How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

Labello · 2010-06-14 15:53:37

Hi everyone!

I used to be a Gnome-guy (started my time on gnu/linux with ubuntu) but since KDE SC 4.3 is out I am using KDE as my one and only DE. I often hear, that KDE seems to be bloated. The user might get this perception from seeing all those many toolbars and pretty big scaled icons in the applications. One thing that improved the situation was the new Kwin-Theme with the more elegant buttons that one can also resize. I discovered, that KDE allows to hide many toolbars, menubars and stautsbars. well not exactly KDE but the applications shipped with it. So I strived after getting as much uneccessary stuff hidden as possible. these were mostly things i do not need at all or on very few occasions so that i am fine with doing one or two clicks more. or i just use some shortcut which made it even faster. i use the standart oxygen the both for qt and kwin.

What I did:
Most of the following settings can be achieved by looking into the applications menubar under 'View' or 'Settings'
Kopete:
In contact-list:
-hide searchbar
-hide statusbar
-hide content that displays identity
-hide menubar (ctrl + m)
In chat-window:
-hide all toolbars
-hide statusbar
-hide menubar (ctrl + m)

Dolphin:
-hide main- and search-toolbar
-hide menubar
-move "Information" below "Places"
-navigating back is done with (alt + left), forward with (alt + right) and up with (alt - up)

Konqueror:
-configured adressbar to contain 'back', 'forward', 'show history' and 'configure konqueror' but u can also leave 'back' and 'forward' out because you can use the same shortcuts as with dolphin
-removed the return button
-removed main toolbar
-removed the menubar
-removed statusbar via adding:

View0_ShowStatusBar=false

to

/home/seb/.kde4/share/apps/konqueror/profiles/webbrowsing

at the end of the file and restarting konqueror. (Note: the statusbar reappears if you open a new tab with ctrl+t but I am not able to explain this behaviour)
-you can also use rekonq instead of konqueror. Rekonq is made with space efficiency in mind. i would recommend to use the *-git version from AUR.

I think you got the clue. I did same stuff with apps like konsole and kwrite choqok and kmail as far as possible since the apps themselves restrict the possibility of removing or reordering their gui parts. You could also try to display just the icons in the toolbars or even make them smaller. you can edit these settings here:

System-Settings -> Appearance -> Style -> Tab "Finetuning" -> "Main toolbar text", "secondary toolbar text"

Plasma:
-scaled the default panel in height just before the kicker icons scales itself down (u will see what I mean when you try it out!)
-set the rows in taskmanager to 2 and enabled to force the rows as soon as two entrys are in taskmanager
-substituted the digital clock with analouge clock
-the plasma panel can also be made to autohide when the mouse pointer is not near the panel.
-locked the widgets
(Note: If you want you can also scale the panel so much in height until the system-tray also displays two rows of icons. this will make the panel much bigger, but if you got a lot of task in your taskbar all the time this might offer you some extra-space)
-if you do not want to scale up your panel you could use the Pager plasmoid, in combination with the present-all-desktops and present-all-windows effects bound to mouse buttons (or screen corners) to multitask. it's more efficient and you get 10%+ of your monitor's vertical space back.
-another task-manager plasmoid is smooth-tasks. it is in the AUR:

yaourt -S smooth-tasks

it is highly configurable, has lots of features. so i should fit everyones need.
Misc:
-scaled down the buttons in the window-decoration which also scaled down the size of the window-border itself
-removed the window-borders on the side. (Note:by doing this you loose the ability to grab the vertical window border to resize the window!)
-you can even make the scrollbars thinner but i am under the impression that this looks just awful. but this might depend on your personal oxygen-theme.
-You can use alt+F2 for your app launcher or add app launcer to a mouse button (right click menu anyone?) Thus getting away without needing the kmenu/kick off/other menu launcher in your panel.
-You can use the auto-grouping features (works in oxygen and I believe qtcurve) to set some windows to auto-group, includding their taskbar so that in the taskbar they automagically autogroup into one listing. This can be done sam apps or different apps, nice idea if you want to say open dolphin and konsole often, or kopete with autogrouping your chats to kopete.
-You could also map taskmanager for your open windows to a mouse or key button, getting rid of it's need in panel.

Netbooks
There also is a whole desktop-template for small screens that is highly space optimized.

System-Settings -> Desktop -> Workspace -> Form factor: Netbook

Widescreen displays
To get more vertical space, I switched the default kde taskbar with smooth-tasks plasmoid, and set it to show only application icons. Then I moved the panel from bottom to the left side.
You can move the application toolbars from the top so the left or right side, and set them to show icons only to save some space.

EDIT: everyone should feel free to directly add some more hints here that i can transform it into a subsection for KDE in the wiki.

Edit2: added some suggestions that where made!
Edit3: added even more suggestions! keep on going folks!

Last edited by Labello (2010-06-15 10:08:38)

Skripka · 2010-06-14 16:03:36

You know, that taskbar eats up a TON of space, who needs it?

Labello · 2010-06-14 16:09:40

Skripka wrote:

You know, that taskbar eats up a TON of space, who needs it?

