How to guide for a total newbie to computers

[Sonofman]

Hello... I'm curious if their a true beginner guide? Is there any good Youtube videos showing how to use this latest version of Kubuntu... Reading takes forever to grasp, videos I can learn better and quicker, Thanks

[oldgeek]

Type Kubuntu 19.10 in the YouTube search bar and take your pick.

[woodsmoke]

Hi
thank you for the post and trying Kubuntu.

Well, really...unless you want to do "command line", it is just an operating system "on the surface". Yeah, Windblows stuffs everything into "my computer" or whatever and Kubuntu, and all other distros, provide some preset folders for things that one downloads, etc.

IT IS NO MORE COMPLICATED than converting from Mac to Windblow or vice versa. Yes, there is a VERY short learning curve in the BASIC file structure but that is all.

A media player is a mediaplayer and when switching from MAC to windblows or vice versa one would need to learn the basics of how to use that player.

HOWEVER FOR KUBUNTU you really DO HAVE a wonderful way to enhance your "do flow", I do not like "work flow" because it sounds like ...umm work...lol...

Windblows basically sticks you with ONE DESKTOP and to do something like "copy a file or move a file" you have to open a NEW FOLDER and copy and paste...

well I will describe TWO WAYS...in which ANY KDE distro really shines:

Moving file around and playing music

a) Moving files around...LESSENING WORK...

open Dolphin and look up at the top and there is a button called "split".

Navigate to say a music file that you have downloaded or copied from a disc. IN THAT FOLDER... click the "split button". And you will see two "panes" of the same folder.

Click "IN" the right hand folder and then go over to the left sidebar and click on the "home" folder or "your name" folder and you will see "all of the fodlers".

Go back to the right "pane" and right click and you will see a menu and at the top there should be a "create new" and click it and there are some options choose "folder", click it.

It will appear as a folder, click on it to rename it and apply a name and hit return.

double click the folder and it is open and empty inside.

Go back to the LEFT pane and "click and drag" the music file or image or whatever and just DRAG it into the right "pane".

You will see a couple of options, the most important being "copy" or "move" and choose one.

When you have done that a couple of time you see ONE of the really cool, "do flow" things about KDE.

B) is the "playing music" or doing anything else...

ACTIVITY.

Close dolphin and look up to the top right and there is a little dingus with three "small horizontal lines" Click on that and it will give you a variety of options but click "activities"

A "black panel" will slide out from the right and at the top will be your present desktop/activity

Down at the bottom is "create activity".

You will get an interactive box and a place to enter a name , do so, like "music". and hit enter.

The Music activity now appears in the left panel.

You can click that and it will SEEM that you are one the same desktop but it has actually changed and if you go back to the little three line box and click actvities you will see them with "default". Click default and you are back at the original, maybe with Kubuntu forums open if the browser was open.

Right click the default and click "configure desktop and you will see "add image" and it will give you a box to get new images for the desktop(background) you can download some and choose one and it will appear as the background or you can choose one from a file if you have already dowloaded some images.

click apply and you see it as the background.

You can now click the little three lined box thing and go to "music" and you will see the original image and you can now easily tell which activity you are in.

You can "stop here" and move between the two activities by clicking the little three lined thing and choosing one of the activites.

In the music activity you could open a music player and it will stay open when you go to the the default activity.

It may not seem like much but it is a big boon when you make other activities, such as e-mail, or word processing or whatever.

WELLLL you might be saying, big whiz...why I have to go up and down and back and forth to get to the other activity so that is a lot of work.

However, go back to the desktop and right click and you see the menu and midway down is "activities"... click it and the panel again opens...so no need to go up and to the right...

WELLLLL again you say...why I still have to use the left panel dingus so what have I saved.

Ok go back to the desktop and right click again and you will see "configure destop", click it and you mouse actions.

Click it and you see you should see three lines of text the top "MAY" say...right button standard menu, middle button "paste" and vertical scroll and it says "switch desk top".

Go back to the desktop and try scrolling the wheel and you are in the other desktop!

AAANNNDDD nothing happens... awww...but wait...the scroll was for "switch desktop" you did not make a NEW desktop...you made a "new activity"!!

