<sect1 id="background">
<sect1info>

<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Mark</firstname>
<surname>Donohoe</surname>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Martin</firstname>
<surname>Jones</surname>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Duncan</firstname>
<surname>H.</surname>
<affiliation>
<jobtitle>Updates</jobtitle>
</affiliation>
</author>                                
<author>
<firstname>Mike</firstname>
<surname>McBride</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>

<date>29/01/2001</date>
<releaseinfo>1.00.00</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>background</keyword>
<keyword>wallpaper</keyword>
</keywordset>
</sect1info>

<title>Background</title>

<para>The Background module allows you to configure colors or wallpapers for
your desktop background.</para>
 
<para>It is comprised of three areas:</para>
 
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Desktop selection and Name area.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The background Preview Monitor</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>An area for determining the background (at the bottom)</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Desktop</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>The top left box, labeled <guilabel>Desktop</guilabel>, lists the
currently configured desktops identified by their names.</para>

<para>To configure the background for a desktop, start by clicking on the
desktops name.</para>

<para>If you wish to configure all your desktop backgrounds the same, select the
checkbox labeled <guilabel>Common Background</guilabel>.</para> <tip><para>If
you want to change the names of your desktop, you can do that in another module.
See <link linkend="desktop-number">Desktop: Number of Desktops</link> for more
details.</para></tip> 
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Preview Monitor</term>
<listitem>
<para>This is a preview window.  It will give you a sense of what to expect with
each change.</para>

<para>The display background can be filled: with a single color, with a single
color with a pattern over it, by any external program of your choice, or with
one of several color gradients.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>


<para>The area at the bottom is for determining the background contents.  It is
divided into three tabs.</para>


<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Background</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This tab, allows you to fill the screen with color.  </para>

<para>You should first select the appropriate choice in the drop down box
labeled <guilabel>Mode</guilabel>.  Your options are:</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Flat</term>
<listitem><para>By choosing this mode, you select one color (using the color
button labeled <guibutton>Color 1</guibutton>), and the entire background is
covered with this one color.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Pattern</term>
<listitem><para>By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color
buttons). </para> <para>You then select a pattern by clicking
<guilabel>Setup</guilabel>.  This opens a new dialog window, which gives you
the opportunity to Select a pattern.  Simply click once on the pattern of your
choice, then click on <guilabel>OK</guilabel>, and &kde; will render the pattern
you selected using the two colors you selected.  For more on patterns, see the
section <link linkend="bkgnd-patterns">Adding, Removing and Modifying
Patterns</link>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Background Program</term>
<listitem><para>By selecting this option, you can have &kde; use an external
program to determine the background.  This can be any program of your choosing.
For more information on this option, see the section entitled <link
linkend="bkgnd-programs">Using an external program</link>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Horizontal Gradient</term>
<listitem><para>By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color
buttons).  &kde; will then start with the color selected by <guilabel>Color
1</guilabel> on the left edge of the screen, and slowly transform into the
color selected by <guilabel>Color 2</guilabel> by the time it gets to the
right edge of the screen.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Vertical Gradient</term>
<listitem><para>By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color
buttons).  &kde; will then start with the color selected by <quote>Color 1</quote> on the top
edge of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by "Color 2" as
it moves to the bottom of the screen.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Pyramid Gradient</term>
<listitem><para>By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color
buttons).  KDE will then start with the color selected by "Color 1" in each
corner of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by "Color 2"
as it moves to the center of the screen.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Pipecross Gradient</term>
<listitem><para>By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color
buttons).  KDE will then start with the color selected by "Color 1" in each
corner of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by "Color 2"
as it moves to the center of the screen. The "shape" of this gradient is
different then the pyramid gradient.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Elliptic Gradient</term>
<listitem><para>By choosing this mode, you select two colors (using both color
buttons).  KDE will then start with the color selected by "Color 2" in the
center of the screen, and slowly transform into the color selected by "Color 1"
as it moves to the edges, in an elliptical pattern.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Wallpaper</guilabel></term>
<listitem>
<para>This tab, allows you to load a wallpaper on top of the color
gradient.</para>
<para>The wallpaper is an image displayed in the background of your display.
</para>
<para>Before you select your wallpaper, you should choose one of the modes from
the drop down box labeled <guilabel>Mode</guilabel>.  Your choices are:</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>No wallpaper</term>
<listitem><para>No image is displayed.  Just the background
colors.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Centered</term>
<listitem><para>The image will be centered on the screen without changing the
size of the image.  The background colors will be present anywhere the image
does not cover.</para> </listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Tiled</term>
<listitem><para>The image will be duplicated until it fills the entire
desktop. The first image will be placed in the upper left corner of the screen,
and duplicated downward and to the right.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Center Tiled</term>
<listitem><para>The image will be duplicated until it
fills the entire desktop. The first image will be placed in the center of the
screen, and duplicated upward, downward to the right, and to the left.</para>
</listitem></varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Centered Maxpect</term>
<listitem><para>The image will be placed in the center of the screen.  It will
be scaled to fit the desktop, but it will not change the aspect ratio of the
original image.  This will provide you with an image that is not distorted.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Scaled</term>
<listitem><para>The image will be scaled to fit the desktop.  It will be
stretched to fit to all four corners.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<note><para>If the drop-down box labled <guilabel>Mode</guilabel> has "No
Wallpaper" selected, you will not be able to choose a wallpaper.</para>
<para>Simply change this drop down box to any other mode. You will now be able
to select a wallpaper.</para></note>

