Just got round to looking at Plasma 5 and the latest incarnation with a Kubuntu live disk and generally like the look of it - except the very first thing that stands out, and frankly looks ridiculous on my screen, are size of the menus; the default Kickoff menu and status and notifications / volume / storage / internet connection, etc, etc and how much space they take up and how much space is wasted within the menus. Can these be resized fairly easily? Or are they going to be made resizeable (grab at the corners and resize) ?

I do hope so, it'd be a shame to ruin all that work over something so elementary.

Are the menus for the default Kickoff, Status and Notifications, Volume, etc, etc. going to be resizeable (grab at the corners) or can they be resized via some config?

As it stands from a live cd of the latest plasma 5 they look ridiculously big screen ratio wise, and take up a lot of real estate, they also waste a lot of space within. Seems a bit of an own goal if people are stuck with them like this when the rest of it looks pretty good. Or is this just a live cd thing?

Admin edit: Merged two posts with similar content.

Plasma 5 lets you have a simple Windows 98-style menu (plus a search bar) instead of Kickoff if you prefer that. Just right click on the start menu button and then pick "Alternatives". If you don't see "Alternatives", choose "Unlock widgets" first.

I doubt the OP is still looking for an answer after 10 months, but for the sake of posterity... Alt+right click to resize.

stevek wrote:I doubt the OP is still looking for an answer after 10 months, but for the sake of posterity... Alt+right click to resize.

Posts on public forums on the Internet aren't made just for specific individuals, but for an unlimited number of people who may have the same question and might find the thread through search engines. Also, your suggestion seems to be good only for making the menu even larger, not smaller.

Fully resizable Kickoff

A bug/wish: Bug 332512 - Plasma Popups aren't resizable - https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332512
--> pin: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332512#c8
--> Alt+ Right click: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332512#c38


Minimum size

The Kickoff has minimum width & height. These can be disabled (and set) from the FullRepresentation.qml:


Now the KIckoff is fully resizable.



My Kickoff

The Kickoff can be copied from the /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kickoff/ to $HOME/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.mykickoff/

Editing the metadata.desktop:

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Name=My Application Launcher
Name[x-test]=xxMy Application Launcherxx

Comment=Launcher to start applications
Comment[x-test]=xxLauncher to start applicationsxx

Icon=my-icon
Type=Service
X-KDE-ServiceTypes=Plasma/Applet,Plasma/PopupApplet

X-Plasma-API=declarativeappletscript
X-Plasma-MainScript=ui/Kickoff.qml
X-Plasma-Provides=org.kde.plasma.launchermenu

X-Plasma-RequiredExtensions=LaunchApp

X-KDE-PluginInfo-Author=
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Email=
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Name=org.kde.plasma.mykickoff
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Version=1.0
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Website=
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Category=Application Launchers
X-KDE-PluginInfo-Depends=
X-KDE-PluginInfo-License=GPL
X-KDE-PluginInfo-EnabledByDefault=true

After plasmashell reboot there is a new launcher widget:





More/Earlier

Why is Plasma so configurable and Kickoff is not: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=131914
My clock: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=134970&p=361132#p361132
My panel: viewtopic.php?f=66&t=133073&hilit=panel#p357392


Notes

With the plasma 5.7.4

Rog131 wrote:The Kickoff can be copied from the /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kickoff/ to $HOME/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.mykickoff/

I imagine that if I do this, I will end up losing all my Kickoff settings (favourites, etc.) and have to reapply them for the cloned application launcher, correct?

psychonaut wrote:

Rog131 wrote:The Kickoff can be copied from the /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kickoff/ to $HOME/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.mykickoff/

I imagine that if I do this, I will end up losing all my Kickoff settings (favourites, etc.) and have to reapply them for the cloned application launcher, correct?

The plasma settings are saved for each applet. If you want to keep your old setting don't rename the applet. Just copy from the /usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kickoff/ to $HOME/.local/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.kickoff/. Note! After the copy you will need to restart the plasmashell.

The KDE/Plasma is first checking the users plasma applets. If the user is having same applet (name) at the home path the plasma will use it.

If you are renaming the applet you could copy the settings by hand. The plasma applet settings are saved to the $HOME/.config/plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc text file.

The favorites:


The drill:
- shut the plasmashell down: kquitapp5 plasmashell
- backup the settings file
- edit the settings
- restart the plasmashell: plasmashell