Managing Folders and Files with Konqueror

Contents

4.1. Copying, Moving, or Deleting Files
4.2. Creating a New Folder
4.3. Changing Access Permissions
4.4. Saving View Profiles
4.5. Accessing Digital Cameras with Konqueror
4.6. Viewing Images with Konqueror

Konqueror is a unified Web browser, file manager, document viewer, and image viewer. The following sections cover using Konqueror for file management. For information about Konqueror as a Web browser, see Chapter Browsing with Konqueror (↑Application Guide).

Start Konqueror as a file manager by clicking the house icon in the panel. Konqueror displays the contents of your home directory.

Figure 4.1. The File Manager Konqueror

The File Manager Konqueror

The Konqueror file manager window consists of the following elements:

Menu Bar

The menu bar holds menu items for actions like copying, moving, or deleting files, changing views, starting additional tools, defining your settings, and getting help.

Toolbar

The toolbar provides quick access to frequently used functions that can also be accessed through the menu. If you hover the pointer over an icon, a short description is displayed. To the right, the toolbar features the Konqueror icon, which is animated while a directory or Web page is loaded.

Location Bar

The location bar shows the path to the directory or file in your file system. You can enter a path to a directory directly by typing it in or by clicking one of the directories in the display field. Delete the contents of the line by clicking the black symbol with a white X located left of the location bar. After typing an address, press Enter or click Go to the right of the input line.

Unlike a Windows operating system, Linux does not use drive letters. In Windows, you would address the floppy drive as A:\, Windows system data is under C:\, and so on. In Linux, all files and directories are located in a tree-like structure. The topmost directory is referred to as the file system root or just /. All other directories can be accessed from it. In the following, find a short overview of the most important directories in a Linux file system:

/home holds the private data of every user who has an account on your system. The files located here can only be modified by their owner or the system administrator. Your e-mail directory is located here, for example.

[Note]Home Directory in a Network Environment

If you are working in a network environment, your home directory may not be called /home but can be mapped to any directory in the file system.

/media generally holds any type of drive except the hard drive of your system. Your USB flash drive appears under /media once you have connected it, as do your digital camera (if it uses USB) and DVD or CD drive.

Under /usr/share/doc, find any kind of documentation on your Linux system and the installed packages. The manual subdirectory holds a digital copy of this manual as well as the other manuals and the release notes of the installed version of your Linux system. The packages directory holds the documentation included in the software packages.

/windows only appears if you have both Windows and Linux installed on your system. It holds the MS Windows data.

Navigation Panel

You can hide and show the navigation panel by pressing F9. The navigation panel displays your information in a tree view. Determine which contents you want to see by clicking one of the symbols in the tab at the left of the navigation panel. If you hold your mouse pointer over an icon, a short description is displayed. For example, you can show the file system as a tree starting at the root folder or at your home folder.

Display Field

The display field shows the contents of the selected directory or file. In the View menu, choose between different view modes to display the contents, such as Icon View, Tree View, or Detailed List View. If you click a file, Konqueror shows a preview of the contents or loads the file into an application for further processing. If you hold the mouse pointer over the file, Konqueror shows a tool tip with detailed information about the file, such as owner, permissions, or last modification date.

By default, Konqueror does not show any hidden files, which are often system files that you usually do not want to access or see. In Linux, hidden files are indicated by a dot in front. You can toggle the view to see or hide hidden files by selecting View+Show Hidden Files.

Copying, Moving, or Deleting Files

For performing actions like copying, moving, or deleting files, you need appropriate permissions to the folders and files involved in your action. Read more about changing access permissions in Section 4.3, “Changing Access Permissions”.

[Tip]Selecting Objects in Konqueror

Clicking a file or a folder in Konqueror directly starts an action: a preview of the file is displayed or the folder is opened. To former users of Windows, this behavior may be rather unusual. If you just want to select one or several files without any other action, press Ctrl then click the object. Alternatively, alter your mouse settings in the KDE control center as described in Adjusting the Mouse Settings.

To copy or move a file or folder, proceed as follows:

  1. Right-click the object and select Copy or Cut from the context menu. The object is kept in the clipboard.

  2. Navigate to your destination folder under which you want to insert the object. Right-click the destination folder and select Paste. The object is copied or moved there.

The quickest way to perform actions like copying or moving objects in Konqueror is the drag-and-drop method. For instance, you can easily move objects from one window to another by simply dragging them. When dropping the objects, you are asked whether the objects should be moved or copied.

To delete a file or folder, proceed as follows:

  • Select the object and press Del or right-click the file then select Move to Trash from the context menu. The object is moved to the trash bin. If necessary, you can restore the file or folder from there or delete it completely. See also FIXME .

  • To delete the object irretrievably, click Edit+Delete or press Shift+Del. If you want to add Delete to the context menu, configure this behavior in Konqueror by clicking Settings+Configure Konqueror+Behavior and activating the respective check box.