The K Desktop Environment

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3. Main Program Window

When KOrganizer starts, you are first presented with the main KOrganizer window. The window has several components, including a menubar, a toolbar, a month calendar, a current "view" of events, and a tasklist. The calendar defaults to displaying today's date.

3.1 Menus

The menus provide access to all the common operations that can be performed on the calendar, including saving, loading, adding and deleting appointments, printing, etc. etc.

File Menu

The File menu provides access to functions involving the entire calendar.

New Window

Allows you to open up another main window. You might want to do this if you wish to have two simultaneous but different views of a calendar open at once.

Open

Opens a file dialog allowing you to select a new vCalendar to load. If you have made changes to the current calendar, you will be given the option of saving them before loading a new one.

Open Recent

Provides a list of recently opened calendars for quick access, allowing you to bypass the file dialog entirely.

Save

Saves the current calendar to disk, prompting for a name if the calendar has never been saved before.

Save As

Gives you a file dialog so that you may choose a different name for your calendar than the one currently assigned to it. Useful if you have made changes to a calendar that you want to save, but also want to keep separate from your "regular" calendar.

Close

Closes the current window. If this is the last window, this choice has the same effect as Quit.

Quit

Quits KOrganizer, prompting to save if the current calendar has been modified but not yet saved.

Edit Menu

The Edit menu provides editing operations on appointments.

Cut

Cuts the currently selected appointment(s) to the clipboard, removing them from your calendar.

Copy

Copies the currently selected appointment(s) to the clipboard, leaving them untouched in your calendar.

Paste

Inserts the contents of the clipboard into your calendar. The clipboard must contain a valid vCalendar, provided either by a previous Cut/Copy operation or from a selection made outside of KOrganizer. You will be warned if the contents of the clipboard cannot be understood.

View Menu

Options for changing the current view of your appointments

List View

Switches to List View List View.

Day View

Switches to Day View Day View.

Week View

Switches to Week View Week View.

Month View

Switches to Month View Month View.

Actions Menu

Different actions you can take to modify your calendar.

New Appointment

Brings up the appointment window, allowing you to create a new appointment. By default, the appointment will begin on the currently selected date.

Edit Appointment

Brings up the appointment window with the currently selected appointment filled in to the fields and ready for editing.

Delete Appointment

Confirms that you would like to delete the currently selected appointment, and upon positive confirmation, removes it from your calendar.

Search

Pops up the search dialog, allowing you to search for appointment(s) by date, a common phrase, etc.

Options Menu

Allows access to configuration options common to the entire program.

Edit Options

Brings up the options dialog, allowing you to change common options like date/time formats, fonts, etc.

Save Options

Saves the options as they are currently selected to the KOrganizer configuration file.

Help Menu

Various methods of getting help on KOrganizer.

Contents

The contents of the KOrganizer online help manual.

About

Shameless plug about the authors of KOrganizer.

About KDE

Information about the K Desktop Environment.

3.2 Date Navigator

The small calendar that is in the upper-left corner of the screen is the main way provided to navigate among and select from various dates. The single-arrow icons move forwards and backwards in time by increments of a month, while the double-arrows allow moving by years at a time. Today's date will be outlined with a gray box. Dates which have appointments scheduled on them will be bold and a different color than the regular dates. Selecting a date is accomplished simply by clicking on it; multiple dates may be selected/deselected simply by holding down the control key while clicking.

3.3 Views

There are several different "views" available for displaying your list of events and appointments, including a "list" view, a "day" view, a "week" view, and a "month" view. KOrganizer is smart enough to remember in between sessions what the last active view was, and the next time it is started, it will default to that view.

In general, each view will provide a way of displaying your events and appointments constrained to a particular time period or style of display. clicking on any appointment will select it for further action. Right clicking an appointment brings up a menu with options such as edit, delete, and so on. You can also use the Action menu to perform similar operations.

List View

This view allows you to see all your appointments for the day in list-type arrangement. Appointments are displayed one per line. The first column of the appointment will have a bell icon displayed in it if an alarm is set for the appointment. The second column will display a chasing-arrows icon if the appointment repeats multiple times. Holding the mouse over the arrows icon will bring up a tooltip with more detailed recurrence information. The third column displays start and end time information, and the fourth column gives a summary of the appointment.

The list view is good for displaying many appointments on a single day in a compact fashion. It is also useful if your appointments are spread out over a long time period that would not normally fit entirely on the screen when using one of the other views.

Day View

This view presents your appointment information in a chronological fashion which also provides visual feedback on the length of each appointment. Time is indicated on the left side of the view. A scrollbar on the right is provided when the entire day cannot fit onto the screen at one time (which is the usual case). Each rectangle in the view represents an individual appointment, and displays the appointment's start and end time, summary, and whether or not the appointment repeats or has any alarms set.

Week View

The week view provides a view very similar to the day view for displaying seven days worth of appointments next to each other. All of the functions available for the day view are available in the week view. See the Day View section for further information.

Month View

The month view displays all the appointments for the current month in a familar calendar layout. Each day displays all of the appoints that can fit in the area provided (maximizing the window will enable you to see more appointments). Information on repeating and alarm status is indicated through icons.

Navigation inside the month view is provided by a set of buttons along the right side of the screen. By pressing the appropriate upwards-facing button, you can navigate by week, month, or even year. The downwards-facing buttons perform the analogous function, except forwards in time versus backwards.

3.4 Todo List

The todo list is unfortunately in a state of flux, so what is described here (as far as "operation" of the todo list goes) may change in the near future.

The todolist provides a place for you to jot down quick (or long-term) notes to yourself about things that you need to do. Currently, you cannot associate a date due with a todo entry, but this is forthcoming. You can however assign priorities to todos, and they will appear sorted in order of priority. The lower the number, the higher the priority, except that zero (0) is defined as "no priority."

To make a new todo entry, right click in the todo box. You will get a menu with the option to create a new entry. If you clicked on an already existing todo, you will also see a choice to delete that entry if you wish. When you choose New Todo, a new todo will be created and you will be prompted to enter a short description. After doing this, you can change the priority by double-clicking in the second column of the todo, which will bring up a list of possible priorities. simply click on one to choose it. Similarly, if you double-click in the description (third) column of an existing todo, you will be able to edit the description. Double clicking on the box (first column) will toggle the todo's "completed" status.

You may also pick Purge Completed from the right mouse button menu to delete all todo entries that you have marked completed. This is handy for quick cleanup.

As has already been mentioned, the todo list could be a lot friendlier and fancier, and we plan for it to be so. If you have any suggestions for what you would like to see in the todo list, please e-mail the authors.

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