Working with other Linux Applications

Working with other Linux Applications

Using Text editor, Paint brush & Calculator

So, as of now we have explored a lot of thing, and you might be surprised to know, how poworeful Linux is. Believe me this just the little part of the iceburg. There are a lot of useful and powerful applications that comes bundled with different Distributions of Linux, and covering all of them in one tutorial is something that is for sure not possible, because I personaly believe that, it make the things more complicated, against our wish to make the Linux user friendly.

As I told you earlier Linux comes with bunch of bundled software from general purpose to special purpose from network management to general utility softwares.

Using Calculator on Linux

Select on Applications--> Accessories--> Calculator

Using Paint Application on Linux (KolourPaint)

Select Applications--> Graphics--> KolourPaint to start KolourPaint application( paint brush of Linux)

KolourPaint can be used in the same way as we use MS Paint

KolourPaint has features similar to Windows Paintbrush. You can see the Tool Pallet in the left side of KolourPaint window, from here you chose the shape you want to draw. To save your drawing select Save option from File menu.

Using Text Editor to create Text document

Select on Applications--> Accessories--> Text Editor

Text Editor/Gedit is Linux equivalent of Windows Notepad.

You can create plain text document.

Click on Save button on the tool bar or press Shift+Ctrl+S to save the file.

Working with other Linux Applications   Creating Icon and Taking Screen Shots   Creating Icon with KiconEdit   KIconEdit is designed to help create icons for KDE using the standard icon palette.   Starting KiconEdit   You can start KIconEdit from Applications-->Graphics-->KIconEdit or     You can start KIconEdit from Applications-->Graphics-->KIconEdit or by executing kiconedit from the shell.   KIconEdit Application Window   The Icon Editor window is separated in four areas: Main Toolbar, Tools toolbar, the Grid and Statusbar.     Main Toolbar     New  Create a new icon. If the current file has been modified you will be asked if you want to save the changes. After that a dialog will open where you can choose to create the icon from scratch or from a template.   Open  Open an existing icon file. Save  Save the currently open icon. Print  Print the icon. Undo Undo the last action Redo  Redo the last action undone. If no actions have been undone, this action is disabled. Cut  Cuts out the entire icon and put it onto the clipboard. Copy  Copies the entire icon to the clipboard. Paste  Paste the contents of the clipboard as a new image (if the clipboard contains a valid icon). Zoom,  Zoom In, Zoom Out Zoom to predefined zoom factor. Resize  Resize icon to width X height. GrayScale Gray scale the icon image. This may create colors not conformant to the KDE icon palette. Show Grid Toggle grid on/off. Tools Toolbar   Tools Toolbar     This toolbar contains the tools you can use to manipulate the icon.   Freehand  Draw free hand. Color Picker  Doesn't change the icon but changes the current drawcolor to the color clicked on. Rectangle Draw a rectangle. Filled Rectangle Draw a filled rectangle. Circle Draw a circle. Filled Circle Draw a filled circle. Ellipse Draw an ellipse Filled Ellipse Draw a filled ellipse (almost the same thing as drawing a circle.) Spray  Draws a randow dotted pattern like a spraycan. Flood Fill  Fill an area with the current color. Line  Draw a line. Eraser (Transparent)  Draw transparent (invisible). Rectangular Selection, Circular Selection  Select (mark) a part of the icon. Grid  The grid is where you manipulate the icon contents. Statusbar  The status bar keeps you informed of current operations. From left to right, it tells you the x,y coordinates of the pixel you are working on, the size of the current canvas, the zoom factor, and the current number of colors in the icon.   Working with KIconEdit   To create a new icon KIconEdit click on New button on Main Toolbar or select File-->New from the menu bar.   From Create New Icon wizard, select the type of icon you want to create and click on Next     Specify the size of Icon and click on Finish button.     Use tools from Tools toolbar to draw your icon.   Click on Save to save your icon.     Type the name of your icon and click on Save button to save.   This is the Icon we have just created.   Taking Screen Shots   They are two ways to capture on screen activity: first we can use Print Scrn from keyboard to capture screen activity and save it as an image or we can use other applications such as KsnapShot for screen capture.   