up the >etwork
&evices Control window and select the profile which was
activated above and click on the )&eactivate* button. -ou
will be disconnected from the Internet and the status of the
profile will be changed to )Inactive*.
EXERCISE
2. Perform an Internet dial%up connection using the modem
on the system
3. &etermine that you have Internet connectivity by
accessing some well known websites
9. &isconnect from the Internet
XDSL CONNECTIVITY
The dial%up Internet connection discussed above provides
ready and easy access for places which have telephone
infrastructure in place. 7owever, it has the disadvantage
that the maximum data transmission speed which normal
dial%up technology can provide is about 5= Abits per second.
.hile this speed may be adeBuate for email text
transmission and web browsing of non%multimedia intensive
web content, it is not practical for multimedia access. For
heavy multimedia content access using the Internet, a high
speed link in reBuired. For the personal or home user,
broadband x&' technologies make this possible.
x&' is an acronym used for the family of &' !&igital
ubscriber 'ine" technologies which enable high speed data
transmission through telephone lines. There are different
types of &' and they include, (&', &', I&'.
Collectively these are known as x&'. (&' !(synchronous
&igital ubscriber 'ine" is commonly used for the home.
XDSL CONFIGURATION
There are two main types of x&' configuration in use and
most IPs use either one of these$
&7CP over 1thernet
PPo1 over 1thernet
Csually if you given a login id and password for your
broadband x&' connection then you should be using the
PPo1 configuration.
DHCP over Ethernet
For this configuration, what is needed is :ust to obtain the IP
configuration parameters using &7CP !&ynamic 7ost
Configuration Protocol". To set up your x&' customer
premises eBuipment to perform this, the )Internet
Configuration .i/ard* tool from the +ain +enu may be used$
+ain +enu %%0 ystem Tools %%0 Internet Configuration
.i/ard
-ou will be prompted for the root password as this is an
attempt to change the system settings and so only the
system administrator is allowed to perform this. 1nter the
root password and the Internet configuration wi/ard main
screen will be displayed as described in the section on dial%
up modem configuration.
2. elect 1thernet connection in the select device type
screen and click on the Forward button. ( screen
showing the detected 1thernet card!s" on your system is
displayed.
Fig. Select Ethernet Device Screen
3. elect the correct 1thernet device. !This is usually
named eth0 if you have only one 1thernet card installed
on the system." Click on the Forward button.
9. In the Configure >etwork ettings screen., click the
button marked )(utomatically obtain IP address settings
with$* and ensure that )dhcp* is selected from the pull%
down selection. (lso check the box )(utomatically
obtain &> information from provider*. Click on the
Forward button.
Fig. Configure Netor! Settings Screen
;. ( summary of the configuration :ust entered is displayed.
If something is incorrect, click on the ,ack button to go
back and make the changes otherwise click on (pply to
accept and end the set up.
5. The >etwork Configuration window will pop up? exit from
it.
PPOE OVER ETHERNET
For PPo1 over 1thernet, start up the Internet Connection
.i/ard as described in the previous section and select x&'
2. elect x&' connection in the select device type screen
and click on the Forward button. ( screen showing the
&' configuration will be displayed.
Fig. Configure DS" Connection
3. The 1thernet device type will have been selected
automatically !this is usually eth0 unless you have more
than one 1thernet card" and entered in the box for you. If
this is incorrect select the correct 1thernet device in the
pull%down selection. 1nter the IP provider name and the
login name and password provided to you by the IP.
Click on the Forward button.
9. ( summary of the configuration :ust entered is displayed.
If something is incorrect, click on the ,ack button to go
back and make the changes otherwise click on (pply to
accept and end the set up.
;. The >etwork Configuration window will pop up? exit from
it.
ACTIVATING THE XDSL LINK
To test your x&' link and Internet connectivity, select the
>etwork &evice Control tool from the +ain +enu$
+ain +enu %%0 ystem Tools %%0 >etwork &evice Control
If you are using &7CP over 1thernet, select the 1thernet
device name !usually this is eth0) you have used in the
configuration set up by clicking on it and then click on the
)(ctivate* button.
If you are using PPo1 over 1thernet, select the IP name you
used in the configuration set up by clicking on it and then
click on the )(ctivate* button.
The link will be established after a few seconds and the
status of the profile in the >etwork &evices Control screen
will change to )(ctive* from )Inactive*. -ou are now
connected to the Internet.
To disconnect from the Internet bring up the >etwork
&evices Control window. For a &7CP over 1thernet setup
select the 1thernet device which was activated above and
click on the )&eactivate* button. For a PPo1 over 1thernet
setup select the IP name which was activated above and
click on the )&eactivate* button. -ou will be disconnected
from the Internet and the status of the profile will be
changed to )Inactive*.
EXERCISES
Perform the same Internet connectivity tests as done
previously with the dial%up modem connection
Chapter 8: The World
Wide Web (WWW)
The Internet has much to offer in terms of information on
almost any subject matter imaginable and interaction with
people and organisations from all over the world. Much of
this access and interaction make use of the environment
which is popularly known as the World Wide Web (WWW) or
web. The WWW is an interlinked network of systems called
web servers offering multimedia services and information. !
user can access these using what is known as a web browser
software.
THE MOZILLA WEB BROWSER (NAVIGATOR)
Mo"illa is a full#featured integrated web browser email client
news reader and web page composer program. $sing Mo"illa
a user can be e%posed to the richness and diversity of
multimedia content and services available on the WWW.
To start Mo"illa click on the Mo"illa icon on the panel or
launch the application from the menu system&
Main Menu ##' Internet ##' Mo"illa Web (rowser
Fig. The Mozilla Web Browser
(y default the web browser component of Mo"illa ()avigator)
will be e%ecuted and displayed. The )avigator window has
the following main parts.
the navigation toolbar
the menu bar
the side bar
the display panel
(Mo"illa )avigator has many features and only a a brief
description of its main functionalities and features can be
given here. The user should refer to the *elp button on the
menu bar for more details.)
The Navigation Toolbar
Fig. The Navigation Toolbar
The navigation toolbar allows you to access a website by
entering its $niform +esource ,ocater ($+,) or more
informally known as its web address e.g.
http&--www.mo"illa.org in the address bo% provided. !ctually
you need to enter only the name of the host i.e.
.www.mo"illa.org/ and Mo"illa is smart enough to figure out
that you want to access the web server on that host.
0licking on the arrow at the right edge of the address bo%
will open a pull#down menu showing a history of websites
visited previously. 1ou can click on an entry in the list to
select that website to access.
!lso present on the navigation toolbar are the (ack 2orward
+eload and 3top buttons.
The (ack button enables you to go back to the previous web
page displayed.
The 2orward button enables you to go forward to the ne%t
web page that you have already accessed.
The +eload button forces Mo"illa to re#access the website
and load the current web page.
The 3top button halts the loading of a web page that is
currently proceeding.
)e%t to the address bo% in the navigation toolbar is the
3earch button. This button enables you to perform searches
for relevant web pages on the Internet by making use of a
search engine. To search for some particular information
you can enter the keywords for the search into the address
bo% and then double#click on the 3earch button. The results
of the search will be displayed in the display panel. 1ou can
configure the search engine to use by this search button in
the Mo"illa )avigator configuration setup (see 0onfiguring
Mo"illa below).
The Menu Bar
Fig The Menu Bar
The menu bar has several menu buttons. 0licking on one
will open up a drop#down menu selection where selected
operations can be performed.
The 2ile button caters to the performance of file level
operations like the printing and saving of web pages. the
opening of web pages files etc.
The 4dit button allows you to find strings of te%t on the
displayed page as well as to edit the Mo"illa configuration to
you personal preferences.
The 5iew button allows you to control the viewing of the
various toolbars as well as the "ooming of te%t and full page
display of the display panel. The *TM, source code of the
currently displayed page can also be viewed using the
selection .6age 3ource/ under this button.
The 7o button performs similar navigational functions as the
navigation toolbar described earlier. ! history of previously
visited sites can also be accessed by this button. The pull#
down menu shows a list of previously visited websites and
you can click on one of these to open up the selected web
page. $nder the 7o button if you select the *istory item
Fig. The History Pop-up Window
a pop#up window will be displayed showing in detail the
browsing history (i.e. the list of sites visited) over the last
few days (by default this period is 8 days9 this number is
configurable see below).
The (ookmarks button enables you to manage your
bookmarks and personal folder. 1ou can add fre:uently
visited sites to the bookmark and-or personal folder. To
manage and organise your bookmarks you can select the
.Mange (ookmarks/ item in the drop#down menu.
Fig. The Bookark Manager Pop-up Window
The bookmarks can be organised into folders by dragging
and dropping them into the desired folder. )ew folders can
be created by clicking on the )ew 2older button at the top.
2olders can have a name and description. To separate and
group together related folders a separator line can be drawn
by selecting the .)ew 3eparator/ button.
The Window button enables you to navigate and move
among the windows opened in Mo"illa. 1ou can also use this
button to move from one open Mo"illa application to another
e.g. to move from the )avigator application to the Mail
(email) application.
The *elp button contains the Mo"illa help files arranged in
user#friendly web page style and format.
The Side Bar
(y default a side bar is displayed on the left of the main
display panel. This side bar contains some of the functions
which we have discussed above from the main menu bar at
the top. These include the 3earch (ookmarks and *istory
functions. The side bar also contains the .What;s +elated/
function which when selected will display in the side bar a
list of links to webpages which contain similar topics to the
page currently being displayed in the main browsing display
area.
The side bar can be turned on-off by selecting from the main
menu at the top
5iew ##' 3how-*ide ##' 3idebar
The Main Display Panel
This is the area where the contents of a web page are
rendered and displayed. This display area can be made full
screen by either selecting the 5iew ##' 2ull 3creen selection
from the top menu bar or pressing the 2<< key. To disable
full screen display either press 2<< again or click on the
unma%imise window button on the top right corner of the
menu bar.
Navigation Tab Bar
Mo"illa )avigator allows you to browse multiple websites
within one browser window using navigational tabs. This
overcomes the inconvenience of opening several windows
under Mo"illa to view multiple sites. To do this either choose
under the menu bar&
2ile ##' )ew ##' )avigator Tab
or enter 0=)T+=,#T.
If you open different web pages using this navigation tab
feature they will all be displayed under the same window.
1ou can then use the tab bar to select between each tab
screen.
CONFIGURING MOZILLA NAVIGATOR
Mo"illa is highly configurable. To configure Mo"illa select
from the main menu selection
4dit ##' 6references
The categories available for configuration are listed on the
left panel of the main configuration window. 0licking on the
> button on the left of each category will open up further
available sub#categories for configuration.
The !ppearance category allows you to configure the default
fonts and colours used. *ere you will also be able to set the
theme and select the language to be used.
The )avigator category allows you to configure the Mo"illa
)avigator web browser itself.
Fig. Navigator !on"iguration
The main )avigator configuration allows you to select the
page to display when the browser is launched. If you select
.*ome page. the website that is designated as the home
page will be displayed. This home page location is set in the
*ome 6age location bo% below. If you do not want the
browser to display anything on startup select .(lank/..
