Here’s week 66 in KDE’s Usability & Productivity initiative, and some major features have landed! Check it out:

New Features

• The label width/grid size for files and folders on the desktop is now user-configurable, allowing small icons to have small labels if that’s what suits you (me: Nate Graham, KDE Plasma 5.16.0):
  
• Dolphin and other KDE apps now have the ability to display file creation dates on Linux when using version 2.28 or later of the glibc library (Méven Car, KDE Frameworks 5.58)
• It’s now possible to open Kate with the insertion point at a user-specified position, using syntax like kate file://foo.txt?line=123&column=456 (Gleb Popov, KDE Applications 19.04.0 with KDE Frameworks 5.58)

Bugfixes & Performance Improvements

• Fixed a bug that could cause the Baloo file indexer to never stop indexing when configured to exclude a particular folder but include a sub-folder inside of it (Stefan Brüns, KDE Frameworks 5.57)
• Desktop item labels are now always sharp and crisp (Fabian Vogt and me: Nate Graham, KDE Plasma 5.12.9):
  
• For Plasma 5.12.x and 5.15.5, the minimum width of desktop items is now a little bit smaller and more reasonable (me: Nate Graham, KDE Plasma 5.12.9):
  
• The System Monitor widgets’ configuration pages now accurately display the actual status of what’s visible/checked and what’s not (Pavel Mars, KDE Plasma 5.15.5)
• The button to mute notification sounds now works anytime, rather than only after you’ve adjusted the volume slider at least once (Kai Uwe Broulik, KDE Plasma 5.15.5)
• When using the proprietary NVIDIA driver and Qt 5.13, graphics are no longer often distorted after waking the computer from sleep (David Edmundson, KDE Plasma 5.16.0)
• Improved support for changing the brightness on DDC-compatible displays (Dorian Vogel, KDE Plasma 5.16.0)
• When using KDE applications outside of Plasma, file transfers are now displayed in a standalone window (Kai Uwe Broulik, KDE Frameworks 5.58)
• When Krusader is installed, using the krarc:/ URL to access compressed files now allows you to use the URL navigator to go back to paths outside of the compressed file (Natsumi Higa, KDE Frameworks 5.58)
• Dolphin no longer crashes when tagging multiple files at once (Nicolas Fella, KDE Applications 19.04.0)

User Interface Improvements

• When a document open in Kate or any other app using the KTextEditor framework (like KDevelop) is deleted on disk, the message widget alerting you to this fact now has a button allowing you to close it (Méven Car, KDE Frameworks 5.58):
  
• Improved auto-bracket support in Kate and other apps using the KTextEditor framework (Loh Tar, KDE Frameworks 5.58)
• In Kate and other apps using the KTextEditor framework, spaces are now correctly inserted when doing multi-line indentation in block selection mode (Loh Tar, KDE Frameworks 5.58)
• The “Alternatives…” menu item for widgets now has a better icon and text (Bjorn Fëber and me: Nate Graham, KDE Frameworks 5.58):
  
• On Wayland, the Plasma Vault window as well as other system-service-related windows now show the right icon (David Edmundson, KDE Frameworks 5.58.0)
• Kate and other apps using the KSyntaxHighlighting framework like KDevelop now do syntax highlighting for Fish shell scripts (Arnd Diestelhorst, KDE Frameworks 5.58)
• Dolphin no longer shows “Open With” menu items for empty directories (me: Nate Graham, KDE Applications 19.04.0)
• When navigating using the keyboard, Dolphin now automatically scrolls the view to ensure that selected items are visible (Tranter Madi, KDE Applications 19.04.0)

Finally I’d like to give a shout-out to KDE developer Matthieu Gallien, who is developing KDE’s next-generation music player Elisa, which is shaping up nicely. I’m close to using it as my daily driver. Give it a try via KDE’s nightly Flatpak builds, or compile it from source.

Next week, your name could be in this list! Not sure how? Just ask! I’ve helped mentor a number of new contributors recently and I’d love to help you, too! You can also check out https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved, and find out how you can help be a part of something that really matters. You don’t have to already be a programmer. I wasn’t when I got started. Try it, you’ll like it! We don’t bite!

If you find KDE software useful, consider making a donation to the KDE e.V. foundation.

Here’s week 65 in KDE’s Usability & Productivity initiative, and I’m happy to announce a long-anticipated improvement: High DPI support in Gwenview! Check it out:

New Features

• It’s now possible to deselect individual wallpapers so they aren’t included in the slideshow rotation (David Redondo, KDE Plasma 5.16.0):
  
• Okular now lets you expand and collapse all annotations at once (Joao Netto, KDE Applications 19.08.0)
• Gwenview now has support for High DPI screens, including with a fractional scale factor (Lukaz Hetznecker and Alexander Volkov, KDE Applications 19.04.0):
  
• The Meta+E global launch shortcut for Dolphin that I mentioned a few weeks ago unfortunately got reverted for the Applications 19.04 release, but will be back in the 19.08 release, in a more technically correct form (me: Nate Graham, KDE Applications 19.08.0)

Bugfixes & Performance Improvements

• Fixed the dropdown menu in the Cuttlefish icon viewing app so that its dropdown menu is actually visible (me: Nate Graham, KDE Plasma 5.16.0):
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause desktop icons to show up in the wrong positions when switching between multiple activities while using more than one display (Oleg Solovyov, KDE Plasma 5.16.0)
• Windows that have been marked as “keep above other windows” now correctly hide themselves when invoking the “Show Desktop” functionality (Vlad Zagorodniy, KDE Plasma 5.16.0)
• After downloading a new cursor theme, the current cursor theme now remains selected in the grid (Dan Leinir Turthra Jensen, KDE Plasma 5.16.0)
• Okular now has improved performance when scrolling with a touchscreen or drawing tablet (Kezi Olio, KDE Applications 19.04.0)

User Interface Improvements

• The Meta+L shortcut can now be used by default to lock the screen (me: Nate Graham, KDE Plasma 5.16.0)
• The wallpaper chooser’s user interface now has perfect horizontal and vertical alignment for the buttons and comboboxes of the Color and Slideshow wallpaper plugins (Filip Fila, KDE Plasma 5.16.0):
  
• List items in the Kickoff Application Launcher now have more compact side margins, which particularly looks good when using a panel on the side or top of the screen (Noah Davis, KDE Plasma 5.16.0):
  
• The “this file is executable” dialog now uses legible and comprehensible icons in the buttons (me: Nate Graham, KDE Frameworks 5.57):
  
• We have a fancy new icon for Sublime Merge (KDE Frameworks 5.57):
  
• When a document in Kate is changed on disk by another app, Kate now asks only once whether or not to reload it (Loh Tar, KDE Frameworks 5.57)
• Kate can now automatically reload an open document that’s changed on disk by another application, allowing it to be used as a log viewer if desired (Loh Tar, KDE Frameworks 5.57)

Next week, your name could be in this list! Not sure how? Just ask! I’ve helped mentor a number of new contributors recently and I’d love to help you, too! You can also check out https://community.kde.org/Get_Involved, and find out how you can help be a part of something that really matters. You don’t have to already be a programmer. I wasn’t when I got started. Try it, you’ll like it! We don’t bite!

If you find KDE software useful, consider making a donation to the KDE e.V. foundation.