<para>To select a wallpaper, you may either select the wallpaper from the drop down list labeled Wallpaper, or by clicking on the Browse button.</para>

<tip><para>Displaying wallpaper requires that the image be kept in memory.  If
you are low on memory, using a small, tiled image or none at all is
recommended.</para> <para>Scaling or centering a small image still requires an
image the size of your display to be maintained in memory.</para></tip>
<para>You may also select <guilabel>Multiple</guilabel> which causes a
sequence of backgrounds to be displayed.  The sequence can be either random, or
in a specific order.</para> <para>You select this, by placing a mark in the
checkbox labeled <guilabel>Multiple</guilabel>.  You then click
<guilabel>Setup</guilabel>. For more on this, read the section entitled <link
linkend="bkground-seq">Sequential Backgrounds</link>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>The third tab, <guilabel>Advanced</guilabel>, contains the options to make
a smooth transition (blend) from the wallpaper as it changes to the
background.</para> 

<para>The blending area consists of three elements:</para>

<orderedlist>
<listitem><para>A drop-down box, which allows you to select the blending mode.
Many of the modes are similar to blending modes for background colors.  Select
your mode from the list, and the preview window shows you what it will look
like.</para></listitem> 
<listitem><para><guilabel>Balance</guilabel> slider.  This adjusts the
blending.  The results can be seen in the preview window.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Limit pixmap cache.  This check box, when selected, allows you
to determine how much maximum memory &kde; will use to store pixmap info.  The
default is usually the best choice.</para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
 
<para>Clicking <guibutton>Apply</guibutton>, changes the actual desktop
backgrounds and makes the change permanent.</para>

<sect2 id="bkgnd-patterns">
<title>Adding, Removing and Modifying Patterns</title>

<para>A pattern, is a picture file, which &kde; uses as a template to draw your
background.  The picture file provides the shapes, but &kde; provides the colors.
&kde; 2.0 is packaged with several patterns, but you can add new
patterns.</para>


<para>You use a pattern by first selecting <guilabel>Pattern</guilabel>, from the
<guilabel>Mode</guilabel> drop down box in the <guilabel>Background</guilabel>
section.</para>

<para>Then you click <guibutton>Setup</guibutton>.</para>

<para>This opens a dialog box.  The dialog box consists of a list of all current
patterns, and three buttons: <guibutton>Add</guibutton>,
<guibutton>Remove</guibutton>, and <guibutton>Modify</guibutton>.</para>