The *istory sub#category allows you to set the number of
days to keep the history list for the history windows and for
the location bar history.
The ,anguages sub#category allows you to select the
language to display web pages in (where available) and also
the default character coding. To add another language for
web page display click on the .!dd/ button and select the
desired language. The listed language to use for display is
in order of preference so you will need to move your
preferred language to use to the top.
The Internet 3earch sub#category allows you to choose which
search engine you want to use for your search function.
EXERCISES
<. 3tart up the Mo"illa browser and visit the websites listed
below. $se the navigation tab bar feature so that you
open up the websites all in the same window but under
different tab pages.
www.mo"illa.org
www.yahoo.com
www.iosn.net
?. (ookmark the sites visited above.
@. 0onfigure the )avigator so that it starts with a blank
page.
FINDING INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET
The Internet is a treasure house of information. 5irtually
information on any topic under the sun (and moreA) can be
found on the Internet. *owever while information is easily
available it may not be so easy to find the information you
want. This is because the information may be available from
very many sites often in varying details and varying aspects
of the same piece of information. To assist us in finding
information more effectively a search engine or Internet
portal may be used.
Note:
Information obtained from the Internet should be scrutinised
carefully and not taken as correct in all cases. This is
because due to its free flowing nature and easy means of
access and creation, anyone can publish information on the
Internet. As such, unless one is certain that the information is
from an authoritatie and reliable source, it should be erified
by another source or means as far as possible.
USING A PORTAL
The term portal is used to denote a website that acts as an
gateway for providing information about a subject area or
group of subjects. 2rom this portal site information as well
as links to other sites providing information about the topics
in :uestion may be found. 6ortals are useful starting places
for new web users who do not know where and how to go
and look for information about a specific topic or subject.
Many major I36s provide portal#like information services for
their subscribers so that if the latter make this their home
page for their web browser on launching their browser the
I36;s portal page is opened. The subject areas covered by
these I36 portals are typically subjects of general interest
like shopping local and foreign news entertainment etc.
Fig. Hoe Page "or an #$P
=ther portals offering general information as well as links to
other more subject#specific portals and websites include&
1ahoo (www.yahoo.com)
)etscape )etwork (www.netscape.com)
Microsoft )etwork (www.msn.com)
!ngelfire (www.angelfire.lycos.com)
USING AN INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE
While portals provide a guided and categorised means to
access information sometimes we want to be more specific
about the topic we want to find and portals generally are not
able to provide this in a timely and efficient manner. !n
alternative is to utilise a search engine.
! search engine as the name implies allows you to :uery it
about some specific subject and it will try to retrieve links to
web pages and resources which contain information about
the subject matter being :ueried.
The popular search engines available are&
7oogle (www.google.com)
!ltavista (www.altavista.com)
,ycos (www.lycos.com)
1ahoo (www.yahoo.com)
There are also sites which allow you to search using more
than one search engines e.g.
3earch.com (www.search.com)
4asysearcher (www.easysearcher.com)
Search Basics
While each search engine will have its own technology its
utilisation to perform a simple and basic search is essentially
the same irrespective of which search engine is used.

To use a search engine for basic searches you just type in a
few descriptive words about the item-subject you are
searching for. It will return to you a list of links to web pages
and resources which contain all the words in the :uery
string. )ote that common words like .the/ .a/ .how/ etc.
are usually ignored by the search engine unless specifically
told not to. Words are also not case sensitive unless
enclosed by :uotation marks. To refine and narrow down
your search you will need to add more words to the search
terms you have already entered. 1our new :uery will return a
smaller subset of the pages found.
Fig. % $ear&h 'ngine
The basics of using current search engines is essentially
keyword matching and so it is important to be able to
identify appropriate keywords so that your search is more
efficient and false hits are minimised. The keywords entered
should be as specific as possible in order to get better
results.
More details on how to use each particular search engine are
available on their respective websites and they should be
consulted so that you can make efficient use of them.
EXAMPLE
In this section we shall show an e%ample of how to use a
search engine.
In this e%ample assume that we have heard from a friend
that she has been diagnosed with a foot condition in which
her forefoot is in pain and there is numbness as a result of
poor blood circulation in one of the toes. We also
remembered her telling us that the doctor named the
condition as 2reiberg disease or some name which sounds
like that since the telephone line was not too clear.
Initially we try entering the following keywords foot pain, in
the search engine.
Fig. $ear&h using !oon (eywords
!s can be seen from the results of the search what we got
back was very general and we need to go through each of
these links to check if it contains relevant information or
links to relevant information. We can narrow down the
search if we are more specific about where in the foot the
pain is e.g. forefoot pain. This will give us better results but
the list of hits is still long.
Fig. $ear&h using )elevant (eywords
If we remember that the friend mentioned that the doctor
gave the name of the condition as something sounding like
2rieberg disease we can try searching for this specific term.
The search results improve immediately as can be seen
below and in this particular e%ample we have found several
links which are directly related to the information we want.
Fig. )e"ined $ear&h using $pe&i"i& (eywords
Chapter 9: Internet
Email
Internet email has become one of the most popular
applications on the Internet. An Internet experience is not
complete without the usage of email. In this chapter we shall
be describing two commonly used email software: Evolution
and Mozilla Mail.
EMAIL REQUIREMENTS
There are two main types of Internet email systems: webmail
and !". #ebmail$ as the name implies$ ma%es use of a
web browser to read$ compose$ send and manage your mail.
!" email ma%es use of a !" email client to download
your email from a server housing your email mailbox. The
main difference between a webmail system and a !" email
system is that for the former$ generally$ you have to be
online to the server housing your mailbox to access and
manage your mail. &or the !" system$ you need to be
online to the server only to download your mail$ after that
you can go offline to read$ reply and manage your local mail
storage. 'ou only need to go online again when you want to
send out your email.
In addition to having a webmail account somewhere on the
Internet$ webmail needs only a web browser and Internet
access to wor%. Examples of popular webmail services are
those from 'ahoo and (otmail. Most I)s also offer webmail
services in addition to their traditional !" email services.
To use !" email you will need to have a !" email client
software running on your computer. *oth Evolution and
Mozilla Mail support !" email. In addition$ you will also
need to %now the name of the computer on which your !"
mailbox is located + the !" server$ as well as the name of
the computer which allows you to send out ,relay- mail
through it + the )MT server.
Note:
Of course you will need to know your Internet email address
irrespective of whether you are using webmail or POP3 email!
)ince the usage of webmail involves using your browser
mainly$ we will not dwell on this form of email anymore here.
Instead we will be loo%ing at the !" setup and usage of
Evolution and Mozilla Mail.
EVOLUTION
Evolution can be launched either from the icon on the panel
or from the Main Menu:
Main menu ++. Internet ++. Evolution Email
The first time you run Evolution$ you will be placed in the
welcome/setup screen to configure Evolution to send and
receive email using your email account. &ollow the onscreen
instructions to fill in the information re0uired about your
email account. )ome of the important items to fill in are:
described below.
Identity
&or the identity screen the following have to be entered:
Email name: ,fill in your name-
Email address: ,fill in your email address-
Fig: Evolution Email Identity
Receiving Mail
&or the receiving mail screen$ the following have to be
entered:
)erver type: !
(ost: ,fill in name of your !" server-
1sername: ,fill in username of your !" email account-
Fig: Evolution Email POP3 Setup
Sending Mail
&or the sending mail screen the following have to be entered:
)erver type: )MT
(ost: ,fill in name of your )MT server-
Fig: Evolution SMTP Setup
Time Zone
Ensure that you select the correct time zone.
Apply
After successfully filling in the configuration screens$ clic% on
the Apply button at the confirmation screen$ Evolution will be
started and the main Evolution screen is displayed.
Fig. Evolution Main Screen
!nly a very brief description of the functionalities and
features of Evolution are given here. The user should refer to
the (elp button on the menu bar for more details.
Inbox Folder
The Inbox houses the email sent to you which you have
downloaded from the !" server. To see what is in your
Inbox clic% on the Inbox icon. If you have emails in your
Inbox$ they will be displayed here. To read an email select it
by clic%ing on it in the )ub2ect #indow.
Fig. Evolution Inbox
Composing Emails
To compose an email$ from the Inbox screen$ clic% on the
3ew button.
Enter the email address of the recipient as well as the
sub2ect. The latter should be a few words describing the
contents of the mail but it should also not be too long. If you
need to 44 the mail to another email address$ clic% on the
5iew button on the top Menu bar and select 44 field which
will be displayed. After composing the email$ you can send
it.
Fig. Evolution Compoing Email
Offline Mode
If you are on a dial+up connection$ it is very li%ely that you
will want to compose all the emails that you want to send
offline first before actually going online to send them. To do
this clic% on the &ile item on the menu bar at the top and
select #or% !ffline
&ile ++. #or% !ffline
,if the &ile menu shows the item #or% !nline then it means
that you are already offline$ i.e. It is a toggle between online
mode and offline mode.-
In the offline mode$ when you compose and send your mail
they will not be sent out but rather they are stored
temporarily in your !utbox folder. 'ou can send them off
later after connecting to the Internet by selecting the
)end/6eceive button.
Sending and Receiving Emails
To send the emails you have composed$ connect to the
Internet first and then select #or% !nline from the &ile menu.
4lic% on the )end/6eceive button or clic% on the Tools button
in the menu bar and select )end/6eceive. 1nsent mail in
your !utbox will be sent out and any incoming new mail will
be placed in your Inbox.
eleting Emails
Any mail deleted from your Inbox will be placed in the Trash
folder. 'ou should periodically empty the Trash by clic%ing
on Actions from the menu bar and selecting Empty Trash.
Folders
Mail messages in Evolution are organised in folders similar in
concept to the &ile Manager. To view your Evolution folders$
clic% on the 5iew button in the menu bar and select &older
*ar.
Fig: Evolution Folder !ie"
*y default the following email folders are created under the
7ocal &olders: Inbox$ !utbox$ )ent $ 8raftsand Trash. 'ou
can create a new folder by right+clic%ing on 7ocal &olders$
select ing 3ew &older and enter the &older name. 'ou can
move and copy mail messages between folders by right+
clic%ing on the message in the )ub2ect #indow and selecting
9Move to &older: or 94opy to &older:.
MOZILLA MAIL
As described in the previous chapter$ Mozilla contains an
email component in addition to the web browser. This email
component is called Mozilla Mail. To invo%e Mozilla Mail$ you
can start Mozilla in the usual way and then from the main
menu bar at the top select$
#indow ++. Mail ; 3ewsgroups
If this is the first time you are running Mail and the email
configuration has not been done$ Mail will invo%e the Account
#izard to ta%e you through the configuration. This is
described briefly below.
!e" Acco#nt Set#p
In this screen choose Email account and clic% on 3ext
Identity
&ill in the information regarding your name and email
address to use. 4lic% on 3ext to continue.
Fig. Identity
Server Information
Enter the server information in this screen. )elect ! for
the type of incoming server and enter the names of the
incoming ,!"- server and outgoing ,)MT- server. These
hostnames will been provided to you by your mail provider or
I). 4lic% on 3ext to proceed.
