Using Dolphin
Table of Contents
The main feature of Dolphin that allows navigation of the file system is the work space. Clicking on a sub-directory within the current directory changes to this directory. Clicking on files within the workspace will open the file in the default application that has been assigned to it.
The tool bar is also used for navigating the file system. The tool bar contains two buttons essential for navigating the file system quickly and easily, these are; back and forward.
Other buttons can be added to the tool bar to further aid navigation or to provide short cuts for functions within Dolphin e.g. deleting a file.
Dolphin continually shows the directory that it is currently viewing the contents of, via the location bar and the title bar. The location bar has two views available. The first is the directory path view. This shows the path to the current directory e.g. /usr/share/apps/dolphin/
The second view is the breadcrumb view. This allows the user to move to a directory a number of folders back from the current one. This is achieved via a tab like interface where the name of each previous directory is displayed and can be clicked on to change into.
In order to change between the two location bar views, click on the the browse button. This will toggle the view between the directory path view and the bread crumb view. A second way of switching between the directory path view and the breadcrumb view is via View>Navigation Bar>Edit Location or Browse.
With the directory path view the user is able to enter the whole path to the directory they wish to enter. In order to do so, the user can toggle the browse button to the directory path view or alternatively via the menu bar View > Navigation Bar > Browse Location/Browse then enter the path to the directory they wish to enter. The user will notice as they are entering the path, a box will open underneath the address bar showing the content of the folder they are currently heading to. The content of this box will change as they continue to enter the path to the directory, showing the directories and the files beginning with the characters being entered e.g. /usr/share/apps/k would display everything within the directory beginning with the k character.
If the breadcrumb view is enabled then the user is unable to enter the path to the directory. The user must manually navigate the file system by clicking the folders and sub-folders within the directories.
In order to aid the navigation of the file system, Dolphin can use bookmarks. Bookmarks can be set for any location on the file system including virtual directories that do not physically exist, but kde creates for ease of use e.g. trash:/. This in turn means that if the user chooses a bookmark from the list the workspace will move into that directory or virtual location.
In order to select a bookmark, the location bar must be set to the breadcrumb view. Clicking the image of the home button (as set by the icon theme currently in use) will drop down a list of all the available bookmarks. The Dolphin sidebar also contains a bookmark list. This can be accessed via switching the the sideba to bookmakrs mode. The user then clicks the desired bookmark to open that directory. By default Dolphin sets bookmarks for; the users home folder /home/usrname/, the Root partition and the system:/ area (location were the user is able to view the storage devices). More bookmarks can be set via the Configure Dolphin dialogue.
