Tips and Tricks for KDE 5 Dolphin File Manager

[Nergal]

 

Years ago when the KDE team decided to move from Konquerer to Dolphin in KDE4, it was controversial, with some people in support of the move, and others against it.

Now, it’s widely recognized that Dolphin is probably the most powerful file manager for GNU/Linux, with a number of features and enhancements to make workflow as simple, quick, and informative as possible.

With that said, I thought I would perhaps share just a few things that people may overlook in their Dolphin setup, that you might enjoy.

1. Set all folders to have the same settings, for easy-on-the-mind workflow

Something I dislike about some systems, is when different folders have different tree views, or incorporate previews/not. Perhaps it’s just me, but I like things uniform, it helps me to never have to look for something that isn’t there. So, to enable this:

Click Settings > Configure Dolphin > General > and then select “Use Common properties for all folders” from the Behavior tab, under the ‘view’ subheading at the top (It’s what you’re staring at by default when you click “General.”) Now, any settings we make from here on out, will remain regardless of where you navigate.

2. Show file sizes / number of items in folders under filenames

I like my file manager to have all my core information in front of me, without having to dig. The incorporation of the filesize of individual files, and the number of files in a folder, being placed under the names of files/folders is an incredible little enhancement that adds a whole slew of new information to your brain, that depending on your work at hand can be very useful to have!

View > Additional Information > Size

3. Add a Terminal to Dolphin

There have been so many times where I have been working on something back and forth between a terminal and graphical tools, that the incorporation of a Terminal inside my file manager was like someone gave a pizza cook the first roller knife thing. Needless to say, it’s become a staple of my workflow.

View > Panels > Terminal

Resize the terminal to fit as you desire, and now have easy access if ever needed!

4. Show Hidden Files/Folders

This one is obvious. Your home folder is like your C:/Username/ directory in Windows, with your documents, downloads, pictures etc. But the home folder is also kinda like your /Program Files/ folder too, containing a lot of information from installed software.

Actually, the vast majority of space used, and sensitive information, is located in your home folder. That said, you’ll want to be able to properly view everything in the home folder, which is hidden by default.

View > Hidden Files

5. Editable Location Bar

Being able to directly type the location you want, is handy for obvious reasons. Nuff said.

View > Location Bar > Editable Location Bar

6. Split View and Preview

There are two buttons at the top of the window, for “Preview” and “Split,” I usually run with both of these selected as well. Preview, shows thumbnails on the files and the side of the screen (Super useful for me as someone who deals with a lot of photographs and images), and the split button gives me two sections of file manager, for easy copy/paste/comparisons.