Fig. Server In#ormation
$ser !ame
Enter the name of the id that you will need to login to
retrieve your email. This name usually will be alpha or
alphanumeric and should not contain blan% spaces. This will
have been given to you by your mail provider or I). 4lic% on
3ext to continue.
Fig. $er %ame
Acco#nt !ame
Enter the name by which you will want this mail account to
be %nown as. This is meant for your own Mozilla Mail internal
usage to cater to the fact that more than one email account
can be set up. The default account name is the email
address you entered earlier. 4lic% on 3ext to continue.
Fig. &ccount %ame
The next screen allows you to review what you have
configured and if something is incorrect you can clic% on the
*ac% button to go and correct it. If all is fine$ clic% on the
&inish button. If you do not want Mail to download your mail
immediately after finishing this configuration$ unchec% the
98ownload mail now: box.
USING MOZILLA MAIL
To start up Mozilla Mail$ start Mozilla and from the main menu
bar at the top select$
#indow ++. Mail ; 3ewsgroups
Fig. Mo'illa Mail Startup Screen
The default startup screen has three main sections:
left panel displaying mail boxes and folders
right main mail display panel
top panel containing the main menu bar and buttons
The left panel displays in a tree+directory format the email
accounts that have been configured for the system and the
mailboxes under it. The 7ocal section contains the folders
and messages that are not from any of the accounts created
and associated with an Internet email account and thus
considered local to the system. 3ote that this includes any
unsent mail messages.
Reading Mail
To read any email in your inbox$ select the Inbox folder
under the desired mail account in the left panel. A list of the
messages in your Inbox will be displayed in the top part of
the right panel showing the email sender and sub2ect
header. To view the mail content clic% on the desired
message in the top right panel and the message body will be
displayed in the bottom right panel. )croll as re0uired to
read the entire message.
Composing Mail
To compose a new email clic% on the 4ompose button at the
top menu. Alternatively you can also clic% on the 94ompose
a new message: lin% in the right display panel. ,Ensure that
you have selected the appropriate email account on the
system by clic%ing on the appropriate account name in the
left display panel.-
Fig. Compoing Mail in Mo'illa Mail
The From field is automatically filled in for you from the email
address you provided in the setup for the account currently
being used.
The o field has to be filled in with the email address ,es- of
the recipient,s-. If there is more than one recipient$ separate
the addresses by commas or you can fill them in one line at
a time by entering the 6ET163 %ey after each address.
The other email header fields li%e !c and "cc can be selected
by clic%ing on the o field button.
The #ub$ect field should also be filled in with an appropriate
sub2ect header. 'ou should avoid being too verbose for the
sub2ect header.
The mail message body can be entered in the right bottom
panel provided and any file attachments can be added by
clic%ing on the Attach button at the top and then selecting
the file.
Sending Mail
After composing the email$ you can either send it off
immediately if you are already online$ send it later or %eep it
as a draft to be edited later.
To send it off immediately select the )end button. If the
message was sent successfully it will be stored in the )ent
folder.
To send it later$ select from the main menu at the top$
&ile ++. )end 7ater
The message will be stored under the 1nsent Messages in
the 7ocal &olders section. In this way you can compose all
the emails first and store them before sending them all in
one go. 7ater on you can send all the unsent messages by
selecting from the main menu at the top$
&ile ++. )end 1nsent Messages
This method of sending is especially useful if you are on a
dial+up Internet connection where you can compose the
messages offline and then dial+up later to send the
messages.
To save it as a draft select from the main menu at the top$
&ile ++. )ave As ++. 8raft
The email message will be saved in the 8rafts folder under
the current account section. 7ater to edit the saved draft$
select the 8rafts folder under the account$ clic% on the draft
message to edit that is being displayed in the top right panel
and select from the top menu$
Message ++. Edit Message As 3ew
After editing the message you can send it off as discussed
above.
Receiving Mail
To receive mail$ clic% on the <et Msgs button at the top$
enter your email password ,!" password- when as%ed and
the email will be downloaded from your Internet mailbox and
stored into the Inbox folder. !f course you will have to be
online to perform this.
eleting Mail
To delete mail messages$ select the folder in which the
messages are stored in$ and in the top right display panel
where the list of messages are displayed$ select one or more
messages by clic%ing on them and then clic% on the 8elete
button at the top.
The deleted mail is moved to the Trash folder in the account
currently being used. To permanently delete them you can
either delete them from the Trash folder or clic% on the Trash
folder and from the main menu at the top$ select$
&ile ++. Empty Trash
Folders
The various folders allow you to organise your email so that
you can group and file them under appropriate folders. *y
default when you create a new mail account$ the Inbox$
Trash$ 8rafts and )ent folders are created automatically for
you. To create a new folder perform$
&ile ++. 3ew ++. &older
'ou can file or move your messages from one folder to
another by clic%ing on the list of messages displayed in the
top right panel when the source folder is selected and
dragging and dropping them into the destination folder in
the usual manner.
Acco#nt Config#ration
'ou can customise your account email settings by selecting$
Edit ++. Mail ; 3ewsgroups Account )ettings
There are several important settings which you should be
aware of.
Account )ettings
In this main configuration screen$ you can configure your
name$ Internet email address and organisation name to use
as well as the account name which refer to these settings
under Mozilla Mail.
In particular$ the 94ompose messages in (TM7 format: box
should not be chec%ed if you want to compose and send
your email messages using 2ust plain text.
)erver )ettings
(ere you can configure the name of your !" mail server.
'ou can also configure whether you want the mail to be
deleted from the !" server after downloading them into
your computer. 1sually you will want them to be deleted
and so you should ensure that the 97eave messages on
server: box is not chec%ed.
!utgoing )erver ,)MT-
This is where you can configure the outgoing mail server
which will process your outgoing mail.
%lobal Config#ration
The account configuration affects only the account in
0uestion to enable you to configure multiple email accounts
each with possibly its own servers.. The global configuration
affects the entire mail subsystem. To access the global
configuration$ select$
Edit ++. references ++. Mail ; 3ewsgroups
1nder this configuration$ you can set global preferences
which will affect all the accounts configured by you in Mozilla
Mail. These will include the loo% and feel of Mail itself$ the
way messages are displayed$ format for sending etc.
EXERCISES
)tart up either Evolution or Mozilla Mail and perform the
following:
download your email
read them
reply to two of them and *44 yourself in the reply
compose a new email
delete spam email
empty your trash mailbox
Using the
OpenOffice.org Suite
INTRODUCTION
OpenOffce.org (OOo) s a compete offce sute, featurng a
word processor (Wrter), a spreadsheet appcaton (Cac),
and presentaton software (Impress). Besdes these
fundamenta offce appcatons OOo aso ncudes a vector
drawng too (Draw), aows database access, aows the
pubshng of documents n the Portabe Document Format
(PDF) and presentatons n the Fash (SWF) format!
The OOo package s fuy nter-operabe wth the Mcrosoft
Offce sute.
GETTING AROUND THE PACKAGE
As a frst stop for nformaton, t s mportant to know how the
Hep system works. To get hep:
Hep --> Contents
The search functon s very usefu, and pay attenton to the
Optons (where you can get hep for the ndvdua
components n OpenOffce.org).
Settng up OpenOffce.org preferences so that t works the
way you want t to s sgnfcant. The entre contros for ths
are avaabe at:
Toos --> Optons
Here you can setup settngs ke the defaut measurement
unts, font substtuton, anguage types and many more
optons. Savng a document automatcay s not setup by
defaut, so turnng ths feature on mght be hepfu: you fnd
t at the Load/Save opton, under the Genera sub-secton.
There are three mportant toobars to know:
Man toobar - ths s typcay ocated rght beow the
menus, and contans tems ke new document, save a
document, exportng to PDF, copyng & pastng, as we
as access to the Navgator, Styst, and Gaery.
Ob|ect toobar - ths s rght beow the man toobar, and
has access to font contro, and other attrbutes of
ob|ects.
Functon toobar - ocated at the eft-corner of the screen,
and contans many optons ncudng quck tabe
generaton, nserton of ob|ects, and many more.
WRITER
Ths s a powerfu too for creatng professona documents,
reports, newsetters and so on - t s a word processor that
aows easy ntegraton of charts and pctures, as we as
other OpenOffce.org-compatbe documents. It can create
everythng from a smpe etter to books, wth professona
ayouts, wth the use of styes.
Start t from the Man Menu by,
Man Menu --> Offce --> OpenOffce.org Wrter
Fig. OpenOffice.org Writer
You are now presented wth the word processng porton of
OpenOffce.org, and the nterface s rather smar to other
word processng toos avaabe. Rather than provdng
gudance throughout the entre package, we w |ust
concentrate on a few tasks at hand.
Common Functions
Functons of the word processor can be controed va the
toobars ocated at the top of the screen. On the frst row, fe
actons ke openng and savng fes can be performed, whe
on the second row, changng the font, sze, and stye (bod,
underne, or tacs) are ocated there.
They can aso be controed by the menus that are common
through packages:
Fe --> New --> Text Document - creates a new empty,
untted document for you to work on.
Fe --> Open - opens the fe.
Fe --> Cose - coses the document you are workng on.
If changes have been made snce your ast save, you w
be prompted to save or dscard those changes.
Fe --> Save - saves the document you are currenty
workng on.
Fe --> Save As... - saves an updated verson of a
document n a dfferent ocaton, wth a dfferent name,
from the prevousy saved verson.
Common Operations
For operatons whe wrtng, t s common to want to seect a
ot of text, copy t, maybe cut t from ts current ocaton and
paste t esewhere, or even undo an acton. A ths s
possbe wth the offce sute, and such optons are avaabe
at the Edt menu. A few common optons are:
To copy text: seect the text wth the mouse, then seect
Edt --> Copy. Now the seected text s kept n memory
for use esewhere.
To paste text: fnd the spot where text needs to be
paced, pace the cursor there, and then seect Edt -->
Paste.
To cut text: ths means that the seected text w be
removed from the current ocaton and kept n memory,
to be paced esewhere. Dong ths s exacty ke how a
copy shoud be performed, except seecton Edt --> Cut
nstead.
To undo an acton: Seect Edt --> Undo. It w dspay the
command that t s undong at the moment.
By browsng the menu, there are aso keyboard shortcuts
ocated next to t. Once more profcent use of the package
occurs, t s much qucker to use keyboard shortcuts ke
Contro+C for Copy, and so on.
Formatting
Formattng text s as mportant as wrtng the text, and
Wrter provdes many formattng optons, ncudng the
Styst. Indvduay, you can aso format the character
(current seected tem, or even a whoe word), the
paragraph, or even the page.
Fig. Part of the Object toolbar (Writer)
Some of the quck format optons ncude bold, italics and
underne. These optons are avaabe at the toobar at the
top of the screen.
Text agnment pays a arge roe n controng how portons
of the document w ook. For exampe, an address fed at
the top of your etter w have such detas rght-agned,
whe the body and rest of the base text w be eft-agned.
