Wednesday, December 4, 2013

KDE4: how to relocate icons on the Plasma desktop

As a long-time GNOME user, I had to overcome some initial learning curve to the KDE4 desktop environment. My first puzzlement is how to re-position icons on the desktop.

I tried to click and drag the icon. However, clicking the icon immediately runs the associated application. That was not my intention.

The trick is to click on the side panel which only appears when you mouse over the icon. Drag the side panel to the target location, and release.

Be careful to only click the background of the side panel, not any item on the panel. Clicking an item on the panel will execute the associated action, such as removing the icon, but will not relocate the icon.

While the technique may not be that intuitive to many users, I do not consider it a show stopper to using KDE4. For me, the jury is still out on whether to use KDE4 regularly.

Please share any pointer to help GNOME users to get comfortable with KDE4.

1 comment:

boogi said...

Moving icons this way is possible only when desktop widgets (e.g. icons, launchers, menus) are unlocked. You can unlock them by clicking "Desktop" icon which should reside in the right upper corner of screen, and then "Unlock widgets" from drop-down menu. Then you can move icons, add panels and so on.
After all changes to desktop has been made, I suggest to click "Desktop" again and to choose "Lock widgets", so there's no annoyance from so much menus showing after hover over icons.