# The &koshell; Handbook

Anne-Marie Mahfouf

    annma@kde.org

2005-2006 Anne-Marie Mahfouf
&FDLNotice;
2006-01-30
1.5.0

&koshell; is the &koffice; Workspace where you can work with each component of the &koffice; productivity suite at the same time. &koshell; helps you organize your work in a friendly environment.

KDE KOffice workspace KWord KSpread KPresenter KChart KPlato Kexi Chalk Kivio Kugar KFormula Karbon14

## Introduction

&koshell; is a framework in which you can work with several &koffice; applications in the same window. Being based on a true component framework &koshell; provides exactly the same functionality as the stand-alone applications, and adds more features, by making available all components in the same window.

&koshell; is part of the &koffice; productivity suite for the Trinity Desktop Environment. Other applications in &koffice; include:

- &kword; (A full featured WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Word-processor/Desktop Publishing Program.)

- &kspread; (A spreadsheet application.)

- &kpresenter; (A presentation creator.)

- Kexi (An integrated environment for databases.)

- &kivio; (A flowchart creator.)

- Karbon14 (A vector drawing program.)

- &chalk; (A pixel based drawing program.)

- &kchart; (A chart and graph creator.)

- &kformula; (A formula editor.)

- &kugar; (A report generation tool.)

See the individual application manuals for details on how to use them. These manuals apply to running the applications as components inside &koshell; just as well as running them stand-alone.

## The &koshell; Main Window

### General

&koshell; consists in a friendly workspace to allow you to work on several &koffice; applications at the same time. In the &koshell; main window you can see a side pane on the left showing the icons of the available &koffice; components and the main view on the right which contains the main window of the active component and the usual menubar and toolbar.

Here's a screenshot of &koshell; when you start it for the first time
&koshell; screenshot

Here you can see &koshell; as it is the first time you run it. &koshell; always starts empty. You can then choose different actions. You can use the side pane on the left to open the programs as if they are standalone applications. You can also open any supported document via the File Open menu and the corresponding &koffice; application will open with the document loaded.

You can also import any supported document using the File Import menu and as with the Open action, the adequate &koffice; application will be used to load your document.

### Side Pane

&koshell;'s Side Pane
&koshell;'s Side Pane

&koshell;'s Side Pane

The side pane allows you to open a new &koffice; component as if it was the stand-alone application. In most components, you are asked what document you want to open, a template, an empty document or an existing document. The main window of the component is then shown and the menubar, toolbars and statusbar in &koshell; are adapted to reflect the functionality of the active component.

You can change the size of the icons in the side pane. Right-clicking on the side pane will give you the option to use Large, Normal, or Small icons, as well as the option to use text only instead of icons.

If you dislike the sidebar, you can simply hide it by dragging the splitter to the left.

### Main View

The view on the right which takes up most of the area of the &koshell; main window shows the active component. This exactly corresponds to the main window the component uses when run as a stand-alone application.

&koshell;'s Main View
&koshell;'s Main View

&koshell;'s Main View

When a component is loaded, the component own menus are merged with the &koshell; menus and the component toolbars are added on the workspace.

Each new component is opened in a new tab. Using the &RMB; on each tab title, you can save the document in that tab or close that tab. The small button on the right bottom with a red cross also allows you to close the current tab.

A special action common to all components is the File New action in &koshell; menubar. It opens the Insert Object dialog which starts the &koffice; component as if it was a stand-alone application.

&koshell; Insert Object dialog
&koshell; Insert Object dialog

&koshell; Insert Object dialog

## Command Reference

### Menus and shortcut keys

#### The File Menu

&Ctrl;N File New

  Open the Insert Object dialog which lists all possible new documents you can open.

&Ctrl;O File Open...

  Open a supported document by choosing the corresponding &koffice; application.

File Open Recent

  Display a selection of recently saved documents you can open.

&Ctrl;S File Save

  Save the current document.

File Save As...

  Save the current document with a name you provide.

File Reload

  Reload the current document.

File Import...

  Import a supported document.

File Export...

  Export the current document.

File Mail...

  Invokes &kmail; so you can email the file. The file is already attached to the email.

File Save All

  Saves all open documents in &koffice; Workspace.

&Ctrl;P File Print...

  Print the current document.

File Print Preview...

  View the current document as it will be printed.

File Document Information

  View or enter information about the current document and author.

&Ctrl;W File Close

  Close the current document but leave &koshell; running.

&Ctrl;Q File Quit

  Quits &koshell;.

#### The Settings Menu

Settings Hide/Show Toolbar

  Toggle the Main Toolbar.

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

  Configure the shortcuts.

Settings Configure Toolbars...

  Configure the items you want to put in the toolbar.

#### The Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

## Under The Hood

&koshell; makes extensive use of several &tde; key technologies, most notably KParts and &DCOP;.

The &GUI; integration of the components is done by plugins providing KParts versions of the applications. This only needs a thin additional layer on top of the already existing code of the stand-alone applications. Because they are based on the KParts component model, &koffice; programs are designed to work very well with each other. Any &koffice; component can be embedded in another &koffice; document.

For communication between the components &DCOP; is used. This has the nice characteristic that it is completely transparent to whether the application is run stand-alone or embedded as KPart into &koshell;.

## Credits and License

&koshell;

Program copyright 2001-2005 The &koffice; Workspace Team

Original authors:

- Sven Lüppken sven@kde.org

- Torben Weis weis@kde.org

- David Faure faure@kde.org

Documentation copyright 2005 Anne-Marie Mahfouf annma@kde.org

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &koshell;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Requirements

&koshell; is part of &koffice; on The &koshell; home page You must have &koffice; installed. &koshell; will not work without the rest of &koffice;

### Compilation and installation

&install.compile.documentation;
&documentation.index;