Ths s a controed by the four-cons that are ocated next
to the bod/tacs/underne cons, provdng such optons as:
rght-agn, centre-agn, eft-agn and |ustfed. When text s
|ustfed, t ooks exacty ke what you're readng now! (a
more professona end-to-end stretch of the text.)
Let's swtch to the end of the toobar, and notce that the
optons there ncudng provdng a paragraph background -
whch s good for hghghtng a paragraph or severa
paragraphs of text, n coours that you choose. You can aso
hghght text (ke you woud wth a hghghter and paper!),
and change the font coours a wth the cons there.
Agnng text by ndentng t s aso another feature avaabe
as part of the ob|ect toobar. Left/rght agnment of text s
provded, and f text s aready entered and you want to eft-
agn t, seecton of text (or havng the cursor at the
paragraph) must happen frst, before text s ndented.
Those were |ust quck contros. To get fu contro, usng the
Format menu s dea. Contros are more vared here.
Styles
Consstency throughout a document s mportant - t was
earer sad that wrtng books usng OpenOffce.org s
possbe. So there must be a way to hande ong and arge
documents n a consstent fashon, wth smar fonts for
headngs, sub-headngs, text, and other attrbutes wthn a
document.
OpenOffce.org ncudes a powerfu feature known as styes,
and ths s accessed va the Styst (get ths by httng the
F11 key, or cckng ts con on the man toobar). Notce the
foatng wndow, whch s most key actve at the "Defaut"
stye. By rght-cckng on the stye, there are optons to
modfy the stye, or create new custom ones.
By gong to the modfy opton, the stye can be customzed
va many varyng attrbutes ncudng spacng, agnment,
font, emphass, coour and many more. Once sutabe styes
have been pre-defned n the document, they can be used on
exstng text |ust by seecton, and doube-cckng on the
stye name.
Just a little bit more...
Now that the gst of the Wrter package has been covered,
there's |ust a tte more to know.
Wrter has a but-n spe checker. Ths can be accessed va:
Toos --> Specheck
The opton to auto-specheck means that whe typng,
Wrter w dynamcay check your speng, and f t detects
an error, t w output a red-ne at the bottom of the
msspeed word. Keep n mnd that the spe checkng s
based on the current anguage that s n use. Ths can be
changed va:
Toos --> Optons --> Language Settngs -->
Languages
Accessng word counts n the document s dfferent to most
other packages on a defaut nsta of OpenOffce.org (ths
can dffer wth severa Lnux dstrbutons' offerngs):
Fe --> Propertes --> Statstcs
It s under the Statstcs tab that the word counts and other
reevant document counts are based. On certan vendor
modfed dstrbutons of OpenOffce.org, gong to the Toos --
> Word Count menu w aow the Statstcs daogue box to
be dspayed automatcay.
The AutoCorrect/AutoFormat (Toos -->
AutoCorrect/AutoFormat) optons have repacement tabes
(so that CDs reay are vad, and w not be changed to Cd,
for nstance). There are aso word competon optons (very
usefu, as the software starts thnkng for you) and settngs
to make them more user-frendy.
The Navgator s a yet another usefu too (get ths va httng
the F5 key or cckng ts con on the man toobar), especay
when deang wth arger documents. It supports |umpng to
bookmarks, notes, any partcuar ob|ect, and even creates a
tabe-of-contents on the fy, based on the styes that are
beng used!
CALC
Ths s the spreadsheet component of the OpenOffce.org
package, and contans many usefu features, ncudng an
array of functons and penty of chartng optons. It s fuy
nter-operabe wth Mcrosoft Exce, though the functon
separators dffer n the two packages.
Fig. OpenOffice.org Calc
To start ths, t s avaabe va
Man Menu --> Offce --> OpenOffce.org Cac
or f you aready have an exstng wndow of OpenOffce.org
open,
Fe --> New --> Spreadsheet.
Spreadsheets contan many rows and coumns, and each row
and coumn combnaton s caed a ce (ke A1, B4, and so
on). Upon nputtng text nto a ce, you mght reaze that the
text s wder than the ce aows for - ths can be re-szed va
rght-cckng the ce, and seectng the Format Ces opton.
There under the Agnment tab, seectng Lne Break s what
s requred.
Formatting
Lke other parts of OpenOffce.org, Cac aso comes wth the
Styst. But et's get around to understandng the varous
dfferng formattng optons avaabe n ths component of
the package.
If there s some nformaton that you aready have created,
and the area shoud be formatted, one partcuar quck and
easy opton s to use the AutoFormats avaabe n Cac. Ths
s done after seectng the area then:
Format --> AutoFormat
These are pre-defned styes that are avaabe n Cac, and f
you have created your own partcuar stye, you can add
them nto your new AutoFormats.
In the ob|ect toobar, there s an opton to set the font coour
wthn the ce. There are aso optons to ncrease/decrease
the ndents wthn a ce, and n the mage beow, contros for
enabng:
Currency
Percentage
Add/Remove sgnfcant decma paces
Fig. Part of the Object toolbar (Calc)
These are quck contros, and accessng them s as smpe as
cckng the cons that represent them, and automatcay the
ce w be formatted as stated. Not ony can Borders be set
easy, and ce backgrounds too, but the agnment of text
wthn a ce can aso be set. Ths can be ether as a top
agned, centre agned, or bottom agned.
Now that most of the formattng optons are known, t s easy
to appy Styes to the spreadsheet - brng up the Styst by
httng the F11 key, and you' notce that ce styes (that
contro a eements, ncudng formattng) and page styes
can be set (the atter controng margns, headers/footers,
and borders).
Spreadsheet basics
There are a few ponts to note when usng a spreadsheet.
One of them s that cacuatons are performed n a eft-to-
rght format, wth agebrac orderng rues. Ths means t
deas wth brackets ("()") frst, then dvson ("/"),
mutpcaton ("*"), addton ("+") and fnay subtracton
("-").
When appyng cacuatons, keep n mnd the range of
ncuded ces. When usng a functon ke =SUM(), and usng
the argument =SUM(A1:A4), t means t ooks for the sum of
the ces A1, A2, A3, and A4. These operatons can aso be
performed on non-consecutve ces, so, =SUM(A1;A4;A7)
|ust executes the sum of ces A1, A4 and A7.
If you have used Exce before, t woud be reatvey common
to use a comma (",") as a separator character between the
parameters, however, wth OpenOffce.org Cac, the
separator character s a sem-coon (";"). So for the functon
to vadate correcty, an expresson such as =IF(B3>0;A1-
A2;A1+A2) s correct (as opposed to repacng the ";" wth
",").
Building functions
To perform cacuatons, spreadsheet make use of functons.
Common functons ncude =SUM() for summaton,
=AVERAGE() for the average vaue of ces, and so on. As an
ad to the novce user, OpenOffce.org provdes a Functon
AutoPot. Ths s a wzard to hep bud formuas, and fnd
probems wth exstng expressons.
Fig. Function AutoPilot Button
Located next to the unversa sum functon, s the Functon
AutoPot. If you cck on n, a pop-up daogue appears.
1. In the Functons tab, you can fter vewabe/accessbe
functons va category, and the opton to choose a
functon s shown. Use your mouse to choose a functon
that you pan on usng.
2. Once the correct functon s seected, and the acton that
t performs s agreeabe (t s dspayed on the rght of the
daogue), seect Next to move on.
3. Now you are aowed to nput numbers. Assumng the
AVERAGE functon was chosen, n the number 1 fed (for
exampe), there are optons to ether enter a functon or
seect a range of ces.
4. Use seect a range of ces, and now a dfferent daogue
pop's up and you can use the mouse cursor to seect a
range of ces. Cck on OK, and you're done!
That s a very easy way to bud a formua, whch requres no
pre-requste knowedge about what formuas exst n Cac.
Sorting
A bg part of deang wth spreadsheets nvoves a ot of
sortng and fterng of data. To sort a dataset, seectng the
actve ces, then cckng
Data --> Sort
w brng a pop-up daogue that has optons for sortng the
data based on the coumns present, as we as f the data
shoud be ascendng or descendng.
Charting
Convertng data nto nformaton s a process usuay
accompshed we by creatng graphs and charts - t s a ot
easer to nfer based on vsua graphcs, rather than ots of
numbers. Cac provdes a chartng wzard that w aow ths
to be automated rather easy, wth a ot of predefned
settngs.
1. Seect the ces that are to be charted, and then go to
Insert --> Chart.
2. The range s pre-seected, and certan optons are
provded (ke where the resutng chart s); |ust eavng
the pre-seected optons w be good for the exercse.
Cck Next.
3. A type of chart s to be chosen - common charts ncude
pe chart, ne graphs, or even bar graphs - t a depends
on the nformaton beng represented.
4. Seect the defauts, and create a chart. (You shoud now
see a bar chart created).
Now that a chart has been created, t s not statc n the
sense that t cannot be edted - you can contro each and
every aspect of how the chart ooks. Doube-cck the chart,
and you w now go nto edt mode. Notce the toobar by the
eft-hand sde of your screen has changed? Ths s n drect
response to t beng n edt mode, and a ot of propertes can
be changed here.
There are penty more features, ke data fterng, scenaro
creaton, and goa seek, whch once you get more advanced
wth spreadsheet know-how, you w end up makng use of.
IMPRESS
No offce sute s compete wthout a presentaton pece, and
OpenOffce.org shows ts coours wth Impress, the
presentaton pece of the sute. To start t, t s avaabe at
Man Menu --> Offce --> OpenOffce.org Impress
or f you aready have an OpenOffce.org wndow open, ts
avaabe at
Fe --> New --> Presentaton.
Fig. OpenOffice.org Impress
Unke other components of OpenOffce.org, when you start
Impress, you are presented wth an AutoPot, to start
creatng your presentaton! Ths gves you optons to start a
presentaton wth an empty tempate, or even wth one of the
pre-defned tempates. A prevew daogue s avaabe, and
once a optons are seected (and Next s ccked, to move
on), you get a basc presentaton.
Fig. Impress AutoPilot for a ne presentation
Template Management
If a bg porton of tme s gong to be spent gvng
presentatons, ts very professona to have the presentaton
ook ke each other, n the form of a tempate (same ogo
poston, copyrght notces, etc...). Once a tempate s
created (or downoaded from the Internet), you manage
tempates va the:
Fe --> Tempate --> Organze
Slide Design
A quck way to get sdes done s va turnng on:
Vew --> Toobars --> Presentaton
Ths provdes a pop-up menu opton that aows you to nsert
sdes, or even modfy the sde ayout of the current sde.
Vies
There are severa vews n Impress, and some have over-
appng names, but wth dfferent functonaty! At the top-
rght-hand-corner of your screen, |ust above the scro bars,
you' notce fve buttons that ook ke what you see beow.
Fig. !ie Buttons
The sx optons for workspace vews are:
1. Drawng vew - defaut, for sde desgn.
2. Outne vew - overook of the presentaton.
3. Sde vew - brds eye vew to add, change, swtch sdes
around.
