Customizing KDE's Plasma desktop
Beyond Wallpaper
© Lead Image © sergwsq, 123RF.com
The KDE Plasma desktop has so many configuration options, it scares some users away. But if you're patient enough to learn the secrets, you'll find some useful tricks for customizing the Plasma user environment.
Some desktop environments are little more than launchers for applications. By contrast, KDE Plasma takes the perspective that customizing the desktop can reduce the number of mouse clicks and make resources easier to find. The result is a desktop on which almost everything can be customized, but new users might have trouble deciding where to start. In fact, many users never get beyond the basics. Once they have right-clicked on the desktop and selected a wallpaper from Default Desktops (Figure 1), they are satisfied. The more adventurous might select System Settings | Workspace Appearance to select a theme or add icons to the Desktop directory within the Dolphin file manager, but, based on their experience with other desktops, many users see little need for anything more.
Figure 1: Even wallpaper configuration in Plasma offers a wide array of choices.
However, the Desktop and Workspace Appearance settings are only the most basic possibilities. Clicking the desktop toolkit – a rectangle on one side of the desktop, or a semi-circle in a corner – holds the key to many more options (Figure 2).
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