# The &knotes; Handbook

Fabian
Dal Santo

    linuxgnu@yahoo.com.au

Greg
M.
Holmes
Lauri
Watts
Reviewer
2000
Greg M. Holmes
2001
Fabian Del Santo
&FDLNotice;
27/01/2001
1.01.00

&knotes; is a sticky notes application for the desktop.

KDE
Knotes
kdeutils
notes
popup
pop-up
knotes

## Introduction

&knotes; is a program that lets you write the computer equivalent of sticky notes. The notes are saved automatically when you exit the program, and they display when you open the program.

You may print and mail your notes if you configure &knotes; to use helper applications.

Display features of notes such as color and font may be customized for each note. You may also customize the defaults.

## Configuration

### Configuring the Display in &knotes;

To configure the display:

1. Right click on the panel icon.

2. Select Preferences...

   The &knotes; Defaults - KNotes dialog will open.

3. Choose the Display icon from the three icons at the left.

The following choices are available:

Text Color

  The color square shows the current text color. By clicking this color square you open the standard &kde; color selection dialog.

Background Color

  The color square shows the current background color. By clicking this color square you open the standard &kde; color selection dialog.

Note Width

  The width of the note in pixels. Edit this number as desired.

Note Height

  The height of the note in pixels. Edit this number as desired.

### Configuring the Editor in &knotes;

To customize the editor:

1. Right click on the panel icon.

2. Select Preferences...

   The &knotes; Defaults - KNotes dialog will open.

3. Choose the Editor icon from the three icons at the left.

The following choices are available:

Tab Size

  This is the size of the tab in spaces. Edit this number as desired.

Auto Indent

  This is a checkbox. If selected, auto-indenting is on.

Current Font: Click to Change

  Click this button to open the standard &kde; font selection dialog.

### Configuring Actions in &knotes;

To configure actions in &knotes;:

1. Right-click on the &knotes; panel icon.

2. Select Preferences...

   The &knotes; Defaults - KNotes dialog will open.

3. Choose the Actions icon from the three icons at the left.

The following choices are available:

Mail Action

  Type a mail command and any required command line switches in this box.

  By using `"%f"` in the command line you can pass the filename of the note body to the mail command.

Print

  Type a printing command and any required command line switches in this box.

  Use the following variables in the command line:

  `"%p"` is the printer name.

  `"%t"` is the title.

  `"%f"` is the filename of the note body.

## Using &knotes;

### Creating a New Note

To create a new note:

1. Right click on the &knotes; panel icon.

2. Select New Note.

### Writing Your Note

To write your note, simply type the note in the space provided. Normal keyboard and mouse editing functions are supported.

Right clicking in the editing space provides the following menu options:

- Undo

- Redo

- Cut

- Copy

- Paste

- Paste special...

- Clear

- Select All

Text may be selected by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse, or by holding down the Shift key and using the arrow keys.

### Inserting the Date

To insert the current date in the Note:

1. Right click on the title bar of the note.

2. Select Insert Date.

The current date and time will be inserted at the cursor position in the text of the note.

### Renaming a Note

To rename a note:

1. Right click on the note's title bar.

2. Select Rename.

Type the new name of the note in the dialog that appears. To accept the new name, press the OK button. To exit the dialog without renaming the note, press the Cancel button. To clear what you have typed and start over, click the Clear button.

### Mailing a Note

To mail a note:

1. Right click on the note's title bar.

2. Select Mail.

What happens next depends on how you configured the Mail action in the Preferences... dialog.

### Printing a Note

To print a note:

1. Right click on the note's title bar.

2. Select Print.

What happens next depends on how you configured the Print action in the Preferences... dialog.

### Deleting a Note

To delete a note:

1. Right click on the note's title bar.

2. Select Delete Note.

### Hiding a Note

To hide a note, click the X in the upper right corner of the title bar of the note. The note will no longer be displayed on the screen. The note itself will not be deleted.

### Displaying Notes

When you start &knotes;, all notes will display on the screen. If you hide a note and later want to display it:

1. Right-click on the &knotes; panel icon.

2. Select Notes.

3. Choose the note you want to display.

### Desktop Functions

To send a note to a specific desktop:

1. Right click on the title bar of the note.

2. Select To Desktop

3. Choose the desktop desired, or alternatively, All Desktops

To make the note remain on top of other windows:

1. Right click on the title bar of the note.

2. Select Always on Top.

To return the note to more normal window behavior, simply repeat this process.

### Customizing a Note's Display

To customize a note's display:

1. Right click on the note's titlebar.

2. Select Note preferences....

   The Local Settings - Knotes dialog will open.

3. Choose the Display icon from the three icons at the left.

The following choices are available:

Text Color

  The color square shows the current text color. By clicking this color square you open the standard KDE color selection dialog.

Background Color

  The color square shows the current text color.

Note Width

  The width of the note in pixels. Edit this number as desired.

Note Height

  The height of the note in pixels. Edit this number as desired.

### Customizing a Note's Editor

To customize a note's editor:

1. Right click on the titlebar of the note.

2. Select Note preferences...

   The Local Settings - Knotes dialog will open.

3. Choose the Editor icon from the three icons at the left.

The following choices are available:

Tab Size

  This is the size of the tab in spaces. Edit this number as desired.

Auto Indent

  This is a checkbox. If selected, auto-indenting is on.

Current Font: Click to Change

  Click this button to open the standard &kde; font selection dialog.

### Customizing a Note's Actions

To customize a note's actions:

1. Right click on the titlebar of the note.

2. Select Note preferences...

   The Local Settings - Knotes dialog will open.

3. Choose the Action icon from the three icons at the left.

The following choices are available

Mail Action

  Type a mail command and any required command line switches in this box.

  By using `"%f"` in the command line you can pass the filename of the note body to the mail command.

Print Action

  Type a printing command and any required command line switches in this box.

  Use the following variables in the command line:

  `"%p"` is the printer name.

  `"%t"` is the title.

  `"%f"` is the filename of the note body.

### Quitting &knotes;

To quit &knotes;:

1. Right click on the panel icon.

2. Select Quit.

## Credits and License

&knotes;

Program copyright 1997 Bernd Wuebben wuebben@kde.org

Contributors:

- Wynn Wilkeswynnw@calderasystems.com

Documentation copyright 2000 Greg M. Holmes holmegm@earthlink.net

Documentation updated 2001 by Fabian Del Santo linuxgnu@yahoo.com.au.

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &knotes;

&knotes; is part of the &kde; project http://www.kde.org. &knotes; can be found in the kdeutils package on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/, the main ftp site of the &kde; project.

### Requirements

In order to print or mail notes, you need to have helper applications installed, such as a2ps and kmail. You will need to configure &knotes to use these helper applications.

### Compilation and installation

In order to compile and install &knotes; on your system, type the following in the base directory of the kdeutils distribution:

    %./configure
    %make
    %make install

Since &knotes; uses autoconf and automake you should have no trouble compiling it. Should you run into problems please report them to the KDE mailing lists.