Konqueror Web Shortcuts
I'm a two browser kind of guy. Somewhere, on one of my virtual desktops, I always have a copy of Firefox open. On another, I have Konqueror. Both of these are incredibly capable browsers with their own strengths, strengths which are unique to both and which, as a result, leave me running two different browsers all the time. Firefox is there because, quite frankly, it can handle pretty much any web page I throw at it, even those that then to be a little (oh, how shall I put this) specific to that other OS.
Konqueror's real strength comes from its tight integration into the KDE desktop but that's not all. This amazing program is a file manager par excellence with capabilities that would require a pretty generous article, something I may yet do here. What I want to tell you about right now though is a means by which Konqueror lets you get at information on the Internet with nothing more than a few keystrokes. Let's look at an example:
Let's say that you wanted to search on Linux media players in Google. Normally, you would enter http://www.google.com, wait for the site to load, type in Linux media players, and click to start the search. With Konqueror, a number of quick search shortcuts have been defined that make searching feel so much easier. To search Google for our media players, you could simply type the following in the Location field (where you normally enter a website's URL).
gg: Linux media players
Konqueror automagically feeds the search terms to Google. You can do a rapid-fire search of the Google Usenet groups' archive, as well. Pretend that you are having problems with an FTL3D VR card for your system.
ggg: FTL3D VR card setup Linux
There are other great shortcuts. For instance, typing fm: will let you search the Freshmeat software archives, and rf: package_name will search RPMfind.net for RPMs of your favorite software. Here's a list of others you may want to try:
av: Use the AltaVista search engine ad: Acronym database lookup ggn: Search Google News ggi: Search Google Images hb: Search HotBot imdb: Internet Movie Database Search sf: Look through SourceForge
You can check all these out for yourself by clicking on Configure Konqueror in the menu bar under Settings. Then choose Enhanced Browsing from the sidebar on the left, and you will get a nice long list of these shortcuts. One of my favorite shortcuts of all time is the online dictionary search. Using the dict: shortcut, Konqueror will search through the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and the ths: shortcut will look things up in the online thesaurus.
ths: thesaurus
You know, there really is no synonym for thesaurus.
You can add your own Web search shortcut. When looking through the shortcuts under Enhanced Browsing, select one, click Modify, and follow the example to create your own.
I use these for everything
Seriously, I use these for everything. They're so useful.
Another handy tip is using Google for more than just googling the web. For example, if you regularly use a single website but it doesn't have its own search function (www.epguides.com is a good example of this) you can either use Google's site:sitename.com functionality to limit a search, or take it one step further if you trust "I'm Feeling Lucky". Here's one example I have:
http://www.google.com/search?btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=site%3Aepguides.com+\{@}
This one does a google "I'm Feeling Lucky" search restricted to epguides.com. The end result is if you type in something like "ep: The Simpsons" you will get the episode guide for the Simpsons straight away. Awesome!
only in Konqueror?
this work only in Konqueror?
i have firefox on my linux..
Konqueror Shortcuts - complete list
If you want to see a graphical version of all the shortcuts, click Settings -> Configure Konqueror and then scroll down to the Web shortcuts icon. There are dozens upon dozens, and you can add your own.
Linuxpackages.net
Huh that's sweet. I've been using the gg: for years.(ps ggi: is image search!) But I never really thought about making my own. After this I made lp: for linuxpackages.net searches. Now I can search for slackware packages without waiting for the site to load.
how to find all those web shortcuts
Because there are so many web shortcuts that are useful, I wrote a 'service menu' which adds to the context menu you get in Konqueror. It's actually a script which generates a service menu for all your web shortcuts, and the service menu itself runs the shortcut on the current contents of your clipboard, opening the result in new tab. Very useful for those shortcuts that you haven't memorised or even discovered yet!
Here is the URL
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=16746
seeing the acronyms list
Here's a lazy way of having a list of the available ACRONYMS...
ls -1 /usr/share/services/searchproviders/*.desktop|acro= $(zenity --title "ACROS list" --list --column "(ACROS) What_it_does" --width=350 --height=600)
If you don't have zenity, you could just use the first part before the pipe ('|') to see the list.
You could even add it to a button at your desktop.
If I weren't so lazy (busy) I would add a way of launching the chosen acronym with the searched text from the CLI.
Mozilla has the same feature since years
have a look here: http://www.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/keywords.html
An honor
This way of copying the great ideas between projects in FOSS is probably the highest form of praise. To my shame, I forgot who's the genius who came with the shortcuts idea in KDE 6 (six) years ago, but it's anyways nice to see that people like it so much, even if it's probably still little known (and a shame too).
Also , one of these days, ...
try
#tail
or
#man
And of course, the Alt+F2 trick is simply too strong to beat. Combined with google, it's simply a wonder. E.g., for the imperial measuring units challenged:
Alt+F2 gg: 48 pounds in kilograms.