4. Notes vew - add speaker notes.
5. Handout vew - how handouts get prnted.
6. Start sdeshow - run the presentaton.
A the vews can aso be accessed va:
Vew --> Workspace
It s aso worthwhe to note that at the bottom-eft-hand-
corner of your screen, where the sde tabs are dspayed,
there are more vews to know about. You are typcay
ocated n the Sde Vew (same name as above, but dfferent
functonaty snce ts on a dfferent bar!)
Fig. "ore #ies
However, Master Vews are supported and to access ths
vew, t s the second button from the eft. You can have
master vews of a workspace vews (.e. a master vew of the
sde tsef, notes, and handouts). The Layer vew aows
ayerng of sdes (addng and removng), and ayers can be
non-prntng or non-dspayed on screen, but prntng ony.
Ja!!ing up the presentation
Ob|ects, ke vdeo, |ava appets, musc, and even other
graphcs can be added (embedded) to a presentaton very
easy. To perform ths, the foowng menu s usefu:
Insert --> Ob|ect
Keep n mnd that OpenOffce.org w ony pay content
provded a reevant pug-n's are nstaed. For sound
payback, t assumes an aready confgured sound-card,
otherwse t w not work.
Effects are another supported feature n Impress and consst
of thngs ke sde transtons, mouse-drven buet-ponts,
and even drawng anmatons. To get to the effects pop-up:
Sde Show --> Effects
A common effect s one where each buet pont appears
upon a mouse-cck. Ths event-drven effect s easy
performed va seectng the "Appear" effect. Once that s
seected, tckng the green tck (n acceptance) s necessary.
Fig. $he Appear %ffect
Performng sde transtons are aso performed va the
effects menu. However, to create anmatons, the menu s:
Sde Show --> Anmaton
c
Here smpe anmatons can be created, ke a bouncng ba
aong a ne, for nstance. Ths s done smpy va:
1. Draw a crce (ba!).
2. Then draw a curve, as the path the curve shoud trave.
3. Seect the "Move aong curve" effect, and appy t (as n
the fgure beow).
4. Now when the presentaton s run, the ba w move
aong the ne.
Fig. Application of mo#ing along the cur#e effect
CONCLUSION
OpenOffce.org has the abty to be a very usefu software
package - t ncudes very powerfu, free aternatves to
satsfy average offce sute requrements. As ths s ony
scratchng the surface, there are penty more resources
avaabe out there, so pease, use the avaabe
documentaton to ts fuest.
Using the
OpenOffice.org Suite
INTRODUCTION
OpenOffce.org (OOo) s a compete offce sute, featurng a
word processor (Wrter), a spreadsheet appcaton (Cac),
and presentaton software (Impress). Besdes these
fundamenta offce appcatons OOo aso ncudes a vector
drawng too (Draw), aows database access, aows the
pubshng of documents n the Portabe Document Format
(PDF) and presentatons n the Fash (SWF) format!
The OOo package s fuy nter-operabe wth the Mcrosoft
Offce sute.
GETTING AROUND THE PACKAGE
As a frst stop for nformaton, t s mportant to know how the
Hep system works. To get hep:
Hep --> Contents
The search functon s very usefu, and pay attenton to the
Optons (where you can get hep for the ndvdua
components n OpenOffce.org).
Settng up OpenOffce.org preferences so that t works the
way you want t to s sgnfcant. The entre contros for ths
are avaabe at:
Toos --> Optons
Here you can setup settngs ke the defaut measurement
unts, font substtuton, anguage types and many more
optons. Savng a document automatcay s not setup by
defaut, so turnng ths feature on mght be hepfu: you fnd
t at the Load/Save opton, under the Genera sub-secton.
There are three mportant toobars to know:
Man toobar - ths s typcay ocated rght beow the
menus, and contans tems ke new document, save a
document, exportng to PDF, copyng & pastng, as we
as access to the Navgator, Styst, and Gaery.
Ob|ect toobar - ths s rght beow the man toobar, and
has access to font contro, and other attrbutes of
ob|ects.
Functon toobar - ocated at the eft-corner of the screen,
and contans many optons ncudng quck tabe
generaton, nserton of ob|ects, and many more.
WRITER
Ths s a powerfu too for creatng professona documents,
reports, newsetters and so on - t s a word processor that
aows easy ntegraton of charts and pctures, as we as
other OpenOffce.org-compatbe documents. It can create
everythng from a smpe etter to books, wth professona
ayouts, wth the use of styes.
Start t from the Man Menu by,
Man Menu --> Offce --> OpenOffce.org Wrter
Fig. OpenOffice.org Writer
You are now presented wth the word processng porton of
OpenOffce.org, and the nterface s rather smar to other
word processng toos avaabe. Rather than provdng
gudance throughout the entre package, we w |ust
concentrate on a few tasks at hand.
Common Functions
Functons of the word processor can be controed va the
toobars ocated at the top of the screen. On the frst row, fe
actons ke openng and savng fes can be performed, whe
on the second row, changng the font, sze, and stye (bod,
underne, or tacs) are ocated there.
They can aso be controed by the menus that are common
through packages:
Fe --> New --> Text Document - creates a new empty,
untted document for you to work on.
Fe --> Open - opens the fe.
Fe --> Cose - coses the document you are workng on.
If changes have been made snce your ast save, you w
be prompted to save or dscard those changes.
Fe --> Save - saves the document you are currenty
workng on.
Fe --> Save As... - saves an updated verson of a
document n a dfferent ocaton, wth a dfferent name,
from the prevousy saved verson.
Common Operations
For operatons whe wrtng, t s common to want to seect a
ot of text, copy t, maybe cut t from ts current ocaton and
paste t esewhere, or even undo an acton. A ths s
possbe wth the offce sute, and such optons are avaabe
at the Edt menu. A few common optons are:
To copy text: seect the text wth the mouse, then seect
Edt --> Copy. Now the seected text s kept n memory
for use esewhere.
To paste text: fnd the spot where text needs to be
paced, pace the cursor there, and then seect Edt -->
Paste.
To cut text: ths means that the seected text w be
removed from the current ocaton and kept n memory,
to be paced esewhere. Dong ths s exacty ke how a
copy shoud be performed, except seecton Edt --> Cut
nstead.
To undo an acton: Seect Edt --> Undo. It w dspay the
command that t s undong at the moment.
By browsng the menu, there are aso keyboard shortcuts
ocated next to t. Once more profcent use of the package
occurs, t s much qucker to use keyboard shortcuts ke
Contro+C for Copy, and so on.
Formatting
Formattng text s as mportant as wrtng the text, and
Wrter provdes many formattng optons, ncudng the
Styst. Indvduay, you can aso format the character
(current seected tem, or even a whoe word), the
paragraph, or even the page.
Fig. Part of the Object toolbar (Writer)
Some of the quck format optons ncude bold, italics and
underne. These optons are avaabe at the toobar at the
top of the screen.
Text agnment pays a arge roe n controng how portons
of the document w ook. For exampe, an address fed at
the top of your etter w have such detas rght-agned,
whe the body and rest of the base text w be eft-agned.
Ths s a controed by the four-cons that are ocated next
to the bod/tacs/underne cons, provdng such optons as:
rght-agn, centre-agn, eft-agn and |ustfed. When text s
|ustfed, t ooks exacty ke what you're readng now! (a
more professona end-to-end stretch of the text.)
Let's swtch to the end of the toobar, and notce that the
optons there ncudng provdng a paragraph background -
whch s good for hghghtng a paragraph or severa
paragraphs of text, n coours that you choose. You can aso
hghght text (ke you woud wth a hghghter and paper!),
and change the font coours a wth the cons there.
Agnng text by ndentng t s aso another feature avaabe
as part of the ob|ect toobar. Left/rght agnment of text s
provded, and f text s aready entered and you want to eft-
agn t, seecton of text (or havng the cursor at the
paragraph) must happen frst, before text s ndented.
Those were |ust quck contros. To get fu contro, usng the
Format menu s dea. Contros are more vared here.
Styles
Consstency throughout a document s mportant - t was
earer sad that wrtng books usng OpenOffce.org s
possbe. So there must be a way to hande ong and arge
documents n a consstent fashon, wth smar fonts for
headngs, sub-headngs, text, and other attrbutes wthn a
document.
OpenOffce.org ncudes a powerfu feature known as styes,
and ths s accessed va the Styst (get ths by httng the
F11 key, or cckng ts con on the man toobar). Notce the
foatng wndow, whch s most key actve at the "Defaut"
stye. By rght-cckng on the stye, there are optons to
modfy the stye, or create new custom ones.
By gong to the modfy opton, the stye can be customzed
va many varyng attrbutes ncudng spacng, agnment,
font, emphass, coour and many more. Once sutabe styes
have been pre-defned n the document, they can be used on
exstng text |ust by seecton, and doube-cckng on the
stye name.
Just a little bit more...
Now that the gst of the Wrter package has been covered,
there's |ust a tte more to know.
Wrter has a but-n spe checker. Ths can be accessed va:
Toos --> Specheck
The opton to auto-specheck means that whe typng,
Wrter w dynamcay check your speng, and f t detects
an error, t w output a red-ne at the bottom of the
msspeed word. Keep n mnd that the spe checkng s
based on the current anguage that s n use. Ths can be
changed va:
Toos --> Optons --> Language Settngs -->
Languages
Accessng word counts n the document s dfferent to most
other packages on a defaut nsta of OpenOffce.org (ths
can dffer wth severa Lnux dstrbutons' offerngs):
Fe --> Propertes --> Statstcs
It s under the Statstcs tab that the word counts and other
reevant document counts are based. On certan vendor
modfed dstrbutons of OpenOffce.org, gong to the Toos --
> Word Count menu w aow the Statstcs daogue box to
be dspayed automatcay.
The AutoCorrect/AutoFormat (Toos -->
AutoCorrect/AutoFormat) optons have repacement tabes
(so that CDs reay are vad, and w not be changed to Cd,
for nstance). There are aso word competon optons (very
usefu, as the software starts thnkng for you) and settngs
to make them more user-frendy.
The Navgator s a yet another usefu too (get ths va httng
the F5 key or cckng ts con on the man toobar), especay
when deang wth arger documents. It supports |umpng to
bookmarks, notes, any partcuar ob|ect, and even creates a
tabe-of-contents on the fy, based on the styes that are
beng used!
CALC
Ths s the spreadsheet component of the OpenOffce.org
package, and contans many usefu features, ncudng an
array of functons and penty of chartng optons. It s fuy
nter-operabe wth Mcrosoft Exce, though the functon
separators dffer n the two packages.
Fig. OpenOffice.org Calc
To start ths, t s avaabe va
Man Menu --> Offce --> OpenOffce.org Cac
or f you aready have an exstng wndow of OpenOffce.org
open,
Fe --> New --> Spreadsheet.
Spreadsheets contan many rows and coumns, and each row
and coumn combnaton s caed a ce (ke A1, B4, and so
on). Upon nputtng text nto a ce, you mght reaze that the
text s wder than the ce aows for - ths can be re-szed va
rght-cckng the ce, and seectng the Format Ces opton.
