All modern graphical environments share a common set of features: a main menu, a desktop area with some icons, a panel, etc. In the following paragraphs we describe the elements which compose the desktop environment.
Icons are located on the left of the screen and in the panel at the bottom of the screen. Clicking on an icon either launches a program or opens a folder. In both cases a window appears on your desktop.
The panel is located in the lower part of the screen. It provides quick access to useful tools such as a Terminal, a web browser, a text editor, etc. Each icon represents a program.
The desktop, also called the background, is where everything you see or use lives, like the icons and the panel. Right-click on a free area on the desktop (i.e. where there is nothing) and a menu appears. It gives you access to several more functions like configuring your background or accessing your bookmarks.
Click on the main
menu to access the software installed on your
machine. The applications are organized by tasks so
finding the program you're looking for is pretty easy.
Click on
this icon on your desktop to launch your file manager:
The
Konqueror file manager displays the content of your
Home
directory where all your personal
documents and files are stored. Only you and root
can
access them.
We introduced the
desktop to point out the area of the screen where all objects
are placed. At the panel there's a group of
desktop buttons.
These buttons give you access to virtual desktops, which are identical copies of the desktop you see after you log in. You will find more information about the handling and usage of virtual desktops in Seção 1.3, “Virtual Desktops”.
Click on the button labeled 2 to simply switch desktops. Click on the button labeled 1 to go back to previous desktop.
This feature called virtual desktops is very handy. It allows you to open several windows and to organize them as you wish.
You can also change which virtual desktop a window is currently in. This may be handy to logically organize your work by desktop, for instance moving all Internet-related windows into desktop 2, all multimedia applications into another desktop, and so on.
Right-click on the window's title bar and access the To Desktop item. Simply choose the virtual desktop to which you want to move your window.