:-)
Konqueror Web Browser Feature
The feature described regarding typing gg: tux magazine in the location bar of Konqueror is a neat feature, but not so far removed from one that exists in Firefox.
Firefox 1.0 has an entry box where you can select your search engine from a drop down list or even add search engines. With your search engine selected, all you have to do is type your search terms and it will bring up the url list that satisfies your search terms.
For example, I have Google set as my search engine and if I type 'tux magazine into the text box, it loads Google and lists all the urls that reference Tux Magazine.
So this feature is just as neat as the feature in Konqueror.
Neat too. I just tried it - t
Neat too. I just tried it - typing "tux magazine" into the location field of Firefox - and hitting return. But what if I want to see what wiki has about "tux magazine"? There should be a drop down list of such web short cuts just in front of the location field.
you forgot one
a great feature that I use in konqueror is the fish:// shortcut.
It uses ssh/scp for drag 'n drop fun. I'm not sure if a special plugin is required or not. It just works on my Debian box.
Give it a shot, fish://username@hostname
fish:// not just in konq... it's omnipresent in KDE! :)
Not just in konq. Try making a screendump with ksnapshot, now save it. In the file picker, in the top (where the path is), type fish://@/
Save your screensnap remotely, without having to store it locally first. Kioslaves work _everywhere_ in KDE. It's immensly powerful.
kioslaves
Fish is just one example within all the kioslaves featured by KDE :-)
You can look at the list : help:/kioslave
some other examples :
smb:// ; ftp:// ; imap:// ; ...
man:/ ; info:/ ; help:/ ; ...
...
Google Linux Search
On the Google search idea I have made my own shortcut to search Google Linux. I use http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=\{@}&btnG=Google+Search as the Search URI and for the shortcut I used ggli:. Another useful shortcut if you are a user of Debian and have apt-listbugs installed is dbug:bug_number to go directly to the page of the bug report(s) that get listed by the program when using apt-get.
apt-listbugs
Parent mentioned looking up bug numbers in apt-listbugs -- even easier is to hit 'w' at the prompt and it gives you an HTML version with direct links to the bug numbers. Combine that with 'alias su=sux' and you can find the bug reports in Konqueror -- as root -- with just a key and a click. dbug:* is still useful for changelog bugs, though.
"Tabbed Daily Info" -- my standard "View Profile"
I also like the "gg:" shortcut very much. And the "leo:" one to lookup up German <--> English translations. Or the "info:/" viewer (I *hated* the GNU info system and its 're-invented-the-wheel' text browser, but now I love to seek for man-page like pieces of info with Konqui's supreme 'info:/'mode...)
However my favourit feature of Konqui is its ability to define various "View Profiles". My standard one is which I named "Tabbed Daily Info". Its a button in kicker. If I click it once, Konqui starts up and loads 15 different tabs with all the sites I visit regularly: Linuxprinting.org News Forums, CUPS.org, samba-technical mailing archives, Linuxtoday, Freshmeat, Slashdot, dot.kde.org......
Hmmmm, I think I'll have to modify it by now with a 16th tab for "tuxmagazine".
Thanks for letting me discover this new website! I hope it develops as promising as it looks now.
Maybe Marcel would like one day to write a piece about how one can contribute content to it?
Thanks,
Kurt
GNU info system
Kurt says, "I *hated* the GNU info system and its 're-invented-the-wheel' text browser".
Actually GNU info is one of the first hypertext browsing systems, developed well before HTML and the WWW. It may be showing its age now, but it's hardly a case of re-inventing the wheel. The info wheel was there first.
an ignorant bystander
GNU info
(complete reply now, hopefully. Missing part of frist attempt got eaten by soem internet monster....)
>> GNU info is one of the first hypertext browsing systems, developed well before HTML and the WWW
Thanks Bud, for the enlightenment. What you say makes sense.
It was just to me as a user, having known HTML, WWW and Netscape first, that it looked like it was the other way round.
But still, it is Konqui that makes me use info quite happily now. :-)
Kurt
GNU info
>> GNU info is one of the first hypertext browsing systems, developed well before HTML and the WWW <<
Thanks Bud, for the enlightenment. What you say makes sense.
It was just to me as a user, having known HTML, WWW and Netscape first, that it looked like it was the other way round.
But still, it is Konqui that makes me use info quite happily now. :-)
Kurt
info
I have been using Solaris and Linux for about 3 years now, at work and at home.
95% of what I do is from an xterm. There is a very steep learning curve , especially when you consider the amount of historical context to get through. I am still learning.
I have only recently looked at info and it is now a part of my toolkit. It was daunting at first, but I find that it is extremely easy to use and very helpful. The trick, (as with most things *ix) is to just learn a basic set of functionality. In the case of info , it is
- space to page through sequentially,
- delete to backtrack
- Tab to find hyperlinks, Enter to jump.
From the shell prompt,
- info info for a tutorial.