_I_ need it! Because most of the time it is FULL with apps :-)

Skripka · 2010-06-14 16:17:04

Labello wrote:

_I_ need it! Because most of the time it is FULL with apps :-)

No, ya don't.

Use the Pager plasmoid, in combination with the present-all-desktops and present-all-windows effects bound to mouse buttons (or screen corners) to multitask. More efficient and you get 10%+ of your monitor's vertical space back. Of course, nixing Konqueror's status and menu bars helps getting even more space back.

Because that is the fundamental problem. No modern OS GUI is made with vertically-short monitors in mind. For reading, it is easier to read scrolling less than have to read 40cm long lines of text....but all LCD panel makers seem to believe we only watch movies on our computers.

Last edited by Skripka (2010-06-14 16:18:18)

Labello · 2010-06-14 16:30:26

you might be right. but it will take some time for me to get used to. why don't you add your suggestions in context with my post? this would offer two methods for the user. :-)

eric · 2010-06-14 17:59:09

A few tips from me

Bespin has a plasma applet called x-bar. It's a menu bar like Apple's. All menus of KDE applications will be shown there... the window of these applications will have no menubar (no need to hide it with ctrl+m).
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Be … tent=63928
As far as I know, you can only use x-bar when also using the bespin theme It's a nice looking theme, but it's a bit slower than oxygen and it also uses more cpu resources.

The plasma panel can also be made to autohide when the mouse pointer is not near the panel.

You can also use rekonq instead of konqueror. Rekonq is made with space efficiency in mind.

PS.: If someone knows an application like x-bar... please post it here. I like the x-bar applet, but currently bespin is a bit slow on my system.

eric · 2010-06-14 18:04:29

Skripka wrote:

You know, that taskbar eats up a TON of space, who needs it?
http://imuploader.com/images/g5970l6w9d … _thumb.jpg

talking about space efficiency... nice wallpaper!

Vamp898 · 2010-06-14 18:20:01

Why not just use the Netbook Interface. Its the best way to use space, no complain!

Skripka · 2010-06-14 18:21:30

eric wrote:

Skripka wrote:
You know, that taskbar eats up a TON of space, who needs it?
http://imuploader.com/images/g5970l6w9d … _thumb.jpg
talking about space efficiency... nice wallpaper!

It's called "Windows Can Cover" in the panel options.

Labello · 2010-06-14 18:23:05

Vamp898 wrote:

Why not just use the Netbook Interface. Its the best way to use space, no complain!

because it is in a very unstable state of development. that is why. i would really not encourage anyone to use the interface right now. not even on a netbook. but the development is promising. so it might be ready in 4.5 oder 4.6 :-)

Bespin has a plasma applet called x-bar. It's a menu bar like Apple's. All menus of KDE applications will be shown there... the window of these applications will have no menubar (no need to hide it with ctrl+m).

yes this would still rock, but it does not save any space because it just relocates the menubar to another position on the screen. although one could put it into a autohiding panel... point taken :-)

KlavKalashj · 2010-06-14 20:44:27

Thanks for the tip about moving the information box in Dolphin! Rest is old news to me, these tweaks is the first I do on any KDE setup Although I use rekonq which has a more chromium-like statusbar.

Vamp898 · 2010-06-14 21:05:05

On my Netbook the Netbook Interface works well i had no crashes or things like that.

Wintervenom · 2010-06-14 22:57:16

Using Bespin, you can place the menu bar of any Qt application into a small panel, a la Mac OS, and then auto-hide it. You can also rotate the title bars of windows to the side rather than the top of windows.

This is what it looks like, [dirty] and [clean].

Last edited by Wintervenom (2010-06-14 23:09:52)

mythus · 2010-06-14 23:57:08

Just wanted to say, Wintervenom, I am lovin' your desktop.

Now to add some other tips.

You can use alt+F2 for your app launcher or add app launcer to a mouse button (right click menu anyone?) Thus getting away without needing the kmenu/kick off/other menu launcher in your panel.

You can use the auto-grouping features (works in oxygen and I believe qtcurve) to set some windows to auto-group, includding their taskbar so that in the taskbar they automagically autogroup into one listing. This can be done sam apps or different apps, nice idea if you want to say open dolphin and konsole often, or kopete with autogrouping your chats to kopete.

You could also map taskmanager for your open windows to a mouse or key button, getting rid of it's need in panel. Then you'd only use panel if you are using xbar (bespin I believe doesn't work with autogrouping yet), clock, systray, and pager (no real need for pager though, with hot keys).

KlavKalashj · 2010-06-15 06:04:49

I have a question which might be on topic... I have seen in some screenshot, and I think I even have done it myself some time ago: how do I make the items in the taskbar collapse, so they only show icons, and not text? A little bit like windows 7 I think... Saves a lot of space, and you don't really need the text anyway. I can't figure it out Using kde 4.4.4.

Labello · 2010-06-15 08:44:07

KlavKalashj wrote:

I have a question which might be on topic... I have seen in some screenshot, and I think I even have done it myself some time ago: how do I make the items in the taskbar collapse, so they only show icons, and not text? A little bit like windows 7 I think... Saves a lot of space, and you don't really need the text anyway. I can't figure it out Using kde 4.4.4.