ScreenShot with Print Screen   To take a Screen shot, you just need to press the Print Scrn button of your keyboard, and it will capture the activity going on the screen and prompt you to save the screen shot.           Working with other Linux Applications   Creating Zip files with File Roller   File Roller can be used to create, view, modify, or unpack an archive. An archive is a file that acts as a container for other files. An archive can contain many files, folders, and subfolders, usually in compressed form.   To Start File Roller   You can start File Roller in the following ways:   Applications ? Accessories ? Archive Manager.   Command line   Execute the following command: file-roller       Creating an Archive   To create an archive, perform the following steps:   1. Choose Archive? New to display the New dialog.   2. Specify the path where File Roller places the new archive. Double-click on an entry in the list box to navigate to that path. Alternatively, enter the path in the Filename text box.   3. Enter the name of the new archive, including the file extension, in the Filename text box.     Adding Files to Archive   To add files to an archive, perform the following steps:   1. Choose Edit? Add to display the Add dialog. 2. Select the files and folders that you want to add.       3. Click Add. File Roller adds the files and folders to the current folder in the archive.       Extracting Files from Archive   To add files to an archive, perform the following steps:   1. Select Edit--> Extract or click on Extract button on the Toolbar.     2. Chose the location where you want to extract the files and click on Extract button.     If you want to extract a particular file, then, first select the file that you want to extract and click on Extract, from the Extract dialog box select Selected files options then click on Extract to extract the files.         Working with other Linux Applications   Setting Alarm with KAlarm   KAlarm is an application used to set & display reminders on Linux and this application is part of K Desktop Environment, and if you have selected to install KDE base packages, it should be available to you. Availbility of KAlarm also depends upon the distribution you are using.   What is KAlarm?   KAlarm lets you schedule the display of personal alarm messages, the playing of sound files, the execution of commands and the sending of emails.   To Start KAlarm   To start KAlarm follow these steps:   1. Click on Applications-->Accessories-->KAlarm   Or esecute kalarm from the shell.     KAlarm application window     The main KAlarm window displays the current list of pending alarms, showing their times, repetition intervals, colors, and message texts, names of files to display, commands to execute or email subjects. (For a recurring alarm or an alarm with a reminder, the time shown is its next scheduled trigger time.) An icon at the left of each alarm text/file/command/email subject indicates the type of alarm.   Creating a new alarm   To create a new alarm, do one of the following. This displays the alarm edit dialog through which you configure the alarm.   Select Actions->New. Right click on the system tray icon and choose New from the context menu. Click the Middle mouse button on the system tray icon. Right click in the alarm list and choose New from the context menu. Double click on empty space below the last entry in the alarm list.     From the New Alarm dialog box you can chose the action you want to perform as a reminder, i.e. If you want to simply display a message then select Text as action and enter the message that you want to be displayed as rreminder, similarly you can chose to open a file by select File as action or Command to execute a command, or can send reminder email by selecting Email and providing the email details as shown above.     After configuring the Alarm click on OK to create the alarm, or click on Try button to test your reminder. After you have created an alarm you can close the KAlarm, but it will still display the alarm message when the time of alarm has arrived.     As you can see, even though KAlarm is not running, it has reminded you through the alarm. Now, click on Close button to close the remindre message then click Acknowledge to let the KAlarm know that you've seen the reminder.   Modifying an existing alarm   To modify an existing pending alarm (expired alarms cannot be amended), do one of the following:   Double click on its entry in the alarm list. Select it by clicking on its entry in the alarm list. Then choose Actions->Edit. Right click on its entry in the alarm list and choose Edit from the context menu.