What I like most about info is that a lot of important subjects are covered, and it works totally from the shell.
fvwmfan.
You can be a 1 browser guy again! Here's how:
FYI - there's no need to keep konqueror open just so that you can use shortcuts like this:
gg: Linux media players
Those shortcuts can also be used from the "Run command ..." dialog. And if you've configured your KDE file associations so that HTML pages will open with Firefox ("firefox %u"), then you can take konqueror out of this picture altogether.
I do this all the time. On my machine:
hit the keys Win-R ("Run command ..."), then "dict: superfluous", and - voila - it opens up a new tab in Firefox pointing to that word definition at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary site.
Never, ever
I never, ever start konqueror. Nor any other web browser application or file manager. I use KDE's minicli. alt-f2, gg:whatever, and I'm set. Same with url''s, same with my files -- alt-f2, ~/doc. My kids take it even further. They don't grasp the logout buttons on kicker, and, besides, have them customized away, so they type alt-f2, logout. A nine-year old friend of my girls has recently acquired an account on one of the six KDE machines about the house, and they're teaching her to do the same. Everything through the minicli.
Alt-F2
But you should also try alt-F2 the mini calculator e.g.
alt-F2 3*456
alt-F2 and apt
I just made myself a new shortcut.
Name: APT - Find any File
Search URI: apt:/search?\{@}&fsearch=&show=
URI shortscuts: apt-filef
Voila: i can check on installed and available software with my apt install and konqueror by typing alt-F2 --> apt-filef: kdebase3.
I'm really starting to like this feature!
Nah, I just use gg:3*456, it
Nah, I just use gg:3*456, it can do a lot more (3^pi, for example)
Mini Calculator in Alt+F2
Wow!
I've been using KDE for 5 years, and never heard of this.
This is very good! I've always started kcalc if I needed to calculate something.
Eleknader
Re: Never, ever
Hello, Boudewijn.
Fascinating idea, and something I hadn't thought of doing. You've done a nice job of showing just how much power and flexibility exists in this modern desktop environment. Or, as has oft been remarked, "there's more than one way to do it."
Thanks for the tip.
-- Marcel Gagné
3 google search entrances
"gg:" works so well - I use it all the time. I hardly use the new google search field. If I do then it is only for paste from the clipboard from some other app. And even then - because of habit - I often instead clear the Location field, type "gg:" and paste. It would be nice with a button to prefill the "gg:". For the rest of the time - when the term you want to search for is on the page - then there is yet another google search entrance - under the 3rd mouse button.
Try right-clicking on the hig
Try right-clicking on the highlighted word. In my kde there is
a context menu for searching Google.
try middleclick :D
try middle-mouseclick when you have a highlighted word on the empty space next to a tab in konqi. when you have set google as preffered search engine, it'll search... no copy/paste/whatever.
and gg: not only works in alt-f2 but also in the commandprompt-kicker-applet!!! so no alt-f2 anymore, it can be even simpler.
Firefox and Konq
With Firefox (running 1.0 under FC3) you can CTRL-L to get to the address line, ESC to clear the address line, and "amazon blue screen death" to get the appropriate title at Amazon books. Other keywords that work well include imdb for the movie database, and ebay for searching for a particular ebay item.
What I think is cool about Konqueror is using fish://elaine@lanhost/home/elaine which allows me to use ssh to log into the other Linux boxes on our lan. It prompts me for my password, and then I have a transparent way of browsing the filesystem using Konqueror.
Using Konqueror to browse my web host files is also nice, though at little slow at times: ftp://www.....
In Konqi, Ctrl-L already clea
In Konqi, Ctrl-L already clears the address line, so it saves you a keystroke ;-)
And not only can you browse the filesystem with konqueror, but directly load/save files from remote systems in any kde app, like kedit, or kolourpaint, or whatever. When Korganizer asks me where to save the calendar, I can just tell it a fish:// location that I know can be available from any computer.
And as of today...
In CVS-HEAD KDE as of today, there is also:
uspto: <patent number>
Also don't forget ggl: for "I'm Feeling Lucky" with google. It works impressively well.
What google linux, is there a
What google linux, is there a shortcut for it?
The url is: http://www.google.com/linux
I assume it is not ggl, perhaps gl can be used for it?
I created a gll lookup for google linux
I use gll for Google Linux Lookup but as stated below you can actually set up anything you like as your shortcut. I believe linux also works as a keyword. Easiest way I found to set it up is to copy exactly the one for Google, rename it for Google Linux and then replace the word 'search' in the URL for the search with the word 'linux' as follows:
http://www.google.com/linux?q=distrowatch
instead of:
http://www.google.com/search?q=distrowatch
If you're talking about Konqu
If you're talking about Konqueror's shortcut, these can be defined to whatever you want by going under: Settings, Configure Konqueror, Enhanced Browsing. The screen that pops up makes adding a new search shortcut or changing an existing shortcut's URL very clear and easy.