This is my first day with KDE & SUSE.

2 Issues:

1, When I open an application, it's icon appears on the taskbar, but the application's window doesn't receive the focus. How can I configure KDE to automatically give new windows focus?

2, How can I force the taskbar to display application names instead of icons?

Thank you. Once I have control of the out-of-control desktop, I'll be able to do things and won't need to ask so many questions.

-- Mark.

2) sounds like you are using the icon-only task manager, right clicking an app/task will tell you which at the bottom (last line ends in "settings". you would remove the icon-only and add the task manage widget.

to remove a widget form the panel you need to enable panel setting by clicking the icon with 3 horizontal bars to the far right then right clicking the widget (either task manager is a widget)

google01103 wrote:2) sounds like you are using the icon-only task manager, right clicking an app/task will tell you which at the bottom (last line ends in "settings". you would remove the icon-only and add the task manage widget.

I'm sorry. I don't know to what you refer. What is "app/task"?

google01103 wrote:to remove a widget form the panel you need to enable panel setting by clicking the icon with 3 horizontal bars to the far right then right clicking the widget (either task manager is a widget)

What is a "widget"? ...On the far right, 3 horizontal bars, is the menu for Firefox: Cut Copy Paste | - 100% + | (icons for "New Window", "New Private Window", etc. ...surely you don't mean these)

1st we're talking the bottom panel which contains on the left a K icon for the app menu/launcher, the taskbar, the system tray etc ... and at the far right an icon with 3 horizontal bars

this page will familiarize you with the concepts of the plazma desktop, widgets and the panel
https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma, and this more regarding panels https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Panels

"app/task I'm describing the apps displayed in the task manager, right clicking on one when in panel settings mode should bring up a menu with the option to remove the widget (in this case the icon-only task manager if I undersatnd your issue)

google01103 wrote:1st we're talking the bottom panel which contains on the left a K icon for the app menu/launcher, the taskbar, the system tray etc ... and at the far right an icon with 3 horizontal bars

this page will familiarize you with the concepts of the plazma desktop, widgets and the panel
https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma, and this more regarding panels https://userbase.kde.org/Plasma/Panels

My desktop doesn't look even remotely like that. What is the "bottom panel" to which you refer above? My taskbar is vertical. At the top is a cartoon footprint. There is no 3 bars.

google01103 wrote:"app/task I'm describing the apps displayed in the task manager, right clicking on one when in panel settings mode should bring up a menu with the option to remove the widget (in this case the icon-only task manager if I undersatnd your issue)

I don't know what "panel settings mode" is. When I right-click (i.e., provoke the context menu) on the cartoon footprint I get these 4 choices:

Edit Applications...
Switch to Application Launcher Style // this is because I'm using Classic Menu Style
Application Launcher Menu Settings
Panel Options >

Panel Options has a fly-out sub-menu with the following 5 choices:
Add Widgets
Add Panel
Lock Widgets
Panel Settings
Remove this Panel

None of the above control the icons (or elimination of icons and their replacement by application names) on the task bar.

the "cartoon footprint" is the KDE launcher (a type of menu)

if you have a vertical panel then you should have the 3 horizontal bars at the bottom (if using KDE 4 then it would be a cashew)

clicking panel settings enables the ability to remove widgets

how did you get you're desktop setup because it is not the default, you should have a bottom panel and the std task manager with the app names shown

We're not making much progress, are we?

google01103 wrote:the "cartoon footprint" is the KDE launcher (a type of menu)

if you have a vertical panel then you should have the 3 horizontal bars at the bottom (if using KDE 4 then it would be a cashew)

You know. I'm beginning to really hate icons. That's funny because when Atari was transferred to Jack Trammel in July of 1984, I got an invitation to Xerox PARC. I didn't want to design Xerox machines, so, arrogantly believing that that's what PARC was all about, I didn't even reply. Of course, the folks who went to work at PARC invented the icon (as applied to computers), the mouse, the windowed operating system, etc., etc., etc., and almost all wound up millionaires when they allowed themselves to be hustled by the likes of Apple.

google01103 wrote:clicking panel settings enables the ability to remove widgets

Should I know what a widget is? Is a widget going to help me turn the taskbar icons into application names? ...I'm not trying to be flip. I'm asking because I don't have a clue.

google01103 wrote:how did you get you're desktop setup because it is not the default, you should have a bottom panel and the std task manager with the app names shown

I moved the taskbar to the left edge and switched to Classic Menu. That's all.

