The Kicker Handbook
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# Chapter 2. Using Kicker

This is what you see on a freshly installed KDE. If you are using lower resolution, some of the icons may not appear immediately. To cater for those smaller resolutions, the screenshot below is divided in two parts.

Here's a screenshot of the left side of Kicker

And here's the right side

Of course, this is only one way Kicker might appear on the screen. There are many more configurations available.

# 2.1. A quick tour for new KDE users

If you are experienced with this kind of application launcher, you can ignore this chapter and move on to Kicker basics.

Of course, the main use of Kicker is starting applications. This is done by clicking icons, either from the panel or from the K Menu. Kicker shows some more things too, so let's see.

Having a look at the screenshots above, there are from left to right:

The hide button

  This button - which also appears on the right side - lets you fade out Kicker for having more space on the screen. When Kicker is faded out, only the hide button will remain in order to fade in Kicker again.

The K Menu

  It is used for launching applications and some other useful things. Refer to The K Menu for more information.

Application start icons

  Here are some icons of commonly used application. They can be moved and removed and others can be added. Some of them have a special meaning, which you can read more about in Kicker basics. Resting the mouse over an icon without clicking shows the name and the description of that application, if you have set that in the Settings Dialog.

The Pager applet

  This displays a small view of the virtual desktops. Clicking one section of it will activate that desktop. Please refer to Applets.

The Taskbar

  All running applications are displayed as buttons in the taskbar. Clicking an application's button will bring this application on top. If it was on top before, it will be iconized. As always, more information in Applets.

System Tray

  The systemtray is able to swallow some kind of applications like - in this case - Klipper. There are also more useful apps for the systemtay. You can click the applications either with the left or the right mousebutton and see what's happening. It also contains two small buttons. The one with the luggage lock on it locks your screen if you ever leave your KDE and want nobody else seeing or using it, the other one shuts down KDE and the X-Server.

Clock

  The Clock applet is - of course - a small, useful clock. It can have various styles, have a look at the applets section for more information.

This was only the description of Kicker on it's initial launch. It can be configured in many ways and styles and more applets can be added. There are even some extensions like the external taskbar you can add. See Kicker basics, Applets and Extensions for more information.

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