<para>The &kcontrolcenter; (from now on referred to simply as <quote>the control centre</quote>) provides you with a centralised and convenient way to configure all of your &kde; settings. </para>
<para>The control centre is made up of multiple modules. Each module is a separate application, but the control centre organises all of these programs into a convenient location. </para>
<para>The control centre groups the configuration modules into categories, so they are easy to locate. Within each category, the control centre shows all the modules in a list, so it is easier to find the right configuration module. </para>
<para>This next section details the use of the control centre itself. For information on individual modules, please see <link linkend="module">Control Centre Modules</link> </para>
<para>Across the top is a menubar. The menubar will provide you with quick access to most of &kcontrolcenter;'s features. The menus are detailed in <link linkend="control-center-menus">The &kde; Control Centre Menus</link>. </para>
<para>Along the left hand side, is a column. This is a where you choose which module to configure. You can learn how to navigate through the modules in the section called <link linkend="module-intro">Navigating Modules</link>. </para>
<para>In this example, we are running &kde; 2.99, we started &kcontrolcenter; as user <systemitem class="username">adridg</systemitem>, the computer is named <systemitem class="systemname">aramis</systemitem>, it is a FreeBSD system, Version 4.4-RELEASE, on a Pentium. </para>
<para>Determines whether to use <guimenuitem>Tree</guimenuitem> view, or <guimenuitem>Icon</guimenuitem> view for your modules. </para>
<para>With <guimenuitem>Tree</guimenuitem> view, each submenu appears as an indented list. </para>
<para>With <guimenuitem>Icon</guimenuitem> view, when you click on a category, the categories disappear and are replaced with the module list. You then use the <guiicon>up</guiicon> button to return to the categories. </para>
<para>Using this option, you can choose <guimenuitem>Small</guimenuitem>, <guimenuitem>Medium</guimenuitem>, or <guimenuitem>Large</guimenuitem> icons to select your modules. </para>
<note><para>This menu item only controls the icon size if you are in <guimenuitem>Icon View</guimenuitem>. If you choose <guimenuitem>Tree View</guimenuitem>, the <guimenuitem>Small</guimenuitem> icon size will be used, no matter what size was previously selected in <guimenuitem>Icon View</guimenuitem>. </para>
<para>You can run individual modules without running kcontrol by selecting <menuchoice><guimenu>K Button</guimenu> <guisubmenu>Preferences</guisubmenu> </menuchoice> from the &kde; panel. You can then select the module you want to run in the submenus. </para>
<para>In order to make it as easy as possible, the &kcontrol; has organised similar options into groups. Each group is called a module. When you click on the name of a module in the left window, you will be presented with the options of the module on the right. </para>
<para>This button will give you help specific to the current module. The button will show you a short summary help page in the left window. At the bottom of that window, you can click on a link to get more detailed help. </para>
<para>Clicking this button will save all changes to &kde;. If you have changed anything, clicking <guibutton>Apply</guibutton> will cause the changes to take effect. </para>
<para>This is a list of the <emphasis>standard</emphasis> configuration modules (sorted by category) provided by the <application role="package">KDE base</application> package. Please note that there may be many more modules on your system if you have installed additional software. </para>
<para>In order to use the laptop modules, you must have the kernel <acronym>APM</acronym> package installed in your kernel. Useful information on how to do this can be found at <ulink url="http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/apm.html"> http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/apm.html</ulink> and in the Battery Powered Linux mini-HOWTO at <ulink url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/Battery-Powered.html"> http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/Battery-Powered.html</ulink>. </para>
<para>If you want the <guimenuitem>suspend</guimenuitem> and <guimenuitem>standby</guimenuitem> menu commands to work then you should install the &Linux; <application>apmd</application> package (version 2.4 or later). If you want to use them from non-root accounts you must mark the <application>apm</application> command <quote>set uid root</quote>. </para>
<para>To do this, log on as <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> and enter: </para>
<para>By doing this you will allow any user of your system to put it into suspend or standby states - if you are the only user, this should not be a problem. </para>
<para>Also note that any program which has <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> access, can be a potential security problem. You should carefully determine if there are any security concerns <emphasis>before</emphasis> giving any program <systemitem class="username">root</systemitem> permissions. </para>