System-Settings -> Appearance -> Style -> Tab "Finetuning" -> "Main toolbar text", "secondary toolbar text"

I will add this one as well! :-)

inp3dance · 2010-06-15 09:04:20

I have an 15.4 inch notebook ( wide, 16:10 )
To get more vertical space, I switched the default kde taskbar with smooth-tasks plasmoid, and set it to show only application icons. Then I moved the panel from bottom to the left side.
Another thing is to remove the menu bars from the applications ( dolphin, gwenview, konsole, firefox with compactmenu addon )
You can move the application toolbars from the top so the left or right side, and set them to show icons only to save some space.
I also reduced the font size from 10 to 9 and toolbars font size to 8 ; I removed all the launchers from the panel and I use xbindkeys and xvkbd to launch applications with keyboard ( Win_key + f = firefox )

KlavKalashj · 2010-06-15 09:41:17

Labello wrote:

KlavKalashj wrote:
I have a question which might be on topic... I have seen in some screenshot, and I think I even have done it myself some time ago: how do I make the items in the taskbar collapse, so they only show icons, and not text? A little bit like windows 7 I think... Saves a lot of space, and you don't really need the text anyway. I can't figure it out Using kde 4.4.4.
System-Settings -> Appearance -> Style -> Tab "Finetuning" -> "Main toolbar text", "secondary toolbar text"
I will add this one as well! :-)

You misunderstand me, what I'm looking for is what inp3dance is saying:

To get more vertical space, I switched the default kde taskbar with smooth-tasks plasmoid, and set it to show only application icon

How do I do this?

Labello · 2010-06-15 09:41:35

inp3dance wrote:

I also reduced the font size from 10 to 9 and toolbars font size to 8 ; I removed all the launchers from the panel and I use xbindkeys and xvkbd to launch applications with keyboard ( Win_key + f = firefox )

you know that kde supports shortcuts as well do u?

i added your other hint on how to make it more efficient on a widescreen-monitor!

Labello · 2010-06-15 09:52:20

KlavKalashj wrote:

You misunderstand me, what I'm looking for is what inp3dance is saying:
To get more vertical space, I switched the default kde taskbar with smooth-tasks plasmoid, and set it to show only application icon
How do I do this?

Well he is using another plasmoid for managing tasks isn't he?

KlavKalashj · 2010-06-15 09:54:28

Labello wrote:

KlavKalashj wrote:
You misunderstand me, what I'm looking for is what inp3dance is saying:
To get more vertical space, I switched the default kde taskbar with smooth-tasks plasmoid, and set it to show only application icon
How do I do this?
Well he is using another plasmoid for managing tasks isn't he?

Yeah but I can't find it, my KDE is in swedish and there is nothing even remotely close to "smooth-tasks"...

Labello · 2010-06-15 10:03:39

yaourt -S smooth-tasks

and you should be good to go! i am using this applet right now and it rocks as hell! i really like it... awesome little plasmoid!

denisfalqueto · 2010-06-15 11:42:18

KlavKalashj wrote:

How do I do this?

I use Fancy Tasks toolbar and it is great. It works as a launcher and a task bar (and job manager too, if you configure it). I can't work without it.

inp3dance · 2010-06-15 20:49:55

Labello wrote:

inp3dance wrote:
I also reduced the font size from 10 to 9 and toolbars font size to 8 ; I removed all the launchers from the panel and I use xbindkeys and xvkbd to launch applications with keyboard ( Win_key + f = firefox )
you know that kde supports shortcuts as well do u?

I can't make it work with kde4, at least by setting application shortcuts in menu editor. Is there an another way wich works?

Labello · 2010-06-16 07:39:13

System Settings - Input Actions - activate "KMenuEdit" - and add whatever you like there. this is for starting programms.

at mine there are also konqueror mouse-gestures

Arch Linux

#1 2010-06-14 15:53:37

How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#2 2010-06-14 16:03:36

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#3 2010-06-14 16:09:40

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#4 2010-06-14 16:17:04

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#5 2010-06-14 16:30:26

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#6 2010-06-14 17:59:09

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#7 2010-06-14 18:04:29

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#8 2010-06-14 18:20:01

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#9 2010-06-14 18:21:30

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#10 2010-06-14 18:23:05

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#11 2010-06-14 20:44:27

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#12 2010-06-14 21:05:05

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#13 2010-06-14 22:57:16

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#14 2010-06-14 23:57:08

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#15 2010-06-15 06:04:49

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#16 2010-06-15 08:44:07

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#17 2010-06-15 09:04:20

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#18 2010-06-15 09:41:17

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#19 2010-06-15 09:41:35

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#20 2010-06-15 09:52:20

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#21 2010-06-15 09:54:28

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#22 2010-06-15 10:03:39

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#23 2010-06-15 11:42:18

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#24 2010-06-15 20:49:55

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

#25 2010-06-16 07:39:13

Re: How To: Make KDE 4.4 more space-efficient

Board footer