<para>In front of some of the pattern names, is a small globe.  This signifies
that this is a system wide (or global) pattern, and is available to everyone.
Those patterns without a picture, are user patterns, and not available to other
users.</para>

<para>To use a pattern that is already on the list, simply click once on the
pattern, then click on <guibutton>OK</guibutton>.</para>
<para><emphasis>Adding a pattern to the list</emphasis></para>
<para>If you click on the <guibutton>Add</guibutton> button, yet another
dialog box appears, with three blanks:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>A text entry line labeled <guilabel>Name</guilabel>.  This will
be the descriptive name of the newly created pattern.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>A text entry line labeled <guilabel>Comment</guilabel>.  This
is a descriptive comment.  It is also a good place to enter the artist, date of
creation, etc.</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>A text entry line labeled <guilabel>Image</guilabel>, and a
<guibutton>Browse</guibutton> button next to it.  Either by entering the
filename directly into the text entry line, or by browsing through the button
labeled <guilabel>Browse</guilabel>, you need to locate for KDE an image file
to use in the pattern.  These image files are usually JPEG files.</para>
<para>Once you have selected a file, you can press <guibutton>OK</guibutton>
to create the new pattern based on the information you have edited, or click
<guibutton>Cancel</guibutton>, to stop without creating a new
pattern.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>You should now see your new pattern in the list.</para>

<para>To remove a pattern from the list, simply click on the name of the pattern
once, and click <guibutton>Remove</guibutton>.  &kde; will verify that you do
want to delete this pattern.  Simply Click <guibutton>Yes</guibutton>.  Clicking
<guibutton>No</guibutton> will not remove the pattern from the list.</para>

<tip><para>Deleting a pattern does not delete the image file associated with the
pattern.  </para></tip>

<note><para>If you did not create the pattern, you cannot remove the pattern
from the system.  Only the system administrator can remove global
patterns.</para></note>

<para>To modify a pattern, simply click on the pattern name and then click on
<guibutton>Modify</guibutton>.  You will now have a chance to change any
parameters of the pattern.  Click <guibutton>OK</guibutton> to save your
changes, or click <guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> to ignore your changes</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="bkgnd-programs">
<title>Using external programs to determine background</title>

<para>To use an external program to determine and change the background of &kde;,
simply select <guilabel>Background Program</guilabel>.  To configure this
option, then click <guibutton>Setup</guibutton>.</para> <para>This will bring up
a dialog box, which will let you add in one or more programs, determine their
options, set their refresh times, &etc;</para> 

<para>Using external programs to modify or change the background is beyond the
scope of this document.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="bkground-seq">
<title>Sequential and Random Backgrounds</title>

<para>&kde; can automatically change wallpapers on your system at a specified
time.  You give it the list of image files, and it can either change them in a
predetermined order, or randomly.</para>

<para>To have &kde; automatically change your wallpaper, first you must set the
layout of the wallpaper in the drop down box labeled <guilabel>Mode</guilabel>.
Then select the <guilabel>Multiple Wallpapers</guilabel> option.  The
<guibutton>Setup Multiple ...</guibutton> Button will become active.  Click it
once.</para>

<para>This will bring up a dialog box.</para>

<para>First, set the time between changes in the spin box labeled
<guilabel>Interval</guilabel>.  You can select from common values, or enter your
own.  The range of values is from once every 5 minutes to once every 240
minutes.</para>

<para>Now, use the drop down box labeled mode to determine if the backgrounds
should be chosen randomly, or displayed in the order listed below.</para>
<para>Once this is done, you can now create a list of backgrounds for &kde; to
choose from.  Use the <guibutton>Add</guibutton> and
<guibutton>Remove</guibutton> buttons to alter the list to your
satisfaction.</para>

<para>Click <guibutton>OK</guibutton> to accept your changes, or
<guibutton>Cancel</guibutton> to leave without making any changes
permanent.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="bkgnd-author">
<title>Section Author</title>

<para>Mike McBride <email>mpmcbride7@yahoo.com</email>, Mark Donohoe, Martin
Jones <email>mjones@kde.org</email>, Duncan H.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>
