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<date>2006-01-30</date>
<releaseinfo>1.5.0</releaseinfo>
<!-- Abstract about this handbook -->
<abstract>
<para>
&koshell; is the &koffice; Workspace where you can work with each component of the &koffice; productivity suite at the same time. &koshell; helps you organize your work in a friendly environment.
<para>&koshell; is a framework in which you can work with several &koffice; applications in the same window. Being based on a true component framework &koshell; provides exactly the
same functionality as the stand-alone applications, and adds more
features, by making available all components in the same window. </para>
<para>
&koshell; is part of the &koffice; productivity suite for the K Desktop
Environment. Other applications in &koffice; include:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>&kword; (A full featured <acronym>WYSIWYG</acronym> (What You See Is What You Get)
<listitem><para>&kchart; (A chart and graph creator.)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>&kformula; (A formula editor.)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>&kugar; (A report generation tool.) </para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>See the individual application manuals for details on how to use them. These manuals apply to
running the applications as components inside &koshell; just as well as running them stand-alone.
</para>
</chapter>
<chapter id="main-window">
<title>The &koshell; Main Window</title>
<sect1 id="General">
<title>General</title>
<para>&koshell; consists in a friendly workspace to allow you to work on several &koffice; applications at the same time. In the &koshell; main window you can see a side pane on the left showing the icons of the available &koffice; components and the main view on the right which contains the main window of the active component and the usual menubar and toolbar. </para>
<screenshot>
<screeninfo>Here's a screenshot of &koshell; when you start it for the first time</screeninfo>
<mediaobject>
<imageobject>
<imagedata fileref="koshell1.png" format="PNG"/>
</imageobject>
<textobject>
<phrase>&koshell; screenshot</phrase>
</textobject>
</mediaobject>
</screenshot>
<para>
Here you can see &koshell; as it is the first time you run it. &koshell; always starts empty. You can then choose different actions. You can use the side pane on the left to open the programs as if they are standalone applications. You can also open any supported document via the <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Open</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> menu and the corresponding &koffice; application will open with the document loaded.
</para>
<para>
You can also import any supported document using the <menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>Import</guimenuitem>
</menuchoice> menu and as with the Open action, the adequate &koffice; application will be used to load your document.
<para>The side pane allows you to open a new &koffice; component as if it was the stand-alone application. In most components, you are asked what document you want to open, a template, an empty document or an existing document. The main window of the component is then shown and the menubar, toolbars and statusbar in &koshell; are
adapted to reflect the functionality of the active component.</para>
<para>You can change the size of the icons in the side pane.
Right-clicking on the side pane will give you the option to use Large,
Normal, or Small icons, as well as the option to use text only
instead of icons.</para>
<para>If you dislike the sidebar, you can simply hide it by dragging the
splitter to the left. </para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="main-view">
<title>Main View</title>
<para>The view on the right which takes up most of the area of the &koshell;
main window shows the active component. This exactly corresponds to the main
window the component uses when run as a stand-alone application. </para>
<para>When a component is loaded, the component own menus are merged with the &koshell; menus and the component toolbars are added on the workspace.</para>
<para>Each new component is opened in a new tab. Using the &RMB; on each tab title, you can save the document in that tab or close that tab. The small button on the right bottom with a red cross also allows you to close the current tab.</para>
<para>A special action common to all components is the
<menuchoice><guimenu>File</guimenu><guimenuitem>New</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> action in &koshell; menubar. It opens the <guilabel>Insert Object</guilabel> dialog which starts the &koffice; component as if it was a stand-alone application.</para>
<listitem><para><action>Open</action> the <guilabel>Insert Object</guilabel> dialog which lists all possible new documents you can open.</para></listitem>
