For whatever reason, dolphin (currently 4.4.2) won't let me specify something like /home/me/a* in the Location Bar. Adds a (/) slash after pressing enter, /home/will/a*/, and always yields the error: The file or folder /home/me/a* does not exist. Not sure if I'm missing something or if this is not allowed.

This behaviour is the same on Trunk. Did this function in a previous KDE 4 release? If so, then this is a regression, and a bug report should be filed at bugs.kde.org. Otherwise, you will need to make a feature request at bugs.kde.org.

Can't remember if it worked in 4.3.x. Thought it did with 4.2.x. Know it did with konqueror 3.5.x. Not sure about konqueror 4.x. Don't want to install konqureor if possible.

In this case I would recommend filing a feature request at bugs.kde.org.

You don't have to install Konqueror; if you're running KDE it's already installed. And yes, globbing still works fine, as do the dozens of other things that Konqueror does and Dolphin does not. Install the konqueror plugins (package varies by distro), change your default file manager under system settings>default applications>file manager, and the aquatic mammal need never bother you again.

, I use Gentoo, where I have a choice of what I want to build/install/emerge, and konqueror in not installed nor do I want to install it. I used konqueror as a file manager for a long time under KDE 3.x, but I now perfer dolphin over konqueror for various reasons, except for this one issue.

Glad it works for you; I'm replete with loathing for the nasty aquatic mammal.