Working with Kate
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Working with Kate

Quick Start will show you how to toggle four simple options that will let you configure some of Kate's more powerful features right away. Keystroke Commands lays out some of the default keystroke shortcuts for those who can't or don't want to use a mouse.

Quick Start

This section will describe some of the items on the Settings menu so that you can quickly configure Kate to work the way you want it.

When you start Kate for the first time you'll see two windows with white backgrounds. Above the two windows is a toolbar with the usual labeled icons. And above that, a menu bar.

The left-hand window is a dockable side bar. It combines the Filelist and Fileselector windows. Switch between the two by clicking on the tabs at the top of the window.

If you've started Kate with a file, the right-hand window will show the file you are editing and the Filelist on the side bar will show the name of the file. Use the Fileselector window to open files.

You can toggle the Filelist and Fileselector window on and off in Settings menu. This menu offers you your first glimpse into Kate's power and flexibility. In this section we'll look at four items:

Show Toolbar

Toggles the toolbar on and off.

Show Filelist

Toggles the Filelist on and off. If the Filelist/Fileselector window is not open, Kate launches the side bar as a separate, undocked, window. To dock the window grab the two thin parallel lines above the tabs by clicking on them with your left mouse button and holding the button down. Drag the the window into Kate's editing window and release the left mouse button when you have positioned the Filelist/Fileselector window as you prefer.

Tip

If you have grabbed the two parallel lines successfully your mouse pointer will turn into two crossed arrows as you drag.

Show Fileselector

Toggles the Fileselector on and off. This menu item is the same as Show Filelist with one difference. Toggling it on launches the window with the Fileselector on top.

Show Console

Toggles a console emulator on and off at the bottom of Kate's window. In other words, it gives you a command line within the application.

Keystroke Commands

Many of Kate's keystroke commands (shortcuts) are configurable by way of the Settings menu. By default Kate honors the following key bindings.

Insert

Toggle between Insert and Overwrite mode. When in insert mode the editor will add any typed characters to the text and push any previously typed data to the right of the text cursor. Overwrite mode causes the entry of each character to eliminate the character immediately to the right of the text cursor.

Left Arrow

Move the cursor one character to the left

Right Arrow

Move the cursor one character to the right

Up Arrow

Move the cursor up one line

Down Arrow

Move the cursor down one line

Page Up

Move the cursor up one page

Page Down

Move the cursor down one page

Backspace

Delete the character to the left of the cursor

Home

Move the cursor to the beginning of the line

End

Move the cursor to the end of the line

Delete

Delete the character to the right of the cursor (or any selected text)

Shift+Left Arrow

Mark text one character to the left

Shift+Right Arrow

Mark text one character to the right

F1

Help

Shift+F1

What's this?

Ctrl+F

Find

F3

Find again

Ctrl+B

Set a Bookmark

Ctrl+C

Copy the marked text to the clipboard.

Ctrl+N

New document

Ctrl+P

Print

Ctrl+Q

Quit - close active copy of editor

Ctrl+R

Replace

Ctrl+S

Save your file.

Ctrl+V

Paste.

Ctrl+X

Delete the marked text and copy it to the clipboard.

Ctrl+Z

Undo

Ctrl+Shift+Z

Redo

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