Dolphin: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:49, 17 January 2021

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The dedicated file manager focusing on usability

Feature Overview

Dolphin is a lightweight file manager. It has been designed with ease of use and simplicity in mind, while still allowing flexibility and customization. This means that you can do your file management exactly the way you want to do it. You will find more information on how to handle Dolphin in this tutorial or in the official Handbook.

Simple to use and dedicated file manager
Focus on usability
Breadcrumb navigation bar
Optional panels for convenient navigation and information display
Remote and pseudo-filesystem file management through KIO
Tag files and folders, and find files by content, using Baloo

At first look, this is a simple file manager, but it has many talents. Some features include:

Split windows - view and use two directories at the same time
Viewing attributes can be set (and remembered) independently for each window
Tabbed browsing
Use the optional informational panel on the right
Or elect to have essential attribute information displayed in the window
Use 'breadcrumb' navigation for speed
One-click change to editable navigation bar
Add Folders panel for traditional navigation
Add a terminal in the directory you are currently browsing
Many functions controlled by keyboard shortcuts

Tutorials

Hints, Tips and Troubleshooting

Problem: Dolphin's menu entries View -> Additional and/or View -> Panels don't have any options. Nepomuk is enabled in System Settings.

Solution: Rename the folder ~/.kde4/share/apps/dolphin (in some distros it will be ~/.kde/share/apps/dolphin) and restart dolphin. This will purge your dolphin customizations but the entries should be back. If everything works as expected you can then delete the folder. This happened to me after an upgrade from KDE 4.4 to 4.5

Problem: When I choose the application to open a specific filetype with, it seems to affect other filetypes too. It’s like Dolphin cannot tell the difference between the two different filetypes.

Solution: Probably the KDE platform does not know about one of the two filetypes, so it associates the filetype to a different, known filetype. This is common with XML-based filetypes; even if they use a file extension of their own (e.g. .xliff or .graphml), if they are not a filetype known by the KDE platform, they will be treated as any other XML file, and opened with the default application to open XML files.

To solve this issue, you can use File Associations to create an entry for the unrecognized filetype.

Problem: Dolphin's Find File service doesn't find files you know are on your computer.

Solution: Reindex Baloo. Baloo is a file indexing and search service that Dolphin uses to search for files. It needs to be indexed to work. To solve this problem, in a terminal type, balooctl check

Problem: There is no file transfer dialog.

Solution: As of KDE 5 jobs like file transfers are handled by default in centralized notification system; file transfer is also shown in task manager. To enable separate file transfer dialog disable file transfer tracking on both the System Tray notification area and the task manager plasmoid and re-login.

If your problem is not in this list, you may also look into the forums or ask your question there.

