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<H3><A NAME="s3">3. Launching Applications</A></H3>

<P>
<H3><A NAME="starter"></A> <A NAME="ss3.1">3.1 Using the Application Starter and the Panel</A>
</H3>

<P>On the bottom of the screen you find the desktop panel. 
You use the panel to
launch applications. Have a look at the button on the left with a large K. This
button is called the <B>Application Starter</B>. It has a small arrow on the top
to indicate that it will pop up a menu if you click on it. Just do it! The
popup offers you easy access to all KDE
applications installed on your computer system.
<P><B>Shortcut:</B> <CODE>Alt-F1</CODE> opens the Application Starter menu.
<P>
<H4>Customizing the Panel</H4>

<P>If you use one application or tool very often, then you may want to
have even faster access to it, of course. In this case, you can add a
single application or an entire sub-menu of the 
Application Starter menu as a special
quick-launch button onto the panel. If you want to reach the "Find
Files" directly via a launch button, simply choose
<B>application starter > Panel > Add Application > Find Files</B>
(By this we mean that you should first click the Application Starter,
then select "Panel" where the small arrow to the right indicates that another
menu will pop up. In this menu, choose "Add application" and in the next
sub-menu, "Find Utility".). Note that you can move all items of the panel
around with the "move" command of the context menu. Just click with the third
mouse button (the third mouse button is normally the right button, but if you
have configured your mouse for left-handers e.g., it might also be the left
one). A menu will pop up where you can choose "Move". Now move the mouse and
see how the icon follows while still staying on the panel. When you are done,
simply hit the first mouse button (by default the left one). As you have may
have noticed, there is also a menu entry "Remove" in case you are
tired of a certain launch button on your desktop.
<P>
<H4>Using Context menus</H4>

<P>This leads us to another interesting topic: in many places, you can click
the right mouse button to display a <EM>context menu</EM> with choices that
are applicable to the item you clicked. It is
therefore always a good idea to try out the third mouse button on
something, if you do not know what to do with it. Even the background
of the desktops has such a menu!
<P>
<H4>Other Panel features</H4>

<P>There are other interesting things possible with the panel. One
may be important if you have a low resolution on your monitor: it is
the "hide-and-show"-function, activated by clicking on the textured bar on the
left edge of the panel. By the way, if you are not sure what a certain
button does in KDE, just move the mouse pointer over it and wait for a short
while: KDE has a built-in mini context help, called "tooltips",
which explains the functionality of such controls in a few words.
<P>
<H3><A NAME="ss3.2">3.2 But I want my command line back!</A>
</H3>

<P>Just calm down, there is nothing to fear. KDE does not want to take your
beloved (and sometimes very effective) command line away from you. You
can move your files with the desktop, but you can also use the Unix
commands you are accustomed to. KDE provides a very sophisticated
command line window called <EM>kvt</EM>.  Choose <B>application starter >
Utilities > Terminal</B> to start it. This may be something you want on your
panel!
<P>Sometimes, you only want to enter one command on the command
line. In these cases, you do not need a full-blown terminal. Just hit
<CODE>Alt-F2</CODE> and you get a small command line where you can enter one
command. The command line window will disappear afterwards, but it
remembers your command. When you pop up this window (which we call
"minicli" by the way) and hit the <CODE>Up-arrow</CODE>, you can browse through
all the commands you have previously entered.  Also, you can enter URL's
in <EM>minicli</EM> to open a <EM>kfm</EM> window with the specified URL.
A final tip: to display a Unix man page, enter <CODE>man:<EM>command</EM></CODE>
in <EM>minicli</EM>, where <EM>command</EM> is the name of a Unix command.
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