There under the Agnment tab, seectng Lne Break s what
s requred.
Formatting
Lke other parts of OpenOffce.org, Cac aso comes wth the
Styst. But et's get around to understandng the varous
dfferng formattng optons avaabe n ths component of
the package.
If there s some nformaton that you aready have created,
and the area shoud be formatted, one partcuar quck and
easy opton s to use the AutoFormats avaabe n Cac. Ths
s done after seectng the area then:
Format --> AutoFormat
These are pre-defned styes that are avaabe n Cac, and f
you have created your own partcuar stye, you can add
them nto your new AutoFormats.
In the ob|ect toobar, there s an opton to set the font coour
wthn the ce. There are aso optons to ncrease/decrease
the ndents wthn a ce, and n the mage beow, contros for
enabng:
Currency
Percentage
Add/Remove sgnfcant decma paces
Fig. Part of the Object toolbar (Calc)
These are quck contros, and accessng them s as smpe as
cckng the cons that represent them, and automatcay the
ce w be formatted as stated. Not ony can Borders be set
easy, and ce backgrounds too, but the agnment of text
wthn a ce can aso be set. Ths can be ether as a top
agned, centre agned, or bottom agned.
Now that most of the formattng optons are known, t s easy
to appy Styes to the spreadsheet - brng up the Styst by
httng the F11 key, and you' notce that ce styes (that
contro a eements, ncudng formattng) and page styes
can be set (the atter controng margns, headers/footers,
and borders).
Spreadsheet basics
There are a few ponts to note when usng a spreadsheet.
One of them s that cacuatons are performed n a eft-to-
rght format, wth agebrac orderng rues. Ths means t
deas wth brackets ("()") frst, then dvson ("/"),
mutpcaton ("*"), addton ("+") and fnay subtracton
("-").
When appyng cacuatons, keep n mnd the range of
ncuded ces. When usng a functon ke =SUM(), and usng
the argument =SUM(A1:A4), t means t ooks for the sum of
the ces A1, A2, A3, and A4. These operatons can aso be
performed on non-consecutve ces, so, =SUM(A1;A4;A7)
|ust executes the sum of ces A1, A4 and A7.
If you have used Exce before, t woud be reatvey common
to use a comma (",") as a separator character between the
parameters, however, wth OpenOffce.org Cac, the
separator character s a sem-coon (";"). So for the functon
to vadate correcty, an expresson such as =IF(B3>0;A1-
A2;A1+A2) s correct (as opposed to repacng the ";" wth
",").
Building functions
To perform cacuatons, spreadsheet make use of functons.
Common functons ncude =SUM() for summaton,
=AVERAGE() for the average vaue of ces, and so on. As an
ad to the novce user, OpenOffce.org provdes a Functon
AutoPot. Ths s a wzard to hep bud formuas, and fnd
probems wth exstng expressons.
Fig. Function AutoPilot Button
Located next to the unversa sum functon, s the Functon
AutoPot. If you cck on n, a pop-up daogue appears.
1. In the Functons tab, you can fter vewabe/accessbe
functons va category, and the opton to choose a
functon s shown. Use your mouse to choose a functon
that you pan on usng.
2. Once the correct functon s seected, and the acton that
t performs s agreeabe (t s dspayed on the rght of the
daogue), seect Next to move on.
3. Now you are aowed to nput numbers. Assumng the
AVERAGE functon was chosen, n the number 1 fed (for
exampe), there are optons to ether enter a functon or
seect a range of ces.
4. Use seect a range of ces, and now a dfferent daogue
pop's up and you can use the mouse cursor to seect a
range of ces. Cck on OK, and you're done!
That s a very easy way to bud a formua, whch requres no
pre-requste knowedge about what formuas exst n Cac.
Sorting
A bg part of deang wth spreadsheets nvoves a ot of
sortng and fterng of data. To sort a dataset, seectng the
actve ces, then cckng
Data --> Sort
w brng a pop-up daogue that has optons for sortng the
data based on the coumns present, as we as f the data
shoud be ascendng or descendng.
Charting
Convertng data nto nformaton s a process usuay
accompshed we by creatng graphs and charts - t s a ot
easer to nfer based on vsua graphcs, rather than ots of
numbers. Cac provdes a chartng wzard that w aow ths
to be automated rather easy, wth a ot of predefned
settngs.
1. Seect the ces that are to be charted, and then go to
Insert --> Chart.
2. The range s pre-seected, and certan optons are
provded (ke where the resutng chart s); |ust eavng
the pre-seected optons w be good for the exercse.
Cck Next.
3. A type of chart s to be chosen - common charts ncude
pe chart, ne graphs, or even bar graphs - t a depends
on the nformaton beng represented.
4. Seect the defauts, and create a chart. (You shoud now
see a bar chart created).
Now that a chart has been created, t s not statc n the
sense that t cannot be edted - you can contro each and
every aspect of how the chart ooks. Doube-cck the chart,
and you w now go nto edt mode. Notce the toobar by the
eft-hand sde of your screen has changed? Ths s n drect
response to t beng n edt mode, and a ot of propertes can
be changed here.
There are penty more features, ke data fterng, scenaro
creaton, and goa seek, whch once you get more advanced
wth spreadsheet know-how, you w end up makng use of.
IMPRESS
No offce sute s compete wthout a presentaton pece, and
OpenOffce.org shows ts coours wth Impress, the
presentaton pece of the sute. To start t, t s avaabe at
Man Menu --> Offce --> OpenOffce.org Impress
or f you aready have an OpenOffce.org wndow open, ts
avaabe at
Fe --> New --> Presentaton.
Fig. OpenOffice.org Impress
Unke other components of OpenOffce.org, when you start
Impress, you are presented wth an AutoPot, to start
creatng your presentaton! Ths gves you optons to start a
presentaton wth an empty tempate, or even wth one of the
pre-defned tempates. A prevew daogue s avaabe, and
once a optons are seected (and Next s ccked, to move
on), you get a basc presentaton.
Fig. Impress AutoPilot for a ne presentation
Template Management
If a bg porton of tme s gong to be spent gvng
presentatons, ts very professona to have the presentaton
ook ke each other, n the form of a tempate (same ogo
poston, copyrght notces, etc...). Once a tempate s
created (or downoaded from the Internet), you manage
tempates va the:
Fe --> Tempate --> Organze
Slide Design
A quck way to get sdes done s va turnng on:
Vew --> Toobars --> Presentaton
Ths provdes a pop-up menu opton that aows you to nsert
sdes, or even modfy the sde ayout of the current sde.
Vies
There are severa vews n Impress, and some have over-
appng names, but wth dfferent functonaty! At the top-
rght-hand-corner of your screen, |ust above the scro bars,
you' notce fve buttons that ook ke what you see beow.
Fig. !ie Buttons
The sx optons for workspace vews are:
1. Drawng vew - defaut, for sde desgn.
2. Outne vew - overook of the presentaton.
3. Sde vew - brds eye vew to add, change, swtch sdes
around.
4. Notes vew - add speaker notes.
5. Handout vew - how handouts get prnted.
6. Start sdeshow - run the presentaton.
A the vews can aso be accessed va:
Vew --> Workspace
It s aso worthwhe to note that at the bottom-eft-hand-
corner of your screen, where the sde tabs are dspayed,
there are more vews to know about. You are typcay
ocated n the Sde Vew (same name as above, but dfferent
functonaty snce ts on a dfferent bar!)
Fig. "ore #ies
However, Master Vews are supported and to access ths
vew, t s the second button from the eft. You can have
master vews of a workspace vews (.e. a master vew of the
sde tsef, notes, and handouts). The Layer vew aows
ayerng of sdes (addng and removng), and ayers can be
non-prntng or non-dspayed on screen, but prntng ony.
Ja!!ing up the presentation
Ob|ects, ke vdeo, |ava appets, musc, and even other
graphcs can be added (embedded) to a presentaton very
easy. To perform ths, the foowng menu s usefu:
Insert --> Ob|ect
Keep n mnd that OpenOffce.org w ony pay content
provded a reevant pug-n's are nstaed. For sound
payback, t assumes an aready confgured sound-card,
otherwse t w not work.
Effects are another supported feature n Impress and consst
of thngs ke sde transtons, mouse-drven buet-ponts,
and even drawng anmatons. To get to the effects pop-up:
Sde Show --> Effects
A common effect s one where each buet pont appears
upon a mouse-cck. Ths event-drven effect s easy
performed va seectng the "Appear" effect. Once that s
seected, tckng the green tck (n acceptance) s necessary.
Fig. $he Appear %ffect
Performng sde transtons are aso performed va the
effects menu. However, to create anmatons, the menu s:
Sde Show --> Anmaton
c
Here smpe anmatons can be created, ke a bouncng ba
aong a ne, for nstance. Ths s done smpy va:
1. Draw a crce (ba!).
2. Then draw a curve, as the path the curve shoud trave.
3. Seect the "Move aong curve" effect, and appy t (as n
the fgure beow).
4. Now when the presentaton s run, the ba w move
aong the ne.
Fig. Application of mo#ing along the cur#e effect
CONCLUSION
OpenOffce.org has the abty to be a very usefu software
package - t ncudes very powerfu, free aternatves to
satsfy average offce sute requrements. As ths s ony
scratchng the surface, there are penty more resources
avaabe out there, so pease, use the avaabe
documentaton to ts fuest.
The Shell
INTRODUCTION
The Linux/Unix shell refers to a special program that allows
you to interact with it by entering certain commands from
the keyboard; the shell will execute the commands and
display its output on the monitor. The environment of
interaction is text-based unlike the !U"-based interaction
we have been using in the previous chapters# and since it is
command-oriented this type of interface is termed $ommand
Line interface or $L". %efore the advent of !U"-based
computing environments& the $L" was the only way that one
can interact and access a computer system.
Up until now& there was never a need to type commands into
a shell; and with the modernisation and creation of a lot of
newer !U"-based tools& the shell is becoming increasingly
un-re'uired to perform many tasks. %ut that said& the shell
is a very powerful place& and a lot is achieved through it. (
lot of the front-end !U" methods of doing things have similar
ways and means to get done with using the shell.
)rofessional Linux and U*"+ users find the shell very
powerful& and an introduction to at least the basic shell
usage is useful.
GETTING TO A SHELL
,ince it is most likely that you are in the graphical desktop
environment now& the underlying shell that is available is not
displayed. To access a shell& try the following key
combination&
$ontrol - (lt - ./
0here ./ can be replaced by .1& .2& and so on. The graphical
desktop tends to run in .3 or .4& so to go back to your
graphical desktop screen& 5ust hit $ontrol - (lt - .3. These
are virtual terminals.
(lternatively& you could get to a Terminal application& so you
can have a shell while your in the graphical desktop
environment this is much preferred& and will be used
throughout this $hapter#. To do this& go to6
7ain 7enu --8 ,ystem Tools --8 Terminal
9r right-click on the desktop& and click on the 9pen Terminal
option. This terminal is e'uivalent to the virtual terminals
mentioned earlier& except now you don:t have to switch
screens ; you can 5ust minimi<e or maximi<e the terminal or
if you:re done& you can close it#.