So...again go back to configure desktop with the right click go to mouse activities and notice the middle button which says "switch desktop" and there is a "dropdown arrow" click it and choose...'switch activity" and then "apply" and "ok" and go back to the desktop and scroll the mouse wheel and...

You are at the new activity! scroll up and go one way, scroll down and go the other!

AGAIN you can stop here... but...

What if you decide to make multiple activities...

You will UNFORTUNATELY have to do one of two things, and old one and a new one...

CHOICES CHOICES...

If you leave things this way and create a third activity you will have to scroll through the three activities or...

lol...with KDE there is USUALL and OR... lol

AGAIN...go baaack to the desktop and right click configure desktop and click mouse actions and in the third line where it says "scroll", click it and VOILA... a new set of options!!

You can click the "input here" and type a couple of keys like "ctrl and d" and click apply and ok and when you go are on the desktop you can type those and you change activities.. lol

OR...you will notice that there is an option "left button" if you choose it and click apply and ok and then go out to the desktop...

and click the left button... A MENU APPEARS...with the two names of the two activities click the other one and you are on that activity and do it again and choose the other activity and you are back!

THAT has shortened the number of things to do...

BUT...again...sooooooo what...

It really shines when you have say...five activities... all of them are shown...

HOWEVER...you WILL have to go to each activity, do the configure desktop thing and on that third line choose "left button" to get a menu ... a few minutes work at most...

But then you have an "ON DESKTOP" menu system to jump from one activity to another... you might have an e-mail activity or a writing activity etc...

on my Kparadigmshift large screen t.v. rig I have a newsreader" activity, music activity with Plasma Media Player a Firefox activity, etc which I can control from across the room with an "air mouse" so that I do not have to be going to a computer, pulling out the chair, sitting down, yada yads...

The activities are an UNSUNG benefit of all KDE distros...

THE PROBLEM is...once just explaining them...most "talking heads" that want people to "keep coming back" is that they purposely get people "just almost done" so they thing that THEY, the USER, just "didn't quite understand"...,.BAAAHHHHH

But...again, there really IS one teensy problem ...and that is,...ALLL OFFFF THE WORDS...

and it is mainly this:

WHY, does the new user ask, is there the word "activity" and "desktop" being use for THE SAME THING...

It really goes down to the roots of the thing...because one ORIGINALLY could actually have a "certain kind" of desktop on an activity...

As an example there was one called "newspaper" that would force folders or things on the desktop into "columns"...it was an idea that did not pan out...

if you go to "configure desktop" again and click the top most button...called "LAYOUT"... you will see "desktop" and "folder view"... and that is all...

The "desktop" layout is kind of like the Windblows 98... but you are initally in the "folder view" and THAT has great advantages... because... lets go back up to the little three line thingy and click it and this time click "add widgets"...and the right panel pops out but

WOAH WHAT A BUNCH OF STUFF!!! clocks, news feeders, comic readers yada yada...TOO MUCH CHOICE!!

But slider down and you will find "folder view" drag it out onto the desktop and close the panel...

You should see a ..."blank folder thingy" not much help there...

Annnnnddd you will see that "desktop folder" has a blued radio button but click on the "custom location" and the little older symbol and WOAH...all of the folders in "home " appear, choose one click apply and ok and it give you direct access to all of the things in that folder.

Maybe you clicked "my favourite music" folder you will see all of the music in that folder!

SOOOO If you made the folder on the music activity and click a music file the music player will appear on the activity and not elsewhere.

You could just leave the music player open here or...

AGAIN WITH THE CHOICES!!!

With the media player open go to the very tippy left top and click the symbol for the music player and you will see some options, click the top one called "activities" you will see several options the top one will be "all activities" if you click that it will open IN ALL ACTIVITES or you can choose one of the activities below that, the second one, the activity in which you are using it SHOULD be ticked.

You could click music if you are on default.

one click and done...for the REST of the time ..it did take GOING TO THE TROUBLE of activating the folder widget but when it is done it is done...

so, create a folder widget on your writing activity and you can, WITH ONE CLICK, go to the documents folder if that is your defaul for storing them and they will be ARRANGE the way you want...maybe... "recent" and bottom to top and your most recent document is in the folder on the top right...

So, anyway, I hope that this helps a little... if you have more questions, please ask and I am sure that someone more knowledgeable will pop in to answer it.

wooddon'tbeastrangersmoke