Keywords

File management, file manager, file browser, tags, metadata, Nepomuk

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Dolphin is file manager of KDE. It opens by default, when we click on any folder, it can also be started from K-menu.
+<languages />
-I'll show how to use dolphin for common file managing tasks, and how to customize it to your needs.
+{|class="vertical-centered"
+|[[File:Dolphin.png|thumb|center|320px]]||    ||'''<translate><!--T:12-->
+The dedicated file manager focusing on usability</translate>'''
+|}
+<translate>
+==Feature Overview== <!--T:2-->
-There are two main versions of dolphin - for KDE4 it is dolphin, for KDE3.x it is d3lphin. I'll concentrate on KDE4, as this is the KDE I use.
+<!--T:38-->
+'''Dolphin''' is a lightweight file manager. It has been designed with ease of use and simplicity in mind, while still allowing flexibility and customization. This means that you can do your file management exactly the way you want to do it. You will find more information on how to handle '''Dolphin''' in this [[Special:myLanguage/Dolphin/File Management | tutorial]] or in the official [http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/applications/dolphin/index.html Handbook].
-So, lets start.
+<!--T:3-->
+:* Simple to use and dedicated file manager
+:* Focus on usability
+:* ''Breadcrumb'' navigation bar
+:* Optional panels for convenient navigation and information display
+:* Remote and pseudo-filesystem file management through [[Special:myLanguage/Glossary#KIO|KIO]]
+:* Tag files and folders, and find files by content, using [[Special:myLanguage/Glossary#Baloo|Baloo]]
-[[Image:Dolphin default.png|thumb|240px|center]]
+<!--T:4-->
+At first look, this is a simple file manager, but it has many talents.  Some features include:
-When we open the dolphin from K-menu it shows starting directory - by default it is your home directory. That's the place in system, where all your files are kept. You can write your files outside of this folder, but all applications are configured to propose this folder as place to write your files to. And this is easier, when you are keeping your things here.
+<!--T:5-->
+:* Split windows - view and use two directories at the same time
+:* Viewing attributes can be set (and remembered) independently for each window
+:* Tabbed browsing
+:* Use the optional informational panel on the right
+:* Or elect to have essential attribute information displayed in the window
+:* Use 'breadcrumb' navigation for speed
+:* One-click change to editable navigation bar
+:* Add Folders panel for traditional navigation
+:* Add a terminal in the directory you are currently browsing
+:* Many functions controlled by keyboard shortcuts
-To open file, or go to folder just click on it. You don't have to double-click. It's KDE, not windows - you can click only once :).
+== Tutorials == <!--T:6-->
-Selecting files - in KDE, by default when you click once on something, it activates. In Windows you have to couble-click for that effect. So, there is problem, what to do in KDE if you don't want to open folder or file, only select it ? Answer is simple - over any icon in dolphin, when you hover your mose over it, there will be small "+" sign. Like that:
+<!--T:7-->
+:* [[Special:myLanguage/Dolphin/File Management#Discover Dolphin|Discover Dolphin]]
+:* [[Special:myLanguage/Dolphin/File_Management#Archive_Management_in_Dolphin|Archive Management in Dolphin]]
+:* [[Special:myLanguage/Dolphin/Customize Folder Icon|Customize the icon of a folder]]
+:* [[Special:myLanguage/Dolphin/Batch_Rename|Rename multiple files at the same time]]
-[[Image:Dolphin folder hovered.png|thumb|240px|center]]
+== Hints, Tips and Troubleshooting == <!--T:13-->
-When you click that sign, this file/folder will be added to selection. You can easily select many files in that way (selecting by draging rectangle also works).
+<!--T:14-->
+'''Problem:''' Dolphin's menu entries <menuchoice>View -> Additional</menuchoice> and/or <menuchoice>View -> Panels</menuchoice> don't have any options.  Nepomuk is enabled in System Settings.
-Many selected files looks like this:
+<!--T:15-->
+:'''Solution:''' Rename the folder <tt>~/.kde4/share/apps/dolphin</tt> (in some distros it will be <tt>~/.kde/share/apps/dolphin</tt>) and restart dolphin. This will purge your dolphin customizations but the entries should be back. If everything works as expected you can then delete the folder. This happened to me after an upgrade from KDE 4.4 to 4.5
-[[Image:Dolphin folder hovered deselect.png|thumb|240px|center]]
+<!--T:16-->
+'''Problem:''' When I choose the application to open a specific filetype with, it seems to affect other filetypes too. It’s like '''Dolphin''' cannot tell the difference between the ''two different filetypes''.
-We also see here, how we can deselect files - when file is selected, and you place your mouse cursor over it, in place of "+" sign there will be "-". If you click it, file will be deselected.
+<!--T:17-->
+:'''Solution:''' Probably the KDE platform does not know about one of the two filetypes, so it associates the filetype to a different, known filetype. This is common with XML-based filetypes; even if they use a file extension of their own (e.g. <tt>.xliff</tt> or <tt>.graphml</tt>), if they are not a filetype known by the KDE platform, they will be treated as any other XML file, and opened with the default application to open XML files.
+<!--T:18-->
+:To solve this issue, you can use [[Special:myLanguage/System Settings/File Associations|File Associations]] to [[Special:myLanguage/System Settings/File Associations#Adding new file types|create an entry for the unrecognized filetype]].
-Customizing Dolphin.
+<!--T:34-->
+'''Problem:''' Dolphin's Find File service doesn't find files you know are on your computer.
-* Grouping files:
+<!--T:35-->
-Sometimes there are many files in directory, and you are only interested in text files, or images.
+:'''Solution:''' Reindex [[Special:myLanguage/Baloo|Baloo]]. Baloo is a file indexing and search service that Dolphin uses to search for files.  It needs to be indexed to work.  To solve this problem, in a terminal type, <tt>balooctl check</tt>
-There is a way to separate files of different types in dolphin, without moving it to subdirectories.
-In menu View there is option "Show in groups". Let's enable it.
+<!--T:36-->
+'''Problem:''' There is no file transfer dialog.
-[[Image:Dolphin show in groups effect.png|thumb|240px|center]]
+<!--T:37-->
+:'''Solution:''' As of KDE 5 jobs like file transfers are handled by default in centralized notification system; file transfer is also shown in task manager. To enable separate file transfer dialog disable file transfer tracking on both the System Tray notification area and the task manager plasmoid and re-login.
-* Split view:
+<!--T:8-->
-You can split view in Dolphin, to make it easier to copy between folders, etc.
+If your problem is not in this list, you may also look into the [http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=222 forums] or ask your question there.
-It will look like in old Norton Commander or Total Commander (or Midnight Commander).
-[[Image:Dolphin split view.png|thumb|240px|center]]
+== Keywords == <!--T:9-->
+<!--T:10-->
+File management, file manager, file browser, tags, metadata, Nepomuk
+<!--T:11-->
+[[Category:Dolphin]]
+[[Category:Desktop]]
+[[Category:File Management]]
+[[Category:System]]
+</translate>