Hello,

After having experimented with KDE4 one and a half year ago, I am now making another attempt to use it, currently version 4.3.1.

I can't find some functionality. Maybe it isn't there, maybe I am looking at the wrong location, so I'm asking anyway.

1. Panel on multiple displays

I have two monitors, but the KDE panel is only visible on the first. How can I make it stretch to the second?

2. Taskbar grouping

How do I disable grouping of applications in the taskbar? There appears to be an option to forbid specific specific programs to group, but I can't find any setting to switch it off completely.

3. MacOS style menus

I read contradictory comments about MacOS style menus available in KDE4. I even saw some screenshots. Are they available or not?

KDE3 applications launched on the KDE4 desktop appear without menubar. Shouldn't they detect there is no menubar on top of the screen that they can place their items in?

4. Ugly bar in Okular

Okular has an ugly and apparently useless bar with buttons "Content", "Minatures", "Reviews" and "Bookmarks" (if I translate well). Any way to switch it off?

5. Konsole not configurable??

I can't find any configuration dialog in Konsole. In 3.5 you could configure keyboard, colours, and so on..

6. Getting rid of Dolphin

How do I make Konqueror manage my files?

7. GPU dependence

The fglrx driver moves windows with lot of lag, the radeon driver causes noise on the screen while dragging windows and radeonhd causes crashes.... Yup, I spend a lot of time fighting with video drivers, while KDE 3.5 appears to work well with both Fglrx and radeon. It is workable with the radeon driver, but the noise is not nice. Is there a way to make KDE4 less intensive on the video card, for example switching off display compositing features?

Thanks for any tips!

dmantione wrote:1. Panel on multiple displays

I have two monitors, but the KDE panel is only visible on the first. How can I make it stretch to the second?

You can't. What you can do is to add another panel to the second monitor.

2. Taskbar grouping

How do I disable grouping of applications in the taskbar? There appears to be an option to forbid specific specific programs to group, but I can't find any setting to switch it off completely.

Right click on empty space in the task widget -> Task Manager Settings -> Grouping: Do not group.

If there's no empty space, you can unlock your widgets, click on the yellow icon to the right in the panel and right click, like this.

3. MacOS style menus

I read contradictory comments about MacOS style menus available in KDE4. I even saw some screenshots. Are they available or not?

It's available for some styles, see this topic.

4. Ugly bar in Okular

Okular has an ugly and apparently useless bar with buttons "Content", "Minatures", "Reviews" and "Bookmarks" (if I translate well). Any way to switch it off?

F7 or Settings -> Show Navigation Panel.

5. Konsole not configurable??

I can't find any configuration dialog in Konsole. In 3.5 you could configure keyboard, colours, and so on..

You need to configure a specific profile. Settings -> Edit current profile.

6. Getting rid of Dolphin

How do I make Konqueror manage my files?

System Settings -> Default Applications -> File Manager -> Konqueror.

7. GPU dependence

The fglrx driver moves windows with lot of lag, the radeon driver causes noise on the screen while dragging windows and radeonhd causes crashes.... Yup, I spend a lot of time fighting with video drivers, while KDE 3.5 appears to work well with both Fglrx and radeon. It is workable with the radeon driver, but the noise is not nice. Is there a way to make KDE4 less intensive on the video card, for example switching off display compositing features?

You can try to disable desktop effects: System Settings -> Desktop -> (Desktop Effects) -> uncheck "Enable desktop effects".

Hans wrote:F7 or Settings -> Show Navigation Panel.

This removed both the bar as well and the thumbnails. Any way to show just the thumbnails, like in KPDF?

Thanks for the tips!

dmantione wrote:

Hans wrote:F7 or Settings -> Show Navigation Panel.

This removed both the bar as well and the thumbnails. Any way to show just the thumbnails, like in KPDF?

Thanks for the tips!

Not as far as I know. But you can right click on the bar -> uncheck "Show Text" and select "Small Icons" to make it smaller.