<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//KDE//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Variant V1.1//EN"
 "dtd/kdex.dtd" [
  <!ENTITY PIM "<acronym>PIM</acronym>">
  <!ENTITY kappname "&kontact;">
  <!ENTITY package "kdepim">
  <!ENTITY % addindex "IGNORE">
  <!ENTITY % English "INCLUDE">
]>

<book id="kontact" lang="&language;">

<bookinfo>

<title>The &kontact; Handbook</title>

<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Cornelius</firstname>
<surname>Schumacher</surname>
<affiliation><address><email>schumacher@kde.org</email></address></affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>

<copyright>
<year>2003</year><holder>Cornelius Schumacher</holder>
</copyright>

<legalnotice>&FDLNotice;</legalnotice>

<date>2003-11-11</date>
<releaseinfo>0.08.00</releaseinfo>

<abstract><para>&kontact; is the integrated solution to your personal
information management (&PIM;) needs. It combines well-known &kde;
applications like &kmail;, &korganizer; and &kaddressbook; into a
single interface to provide easy access to mail, scheduling,
address book and other &PIM; functionality.  </para></abstract>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>kdepim</keyword>
<keyword>KMail</keyword>
<keyword>KOrganizer</keyword>
<keyword>KAddressBook</keyword>
<keyword>KNotes</keyword>
<keyword>PIM</keyword>
<keyword>groupware</keyword>
<keyword>Outlook</keyword>
<keyword>Evolution</keyword>
</keywordset>

</bookinfo>


<chapter id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>&kontact; is the integrated solution for personal information
management.  It combines the well-known &kde; applications for email,
scheduling, address book, notes and newsgroups (&kmail;, &korganizer;,
&kaddressbook;, &knotes; and &knode;) into a single interface. Being
based on a true component framework &kontact; provides exactly the
same functionality as the stand-alone applications, and adds more
features, by making use of the integrated way &kontact; runs the
applications as components. Users still retain the choice of which
applications are run within &kontact; and which are run
stand-alone.</para>

<para>In addition to the functionality of the individual applications &kontact;
provides, a summary view and advanced drag &amp; drop features between components.
</para>

</chapter>


<chapter id="components">
<title>&kontact; Components</title>
<para>
&kontact; integrates the following applications. See their manuals for details on
how to use them. These apply to running them as components inside &kontact; just
as well as running them stand-alone.
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
  <para><ulink url="help:kmail">&kmail;</ulink>, the &kde; mail client.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
  <para><ulink url="help:korganizer">&korganizer;</ulink>, the &kde; organizer and
  scheduling application.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
  <para><ulink url="help:kaddressbook">&kaddressbook;</ulink>, the &kde; contact
  manager.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
  <para><ulink url="help:knotes">&knotes;</ulink>, yellow sticky notes.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
  <para><ulink url="help:knode">&knode;</ulink>, the &kde; news reader.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</chapter>

<chapter id="main-window">
<title>The &kontact; Main Window</title>

<para>The main window consists of a side pane on the left showing the icons of
the available components, the main view on the right which contains the main
window of the active component and the usual menu, tool and status bars.</para>

<sect1 id="side-pane">
<title>Side Pane</title>

<para>The side pane serves multiple purposes. It allows for switching between
components, shows which component is active and serves as the target for
drag &amp; drop operations to the different applications.</para>

<para>For switching between components simply click on the corresponding icon.
The main window of the component is shown and the menu, tool and status bars are
adapted to reflect the functionality of the active component. If you activate a
component for the first time there might be a small delay until the main view
is changed, because components are loaded on demand. This means you don't waste
memory for components you don't use.</para>

<para>The icons in the side pane can also be used as targets for drag &amp; drop
operations. For example, you can drag a mail from the mail part and
drop it on the icon of the todo list or the calendar to create a todo
or event associated with this mail.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="main-view">
<title>Main View</title>