I'm currently running a Win7 Host and 2 Linux Guests: Mint and Tails (for Internet access). I'm thinking of switching to an openSUSE Host and a WinXP Guest (without networking). Right this moment, I writing this message from a live DVD boot of openSUSE.

the panel is made of of widgets (you could also add links to applications which for some reason are referred as Icons) and the task manger, Kmenu and system tray are widgets. By removing the icons-only widget and replacing it with the task manager widget you'll get app names

suggestion add a second panel, right click on the desktop -> add panel -> default panel, if this is what you want delete the current panel and then move the new one to the side

and posting a readable pic of your panel may help

ok - my BAD , I don't do vertical panels so I was OFF

you need to widen the vertical panel to see the app names in the task manager

google01103 wrote:... By removing the icons-only widget and replacing it with the task manager widget you'll get app names

I don't have choices: icons-only widget and task manager widget. In Panel Options > Add Widgets, I see about 100 widgets that I can add, but only 2 have to do with tasks: Application Launcher and Application Launcher Menu. I see nothing that says "Icons-only" or "Task Manager".

google01103 wrote:suggestion add a second panel, right click on the desktop -> add panel -> default panel, if this is what you want delete the current panel and then move the new one to the side

I did that several hours ago. The resulting panel was totally blank, so I don't know what that proves. And I did "Remove this Panel" in the Panel Options of the existing panel and the result was that the taskbar completely disappeared and I was left looking at a naked desktop. I finally figured out how to get the primary panel back, but it was a race between recovering it and a heart attack.

google01103 wrote:and posting a readable pic of your panel may help

I don't know how to do that. (I'm not sure what you mean by "readable pic". I assume "pic" is picture, but what's "readable" mean?)

per my earlier mea culpa, you have the correct task manager you just need to add width to the panel

if you added a new panel and it was blank that was because there were 2 choices: default and empty and you must have clicked empty

when adding widgets you have 2 options to filter: 1) search ("task") and categories (windows and tasks is used for task managers)

"readable pic" some people have been known to post the entire desktop such that the the panel is not readable because it is so small

google01103 wrote:per my earlier mea culpa, you have the correct task manager you just need to add width to the panel

That's a non-starter. I'd rather poke sharp objects into my eyes. Is there any way to ditch the icons? I've been trying, but no joy.

Someone suggested I try Mate. It's offered with Mint (Ubuntu), and in my main system I run Mint in a virtual machine, but I have no experience with Mate -- I run XFCE there. In Mint I would run an application called "Synaptic" and submit "Mate" to it and it would find and install Mate from the Internet. But I don't know how to install things in openSUSE -- I've searched and not found. Also, I've tried "Find" in KDE Help Center, but it can only find words in the help page you're looking at, so it can only find things that you've already found -- really useful, eh?

google01103 wrote:per my earlier mea culpa, you have the correct task manager you just need to add width to the panel

Is there any way to turn the text sideways? -- as though a horizontal task bar was simply rotated by 90-degrees.

I can do that in Mint+XFCE and I can do that in TextPad in Windows.

markfilipak wrote:

google01103 wrote:per my earlier mea culpa, you have the correct task manager you just need to add width to the panel

That's a non-starter. I'd rather poke sharp objects into my eyes. Is there any way to ditch the icons? I've been trying, but no joy.

Someone suggested I try Mate. It's offered with Mint (Ubuntu), and in my main system I run Mint in a virtual machine, but I have no experience with Mate -- I run XFCE there. In Mint I would run an application called "Synaptic" and submit "Mate" to it and it would find and install Mate from the Internet. But I don't know how to install things in openSUSE -- I've searched and not found. Also, I've tried "Find" in KDE Help Center, but it can only find words in the help page you're looking at, so it can only find things that you've already found -- really useful, eh?

this is an openSUSE question, you'll need to add the appropriate repo, Google mate install openSUSE and you get a link to a portal page explaining it

markfilipak wrote:

google01103 wrote:per my earlier mea culpa, you have the correct task manager you just need to add width to the panel

That's a non-starter. I'd rather poke sharp objects into my eyes. Is there any way to ditch the icons? I've been trying, but no joy.

"ditch the icons" - you want just text? if so not that I know of. Remove the icons? remove the task manager widget

fyi there is no way to rotate the text