SOME USEFUL COMMANDS
*ow that you are at a terminal& you might as well input some
commands. .or example& when you start a shell& display
such as below or similar# will be seen and this can be
configured to your liking=#6
[-(byte@hermione)-(pts/4)-(05:34pm:05/06/2004)-]
[-(~)>
The cursor blinks& waiting for input. To this& some of the more
used and useful commands include6
ls ; list files in the current directory.
cd ; change working directory. "f your current path is /
home/username/Trash for instance& typing >cd? will bring
you back to /home/username.
mkdir ; make a new directory
rmdir ; delete a directory must be empty#
cp ; invoked such as >cp current.ile new.ile?& and is used
to copy files.
mv ; invoked such as >mv currentLocation newLocation?.
This is used to either move or rename files.
rm ; invoked such as >rm my.ile?; it is used to delete
files permanently.
pwd ; prints the working current# directory.
cat ; concatenate files can be used to 5oin them
together#& and prints its output to standard output the
terminal screen#. Used like6 >cat my.ile?.
less ; allows for file viewing in the shell& and is most
useful for text files; invoked like >less my.ile?.
find ; can be used to find files via the command line.
@xample usage could be6 >find . -name toc?& which looks
at the current directory defined by >.?# for any files with
the name >toc?.
locate ; picks entries from a database& that is updated
regularly; invoked via >locate my.ile?. "ts much 'uicker
than find since it only searches a database#& but might
not be as 'uick to update as find the update of the
database might happen once every day only#.
date ; display the current date= This can also be used to
set the date of the system but administrator privileges
are re'uired#.
history ; built-in shell command for the %(,A
environment that shows the last run commands.
(s always& these commands 5ust begin to scratch the surface
of the capability of the shell. There are thousands of such
commands available on your system= (nd keep in mind that
each and every command comes with options& that are
usually executed via the -flag ; again& the man pages list all
useful commands. .or instance the command
rm -i
will prompt when deleting a file& so you have to either say :y:
if you:re sure& or :n: if you do not want to delete the file.
[-(/tmp)> rm -i usr.bin
rm: remove regular file `usr.bin'? y
A FEW MORE CONCEPTS AND SHORTCUTS
*ow that you:ve seen some commands that are useful in the
shell& its important to know a few more concepts. .or
instance& the tilde >B?# represents the home directory& so
rather than typing /home/username it can be represented via
a :B:. This means less typing for you.
[-(~/MyOSS-Stuff/IOSN)> pwd
/home/byte/MyOSS-Stuff/IOSN
[-(~/MyOSS-Stuff/IOSN)> cd ~
[-(~)> pwd
/home/byte
,o in that example& " was located in /home/byte/7y9,,-
,tuff/"9,*& and 5ust by issuing a >cd B?& the shell has
brought the current working directory to /home/byte.
( dot >.? means the current directory. 0hile >../? will mean
the parent directory. This can be nested to include >../../?
and so on& till it reaches the top level directory /.
INPUT/OUTPUT REDIRECTION AND PIPES
Cunning a command by itself with a lot of output doesn:t
seem all that useful. .or instance& if there are many files in a
directory& running a command to list the directory like&
ls /usr/bin
will result in about 1/DD lines being displayed on the screen=
To actually get any useful information out of it& you might
want to dump the output of the ls command to a file; or
maybe use a utility like less to view it. (ll this is possible
thanks to input/output redirection and pipes.
"nput redirection is performed using E or EE& while output
redirection is done via 8 or 88. ( point to note is that when
using 8& it 5ust recreates the file& even if the same filename
exists& while 88 concatenates the output to the same file&
causing it to possibly be double in si<e if its the same
output#.
( pipe >F?# is used to pass the output of the command not to
a file& or to the screen& but to the next utility. )ipes can be
nested& so you can pass the data through several utilities
before you can get the useful information that you want.
Let:s dive into some examples=
1. [-(/tmp)> ls /usr/bin >> usr.bin
2. [-(/tmp)> wc -l usr.bin
3. 2171 usr.bin
4. [-(/tmp)> ls /usr/bin >> usr.bin
5. [-(/tmp)> wc -l usr.bin
6. 4342 usr.bin
7. [-(/tmp)> ls /usr/bin > usr.bin
8. [-(/tmp)> wc -l usr.bin
9. 2171 usr.bin
Note: the line numbers are added for clarity, and are
not included in the shell output!
"n line /& the output of the directory listing of /usr/bin gets
placed in a file called usr.bin. 9n line 1& a new utility called
:wc: is used this is used to print the number of lines in the
file as it gets passed the -l option# ; its output is at line 2.
The same command is then repeated on line G& and now& the
file is double the si<e as per line H= That is because the 88
output redirection was used& which has concatenated the
two outputs together. *otice that in line 3& a single 8 is used&
and in line I& it shows that the file has been over-written with
the new contents.
[-(/tmp)> ls /usr/bin | grep cancel
cancel
cancel.cups
The above is an example of how a pipe is used. (fter listing
the files& the output is passed on to a utility called grep
which basically searches for a pattern& and prints the
output# and the string being searched for is >cancel?. "t
comes back with two matches. ,imilarly& a command like6
ls /usr/bin F less
0ill place the output of the directory listing into the less
pager so that it can be scrolled through easily. (nd for
another example as to how pipes can be nested& issuing6
[-(/tmp)> 'ls' /usr/bin | grep auto|wc -l
19
sends the output of the directory listing of /usr/bin to grep&
which then searches for the string >auto?& and then wc prints
how many times it occurs in lines.
( useful command string that a lot of systems administrators
tend to use would be6
[root@hermione root]# tail -f /var/log/messages
Jul 5 12:04:02 hermione last message repeated 13
times
Jul 5 16:17:17 hermione last message repeated 17
times
Jul 5 16:17:28 hermione last message repeated 18
times
Jul 5 16:17:32 hermione
( :tail: displays the last ten lines of the file& and the -f option
means that if there are more logs& it gets displayed via it
being appended to the bottom#.
WHERE DO I GET HELP?
Cather than get frightened off the shell& there are some
sources of help& in the event that you aren:t sure what you:re
doing in the shell.
Man Pages
These are manual pages& for each and every command that
resides on your system. This is a first point of reference& and
it is invoked by6
man command-name
e.g.
$ man man
The above runs man on itself& explaining a bit about the
manual page system.
Info Pages
This is the new !*U pro5ect method of distributing manuals&
and info pages are a lot more comprehensive than man
pages. "t is invoked by6
info command-name
e.g.
$ info info
The above runs info on itself& and provides some useful
information as to how info can be used& and how you can
navigate info documents.
Other Useful Commands (for help)
0hile still on the topic of help& there are a few more useful
commands that you want to know about6
whatis ; invoked by >whatis package-name? and it
provides information about the tool that whatis
recogni<es and has in its database#.
apropos ; invoked by >apropos string?& and it provides
strings matching what is located in the whatis database.
This is most useful when you don:t know what command
you want to run& but have an idea that as to what it
should be dealing with so apropos mail should provide
all sorts of mail clients that are available on your
system#.
CONCLUSION
This is the power of Linux and U*"+ command lines. There is
much more to learn& as there are different shells& and
different shell syntaxes available. (lso& regular expressions
are useful& and there are plenty more utilities available& and
if a liking towards the shell is taken& shell scripts can be
written to perform a lot of tasks& including backing up
directories and more=
EXERCISES
/. 9pen up a shell on your Jesktop and perform the
following6
find the name of the directory you are in
list out the contents of the current directory
list out the contents of the directory /usr/bin
check the current date and time
1. $hange directory to your home directory and make a new
sub-directory there named Temp11 and change directory
to it
copy the following files from the /etc directory to the
directory Temp//: services, motd, fstab, hosts
concatenate the files copied above into one single file
called file1
count the number of lines present in the file file1
delete the four files listed above in the directory
Temp//
Package Maintenance
and Update
INTRODUCTION
While a simple piece of software may consist of only a single
executable file, most of the software applications available
and running on your system are more complex. A typical
application or utility will consist of several executable files,
configuration files, documentation notes and guides and
possibly even libraries too. All these files and information
about where to place them in the filesystem are put together
in what is refered to as a package. So when we talk about
the installation or upgrading of applications, we are refering
to the installation and maintenance of these packages.
There are many packaging formats available in Linux, and
some are easier to use than others. n this !hapter we shall
cover tarballs, the "#$ packaging format %"#$& and the
'ebian packaging format %'()&.
TARBALLS
Tarballs are the standard, and are common with file
extensions such as *.tar.g+, or *.tar.b+-,. This is the generic,
distribution.free method of distribution software packages in
the Linux world. /owever, tarballs are not very user.friendly0
for example, to get a tarball from the nternet running, one
might have to issue the following commands from the
command line in a shell,
# bunzip2 myapp.tar.bz2
# tar -xvpf myapp.tar
# cd myapp
# ./configure
# make
# make install
This is a tedious task, and involves getting the software to
compile before being able to run. f know.how is lacking, this
method will also cause a lot of grief, as sometimes during the
*configure, stage, dependencies to get it running aren1t met.
This is the aim of package management formats like "#$
and '() 2 to ease the burden of dependency resolution, so
that the end.user will 3ust install the software with ease, and
if dependencies are re4uired, they get installed along.
KEEPING UP-TO-DATE
5n "ed /at Linux67edora !ore systems, there is a graphical
front.end called up-date. t is invoked by the little icon at the
bottom of the notification area %nearby where the clock is
located&.
Fig. Up2date Icon
t can also be accessed via,
$ain $enu ..8 System Tools ..8
"ed /at 9etwork
When you run it, it will re4uire that you enter the root
password %as this effects the system, administrative rights
are re4uired&. 5nce that is entered, an image like the one
below is displayed.
Fig. Up2date Channels Screen
:ust click 9ext %make sure the nternet connection is enabled,
if it is not enable it before proceeding further& 2 it will contact
the online servers and find packages that are installed and
need updating, and it will prompt you along the way. 5nce it
is done, your system will be updated %and the blue icon with
a tick will be displayed&. f your system is not updated or the
packages not kept up to date, a red icon with an exclamation
mark will be displayed and it will be blinking.
5n a 'ebian ;9<6Linux system, a tool known as *apt.get, is
available on the command line. 5n a default install, that is all
that is provided, however, a good ;< front.end to it is
Synaptic, which can be downloaded from the nternet via,
# apt-get install synaptic
7edora also comes with another updating tool known as yum,
and this can be invoked via the command line such as,
# yum update
To upgrade your current system,
# yum upgrade
can be invoked.
=eep in mind that keeping an updated system is very
important, as when security holes or bugs are found in
software and get fixed, you will always be kept abreast of
such developments. A non.updated system can be an
insecure system, and that is not good practice.
INSTALLING NEW PACKAGES
f a package is available on your "ed /at Linux or 7edora
!ore !'"5$, there1s an Add6"emove Applications
application that is useful. t is invoked via,
$ain $enu ..8 System Settings ..8
Add6"emove Applications
t will ask you for the root password, and once that is
provided, it will display all applications that may be installed.
