The K Desktop Environment

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3. Usage

3.1 Call by Command Line

When starting kpl from the command prompt, you can supply the names of one or more plot or data files (either local filenames or URLs):

kpl [filenames ...]
In case of activated setting Autoplot, the graphical presentation is displayed immediately.

When in addition Autofit is activated, in case of a data file also a parameter fit to a function is automatically performed and the function is displayed, too.

3.2 Start from KFM

kpl can be started to display a plot file by clicking its symbol in a KFM window or by selecting this action from its context menu.

3.3 Drag and Drop

kpl supports the Drag and Drop protocols of KDE and Qt . This means that you can open one or more plot or data files by dragging their symbols onto the kpl window. Data files will be recognized by the extension .dat, plot files by the extension .plo. In addition to local files also URLs may be passed in this way.

3.4 Keyboard Shortcuts

kpl supports the following shortcuts:

Ctrl + N          Open a new plot file.
Ctrl + O          Open an existing plot file.
Ctrl + S          Save the current plot file.
Ctrl + W          Close the current plot file.
Ctrl + P          Print the graphical presentation.
Ctrl + Q          Quit kpl.
F5                Reload the current file and refresh the plot.
F1                Display the kpl help pages.
Left              Scroll left.
Right             Scroll right.
Down              Scroll down.
Up                Scroll Up.
Page Up           Scroll page up.
Page Down         Scroll page down.
Ctrl + Page Up    Scroll page left.
Ctrl + Page Down  Scroll page right.
Home              Scroll to bottom margin.
End               Scroll to top margin.
Ctrl + Home       Scroll to left margin.
Ctrl + End        Scroll to right margin.
The shortcuts for the Reload action and the various Scroll actions may be changed in the dialog Configure Key Bindings displayed using the Options menu. All other shortcuts are standard keys for all KDE applications and may be changed in the KDE Control Center.

3.5 Tool Bar

New Plot File

Open a new plot file.

Open Plot File

Open an existing plot file.

Open Data File

Open an existing data file.

Save

Save the current plot file.

Print

Print the graphical presentation.

Zoom In

Increase magnification.

Zoom Out

Decrease magnification.

Reload

Reload the current file and refresh the plot.

Help

Display the kpl help pages.

3.6 Status Bar

The horizontal and vertical positions of the mouse pointer are displayed in cm on the right side of the status bar at the bottom of the kpl window, for positions inside the data frame in data units, too. On the left side the short help for the different actions appears.

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