tdebase/doc/faq/misc.docbook

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<chapter id="misc">
<title>Miscellaneous questions</title>

<qandaset>


<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Does &kde; support transparency and other visual effects provided by the new composite extension to X.org?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para> Yes! An exciting new feature for &kde; 3.4 is support for the new X composite extension. This allows for effects such as translucency and drop shadows for all windows, easily configurable through &kwin;'s configuration dialog. This requires you to be using X.org version 6.8.0 or newer and have:

<screen>
Section "Extensions"
Option  "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
</screen>

In your <filename>xorg.conf</filename>. If you have an nvidia graphics card and use the nvidia driver you can improve the performance of these effects by also adding the RenderAccel option to the Device section for your graphics card:

<screen>
Section "Device"
    Identifier  "nvidia-fx5200"
    Driver      "nvidia"
    Option      "RenderAccel" "true"
</screen>
Once you have configured X.org correctly, transparency and other effects can be enabled through the <menuchoice><guimenu>Desktop</guimenu><guimenuitem>Window Behavior</guimenuitem></menuchoice> &kcontrolcenter; module, under the <guilabel>Translucency</guilabel> tab.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>What about &kde; programs that do not have icons? How do I get
them into the menu?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Use &kmenuedit;. To access it use the &RMB; on the 
<guibutton>K</guibutton> button and select <guimenu>Menu Editor</guimenu>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Does &kde; have a graphical &FTP; client?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Yes, and it is none other than your favorite file
manager, &konqueror;. You can drag and drop remote files into local
folders.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I exit &kde;?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Simply click on the <guibutton>K</guibutton> button and select
<guimenu>Logout</guimenu>.  In addition, if you
<mousebutton>right</mousebutton> click on an
empty area of the desktop, you will be presented with a menu
containing logout as one of the options.
<note><para>Depending on your configuration of the &X-Window;, <keycombo
action="simul">&Ctrl;&Alt;&Backspace;</keycombo>
might also do the trick by killing the X server, but its use prevents
session management and cannot be recommended.</para></note></para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Is there a program that checks for new mails at my
<acronym>ISP</acronym> if and only if I am online?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>&korn; will do the job.  If you are not
connected, it will just sit there (idling).</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Is it really necessary to upgrade to the latest version?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>We recommend to always use the latest stable release. If you
don't, it will probably be difficult to get answers to your
questions. If you have a problem with an old version, the answer will
probably be <quote>Please upgrade and try again</quote>.  Note that
new versions also sometimes fix security problems.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I copy and paste in &kde;?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>The simplest method is to use your mouse:</para>
<procedure>
<step performance="required"><para>Highlight the text you want to copy by holding down the
&LMB; and dragging across the text. This adds the selected text to the clipboard.</para></step>
<step performance="required"><para>Go to the destination area; depending on your configuration,
you might need to click it using the &LMB; to give it
focus.</para></step>
<step performance="required"><para>Click the &MMB; to paste.  If you have a two
button mouse and are emulating a three button mouse, push both buttons
simultaneously.</para></step>
</procedure>

<para>For more information about using the clipboard in &kde; please see the &klipper; hand book, accessed by typing <userinput><command>help:/klipper</command></userinput>
into the &konqueror; address bar. </para>

</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I convert the default &RedHat; menus into a menu in the
<guimenu>K</guimenu> menu?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Click on the <guibutton>K</guibutton> button and select
<menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Appfinder</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question id="CVS">
<para>What is <acronym>CVS</acronym>?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>It stands for Concurrent Versions System.  It is a version 
control system and is based on <acronym>RCS</acronym> (Revision
Control System), but 
offers more functionality.  It is used to maintain source code under
development.  It will keep multiple versions of things (handy if you
broke something and have to back up and get a clean old version), and
allows people remote access over the Net to pick up the latest source
code and even to check in new files if they have permission.  It is
also open source (you pay for support if you want it), and since it is
free it is the system of choice for people writing more free products,
such as &kde;.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Does &kde; support dual screen (Xinerama)?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Yes, you need to have a multi-headed X server
(&eg; MetroX or XFree86 4.0 and above) and a &kde; >= 2.2.1
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>

<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>Why does Drag and Drop not work with Xinerama?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>You should upgrade to XFree86 4.2.0 for this to work properly.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>


<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I check which version of &kde; I am using?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Fire up your <application>&kde; Control
Center</application>.  It comes up with an Info Screen including the version of &kde;
The &kde; version is also included in the application's 
<guimenuitem>About</guimenuitem> dialog.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>



<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How do I go about creating themes and icons?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>Go see <ulink
url="http://artist.kde.org">http://artist.kde.org</ulink>.
There is also a more informal community of &kde; related artists and
artwork at <ulink url="http://kde-look.org">http://kde-look.org</ulink>.
</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>


<qandaentry>
<question>
<para>How can I get to know about development updates?</para>
</question>
<answer>
<para>You might want to subscribe to the various &kde; mailing lists
available, especially kde-cvs, which lists all commits done to the
&kde; <acronym>CVS</acronym> repository.  Check <ulink
url="http://lists.kde.org">http://lists.kde.org</ulink> if you want to
read without subscribing.</para>
</answer>
</qandaentry>
</qandaset>
</chapter>