5nce you have ticked the applications that you want
installed, you 3ust need to click *<pdate, to install. !hange
the discs as you are prompted, and once this is done, you
will have the software installed.
/owever, in the open source world where applications
change 4uite often, and fixes are posted, this method might
mean you get out.dated software. This is where tools like
yum and apt come into play.
To search the yum database for a piece of software, you can
invoke,
# yum search xargs
where xargs is an example of an application that needs to be
installed. >um will report if it finds xargs, and if its
successful, performing,
# yum install xargs
will be all that is re4uired. f xargs calls for any
dependencies, it will be resolved automatically, and those
packages get pulled in automatically too.
This is similar with 'ebian and apt.
# apt-cache search xargs
# apt-get install xargs
f you want to install a downloaded "#$ or '() file manually,
it can be performed like,
# rpm -ivh xargs.rpm
or
# dpkg -i xargs.deb
And if you1re manually upgrading a package, use,
# rpm -Uvh xargs.rpm
The above command will upgrade the package if it is already
installed or install it if it is not. To perfrom an upgrade only if
the package is curently installed, use,
# rpm -Fvh xargs.rpm
There are many more options to pass to the rpm, dpkg, yum,
apt.get and apt.cache tools, and the best way to learn more,
would be to read their manual pages. t is also worthy to note
that apt.get is available for "#$.based systems, so versions
for "ed /at Linux or 7edora !ore %or even SuS( or $andrake&
are available as a download from the nternet.
Chapter 13: Getting
More Info (and Help!)
The previous chapters have provided a guide on how to
use the graphical desktop of a typical Linux system.
However, they have just scratched the surface of the
features and functions of the Desktop environment and the
applications therein. In this section we shall look at the
resources availale to a user to get more information and
help.
ONLINE DOCUMENTATION
!uch of the details on how to use and exploit further the
software availale is availale as online documentation on
the system itself. The online documentation is availale in
two types, the Help from the !ain !enu and"or applications
and the text#ased $nix#style man and info commands.
Desktop Help
The Desktop Help can e invoked from the !ain !enu,
!ain !enu ##% Help
Invoking this will display the screen elow.
Fig. GNOME Help Screen
The Help content is divided into several main categories.
&o you will need to select the appropriate category to view
the help content of interest. !ost of the information on
how to use the Desktop can e found from the Help here.
'or example, to view the help information on the 'ile
!anage, select,
Desktop ##% (autilus 'ile !anager
Fig. File Manager Help Screen
Help Selection in Applications
!ost of the Desktop applications have a Help utton in
their main menuar at the top. &electing this will give you
more information on how to use the application. The Help
screen for the )pen)ffice.org *riter application is
displayed elow.
Fig. OpenOffice.org Writer Help Screen
Man and Info Pages
+s discussed in ,hapter --, from the command line
interface using a &hell, it is possile to access a
comprehensive help system on the commands availale
via the man and info commands. 'or example, to find out
more on how to use the directory listing command, ls, open
up a shell .see ,hapter --/ and at the command prompt
enter,
$ man ls
!ore detailed information on certain commands may e
found using the info command, e.g.

$ info ls
To learn how to use the man and info commands, make
use of these commands themselves e.g.
$ man info
$ man man
$ info info
$ info man
THE INTERNET (WWW)
There is a lot of information availale on the *** on all
the software availale on the system. These may e
classified roadly as follows0
*esites of specific software projects
*esites of specific Linux distriutions and"or vendors
1eneral Linux wesites
1eneral )pen &ource wesites
Websites of Specific Software
2elow are links to the wesites of the software applications
discussed in this guide.
1()!3 4 www.gnome.org
5D3 4 www.kde.org
The 'reedesktop 6roject 4 www.freedesktop.org
)pen)ffice.org 4 www.openoffice.org
!o7illa 4 www.mo7illa.org
8imian 3volution # www.novell.com"products"evolution"
gToaster 4 gnometoaster.rule7.org
&ane # www.sane#project.org
8&ane 4 www.xsane.org
!6layer # www.mplayerh9.hu
8ine 4 xineh9.de
8!!& # www.xmms.org
gThum 4 gthum.sourceforge.net
Linux Distributions and/or Vendors
Links to specific Linux distriutions and vendors are listed
elow. In particular the wesite Distrowatch should e
consulted for information and links to the hundreds of
Linux distriutions availale today.
'edora Linux 4 fedora.redhat.com
Deian Linux 4 www.deian.org
&lackware Linux 4 www.slackware.org
:edhat Linux 4 www.redhat.com
&u&3 Linux 4 www.suse.com
!andrake Linux 4 www.linux#mandrake.com
...
...
... many. many, many more
... .for links and information on many Linux and other )&&
operating system distriutions see the Distrowatch
wesite elow/
Distrowatch 4 www.distrowatch.org
eneral Linux Websites
:esources catering to new Linux users can e found in
many of the wesite links elow.
Linux )nline 4 www.linux.org
Linux.com 4 www.linux.com
Linux.net 4 www.linux.net
Linux Head9uarters 4 www.linuxh9.com
LinuxH;.org 4 www.linuxh9.org
Linxu Today 4 www.linuxtoday.com
The Linux Documentation project 4 www.tldp.org
Linux9uestions.org # www.linux9uestions.org
The Linux &tandard 2ase 6roject 4 www.linuxase.org
Linux <ournal 4 www.linuxjournal.com
Linux 1a7ette # www.linuxga7ette.com
Linux ,ompatile # www.linuxcompatile.org
!ree and "pen Source Software Websites
In this section, general information on )pen &ource and
'ree &oftware may e otained as well as news and
updates.
The )pen &ource Initiative 4 www.opensource.org
The 'ree &oftware 'oundation 4 www.fsf.org
&ourceforge 4 sourceforge.net
'reshmeat 4 freshmeat.net
(ewsforge 4 www.newsforge.com
)pen &ource Development (etwork 4 www.osdn.com
&lashdot 4 slashdot.org
International )pen &ource (etwork 4 www.iosn.net
The +sian )pen &ource ,entre 4 www.asiaosc.org
)&(ews # www.osnews.com
Appendix: KDE (The K
Desktop Environment)
INTRODUCTION
The focus for the large part of this guide has been with the
GNOME Desktop. However, there is another popular
graphical desktop environent out there known as the !
Desktop Environent, affectionatel" known as !DE. #t is
included with ost s"stes, and has a strong user$base,
%ust like the GNOME Desktop. !DE offers an alternative
desktop coputing e&perience in that while the applications
should all function in the sae anner irrespective of the
desktop environent chosen, the look and feel of the
graphical desktop are different. Desktop$specific tools and
applets a" also be different fro one environent to the
ne&t.
This section will briefl" introduce !DE as well as highlight
soe of the ore iportant differences fro the user's
perspective between the !DE and GNOME Desktops.
LOGIN INTO KDE
To login to the !DE Desktop rather than the GNOME Desktop,
at the graphical login screen, click on (essions at the
botto, and then select the !DE option. Enter "our
usernae and password ) there ight be a pop$up warning
asking if the change is for the current session or for all future
sessions *this can be peranentl" changed using the
progras +s"ste$config$switchdesk, on a -edora./ed Hat
s"ste and +switchdesk, on a Debian s"ste.0.
Fig. Choosing KDE at the Login Screen
1fter login, the !DE Desktop is displa"ed and as can be seen
below is rather siilar, but not identical, in appearance to
the GNOME Desktop shown in 2hapter 3.
THE KDE DESKTOP
The !DE Desktop has siilar coponents to the GNOME
Desktop and their functionalities and usage do not differ
uch. (o on the desktop we find the following failiar
coponents4 the Menu ("ste, the 5anel, the Desktop itself.
Fig. The KDE Desktop (Fedora Core)
On closer e&aination of the Desktop there are soe subtle
differences, -or e&aple, one of the things that set !DE
apart fro GNOME, would be the icon set. #n contrast to
GNOME, there is no +2oputer, icon, but %ust soe for "our
devices, and the usual +(tart Here, set. !DE on s"stes
other than /ed Hat 6inu& or -edora 2ore, will look a lot
different, as the thees can be configured otherwise.
Fig. KDE Desktop Icon Set
1nother ite that "ou will notice is that if "ou right$click on
the Desktop, the right$click pop$up enu differs fro the
GNOME offering. #t allows "ou to create new docuents, edit
bookarks *which are a hand" feature to %up to places
7uickl" with %ust a few clicks of the ouse button0, and of
course, run a coand.
Fig. Right-click Men in KDE
8" clicking on the Main Menu, again, differences will be
prevalent. 8ut notice that the categories of applications are
siilar9 #t is %ust the look and feel, that sees to differ a
little.
Fig. KDE Mens
CONTROL CENTER
There is a central place where all the Desktop and s"ste
configuration can be set and viewed ) the !DE 2ontrol
2enter.
Fig. KDE Control Center
The 2ontrol 2enter can be launched fro the Main Menu,
Main Menu $$: 2ontrol 2enter
This central place for configuration akes it ver" convenient
for users and adinistrators alike. ;sing the 2ontrol 2enter
is eas". To configure a particular setting or paraeter, open
up the section it is under and select the ite to configure.
-or e&aple, to change the background colour, select,
1ppearance < Thee $$: 8ackground
KLIPPER CLIPBOARD APPLET
!lipper is a uni7ue feature of !DE ) it provides for clipboard
access in the G;# application environent. #t allows a
ultitude of cop"ing and pasting options, and works well
between all applications. ;sing !lipper, one can cut and
paste te&t sealessl" between applications running on !DE.
To place !lipper on the 5anel, right$click on the 5anel,
1dd $$: 1pplet $$: !lipper
Fig. Klipper
KONQUEROR - FILE MANAGER AND WEB BROWSER
6astl", one a%or difference between !DE and GNOME is the
file anager. #n !DE, !on7ueror is the default file anager.
!on7ueror provides all the functionalities one will e&pect
fro a odern file anager, including navigation of the
files"ste, file.folder cop"ing, renaing, deletion and
creation and application launching.
Fig. Kon!eror File Manager
#t is also able to displa" graphic iage files and generate an
iage galler" web page fro the. #n addition. !on7ueror is
a standards$copliant web$browser and is perfectl" capable
of browsing the === on the #nternet $ %ust enter the website
to go to in the !on7ueror location bar.
Fig. Kon!eror "e# $ro%ser
To learn ore about the an" features of !on7ueror, see the
online !on7ueror docuentation which can be invoked b"
selecting fro the !on7ueror ain toolbar,
Help $$: !on7ueror Handbook
THE HELP CENTER
One of the best wa"s to learn about how to use !DE
effectivel" is through its online help docuentation ) the
Help 2enter. This can be invoked fro the Main Menu,
Main Menu $$: Help
The Help 2enter covers the graphical desktop usage and
configuration as well as the !DE applets and applications.
(tandard ;ni&.6inu& anual and info pages can be accessed
fro here too.
The !DE Help 2enter should be consulted for ore
inforation about how to use !DE.
Fig. The KDE &elp Center