Notes on using KDE

This page contains my notes and tips for using the KDE Plasma desktop environment on Linux. I'll be updating this article as I find out more.

Settings for Old Hardware

Akonadi

Akonadi framework that powers the PIM applications (KMail, KOrganizer, KAdressbook, Kontakt...) uses database engines in the background. This behaviour puts a load on the system. You can uninstall these applications to reduce the load on your system.

Baloo

Baloo is a file indexer daemon, which powers the file search in Plasma's search system.
Indexing all the files on your system puts a load on your hard drive. Especially the old HDDs.
You can toggle Baloo off via System Settings > Search > File Search > File indexing (Toggle "Enabled" Off)

Window Management

Shading Windows

KDE Plasma has a feature named window shading. It can be illustrated like this:

This feature can be useful when you're on a single workspace with a lot of windows opened.
You can toggle this via shortcuts and the window titlebar button way. In the System Settings, go to the Keyboard > Shortcuts > KWin > Shade Window and set a key combination for that shortcut. For me, it's Alt + S
You can also add its shortcut to the window titlebar. For that, go to Colors & Themes > Global Theme > Window Decorations > Configure Titlebar Buttons (On the top right of menu) and drag "Shade" to the top preview.

Snapping Shortcut

You can snap and tile windows with Super + ← → ↑ ↓

Apps

Konsole Previews

KDE's default terminal emulator app, Konsole has this cool ability to preview files when you hover over their paths.

To toggle this feature on, first go to your profile settings by right clicking the Konsole window and selecting "Edit Current Profile..." From there, go to Mouse > Miscallaneous and toggle Underline files on. Then, go to the Configure Konsole by pressing CTRL + Shift + , or via the App Menu's settings section and toggle the "Enable thumbnails generation" on.

Menu Search

Most KDE apps do provide a app menu interface for searching the options within the app.
The default shortcut for this menu is CTRL + ALT + i.