<para>The view on the right which takes up most of the area of the &kontact;
main window shows the active component. This exactly corresponds to the main
window the component uses when run as a stand-alone application. The highlighted
icon in the side pane indicates to which application the main view belongs.
&kontact; remembers which component was active, so when starting &kontact; the
view initially shows which one was activated when exiting &kontact; the last
time.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1 id="bars">
<title>Menu, Tool and Status Bars</title>

<para>The menu, tool and status bars are adapted to the active component. That
means that, in addition to some common functions like the help menu which are
shown for all components, there are actions which are switched when the active
component is switched. These actions available for each component are the same
ones which are also available when running the application stand-alone.</para>

<para>A special action common to all components is the
<guimenuitem>New</guimenuitem> action. It allows creation of new objects
like emails, contacts, appointments and todos independently of which
component is active. The component responsible for processing the
selected object is started, if required, and takes over the created
object.</para>

</sect1>

</chapter>

<chapter id="summary-view">
<title>The Summary View</title>

<para>The default view when starting &kontact; for the first time is the summary
view. It shows an overview of the most relevant information provided by the
selected &kontact; components. These can be newsticker headlines, imminent
appointments or birthdays, due todos, weather data, etc. Which information is
shown is configurable by selecting the corresponding components in the <link
linkend="configuration">&kontact; configuration dialog</link>.</para>

</chapter>


<chapter id="configuration">
<title>Configuring &kontact;</title>

<para>When selecting the <guimenuitem>Configure Kontact</guimenuitem>
action from the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu> menu the &kontact;
configuration dialog is shown. It provides a list of available
components. Select an item from this list to show a brief description
on the right hand side of the dialog.</para>

<para>By checking the box next to the component title you select the
component to be put into the side bar and the summary view. The
component is loaded and its main view is shown in the main window when
clicking on its icon in the side pane for the first time. By
unchecking the check box the component is removed from the side pane and
summary view. Changes become effective by clicking the
<guibutton>Apply</guibutton> or <guibutton>Ok</guibutton>
button.</para>

<para>For configuring individual components, activate the component by
clicking on the corresponding icon in the side pane of the main window
and then select the menu item <guimenuitem>Configure &lt;application
name&gt;</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Settings</guimenu>
menu.</para>

</chapter>


<chapter id="technology">
<title>Under The Hood</title>

<para>&kontact; makes extensive use of several &kde; key technologies, most
notably KParts and &DCOP;.</para>

<para>The &GUI; integration of the components is done by plugins
providing KParts versions of the applications. This only needs a thin
additional layer on top of the already existing code of the
stand-alone applications running with an own main window.</para>

<para>For communication between the components &DCOP; is used. This
has the nice characteristic that it is completely transparent to
whether the application is run stand-alone or embedded as KPart into
&kontact;. When running inside of &kontact; an efficient in-process
mode of &DCOP; is used.</para>

</chapter>


<chapter id="credits">
<title>Credits and License</title>

<para>&kontact;</para>

<para>Program copyright 2003, The &kde; Developers</para>

<para>Contributors:</para>

<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Cornelius Schumacher <email>schumacher@kde.org</email></para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Daniel Molkentin <email>molkentin@kde.org</email></para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Don Sanders <email>sanders@kde.org</email></para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Tobias K&ouml;nig <email>tokoe@kde.org</email></para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>Matthis H&ouml;lzer-Kl&uuml;pfel <email>mhk@kde.org</email>, the
original author of the &kontact; framework.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem><para>All the valued developers of the applications &kontact; is
integrating. They did almost all the work.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>Documentation copyright 2003 Cornelius Schumacher 
<email>schumacher@kde.org</email></para>

<!-- TRANS:CREDIT_FOR_TRANSLATORS -->

<para>&kontact; homepage is at <ulink
url="http://kontact.kde.org">http://kontact.kde.org</ulink></para>




&underFDL;
&underGPL;

</chapter>


&documentation.index;
</book>
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