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<H2><A NAME="s2">2. Overview</A></H2>

<P>When invoked, konsole starts this client application (which is
the shell by default) and displays all the clients output in it's
window while forwarding key presses and mouse clicks to the client.
<P>By this most of konsole's behavior is really controlled by the
application that actually runs in it. There are only a few
special features that konsole adds to this. These additional
features are not uncommon, so much of the following description
applies to any decent terminal emulation.
<P>
<P>
<UL>
<LI>History Buffer
<P>Text that is scrolled out of the screen is kept in a history buffer
for later review. Currently a maximum of 100 lines are kept in this
buffer. While it is not possible to change text that has ended up
in the buffer, one can look at it and copy it partially or entirely
to the clipboard.
<P>
</LI>
<LI>Keyboard
<P>The Shift-PageUp, Shift-PageDown, Shift-Up and Shift-Down keys are
used to scroll through the history buffer. Shift-Insert works like
a middle mouse button click (paste). All other keystrokes are
passed on to the application run within the emulation. Note that their
might be some dead keys.
<P>
</LI>
<LI>Mouse
<P>You need a three button mouse to make full use of the terminal.
The buttons have different functions:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>Left button
<P>Clicking the left button is passed as an event to the application
running in the emulation if it is mouse aware. If a program will
react on mouse clicks konsole indicates this by showing an arrow
cursor. If not an ibeam (bar) cursor is shown.
<P>Holding the left button down and dragging the mouse over the screen
with a mouse unaware application running, will mark a region of the
text. While dragging, the marked text is displayed reverse for visual
feedback. As soon as the button is released, the marked text copied
to the clipboard for further use within Konsole or another application.
<P>Normally, new-line characters are inserted at the end of each line
selected.  This is normally best for cut and paste of source code
or the output of a particular command.  For ordinary text, the 
line breaks are often not important.  One would prefer for the
text to be a stream of characters that will be automatically 
re-formatted when pasted another application.  To select in 
text-stream mode, hold-down the Ctrl key while selecting
normally.
<P>It the upper or lower edge of the text area is touched while marking,
Konsole scrolls up or down, thereby eventually exposing text within the
history buffer. The scrolling stops as soon as you stop moving the
mouse.
<P>After releasing the mouse, Konsole attempts to keep the text in the
clipboard visible by holding the marked area reversed. The marked
area reverts back to normal as soon as either the contents of the
clipboard is changed, the text within the marked area is altered
or you've clicked the left mouse button.
<P>To mark text on a mouse aware application the shift key has to
be pressed when clicking.
<P>
</LI>
<LI>Middle Button
<P>Pressing the middle button copies text currently in the clipboard.
This works just as if clipboard contents is typed on the keyboard,
so the application running in the emulation will react by it's own
way on it.
<P>
</LI>
<LI>Right Button
<P>The right button brings up the configuration menu. Additionally,
the shift and the control key may be uses with this button to
get access to other parts of the menu.
</LI>
</UL>
<P>
</LI>
<LI>Sessions
<P>Konsole offers to run several sessions (programs) at once. New sessions
can be started using the "New"-menu. One can switch between sessions
with the "Sessions"-menu. Both menus are available as right mouse button
menus, too, when pression the shift or the control key as modifiers.
<P>The session menu can be freely configured due to the local needs.
(A section explaining how is missing, see /opt/kde/share/apps/konsole
for some examples.)
<P>
</LI>
</UL>
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