Spruce Up KDE With All the Productivity Tools You’ll Ever Need

There’s no question computers make our lives easier, especially with all the productivity tools available today. If you use the KDE desktop, then you may already know that there are many wonderful productivity applications designed especially for KDE. Let’s take a look at how some of these apps can help you streamline your work and stay organized while you get things done.

by Lisa Hoover

Koffice This is a must-have suite of apps that comes bundled with KDE and has a little something for everyone. KWord covers all your word processing needs while KSpread and KPresenter help you create spreadsheets and slideshow presentations. Koffice also includes a host of other tools like Kchart for creating graphs and charts, Kugar to generate business reports, and Krita, an image manipulator similar to Photoshop.

Kontact If you need a way to manage your contacts and schedule, you can’t go wrong with Kontact. This personal information manager can manage individual and group calendars, address books, task lists, and even help you schedule meetings. Kontact supports several different groupware servers and is available in 25 languages. If you only need calendar and scheduling functionality, try KOrganizer.

KMail A strong email client is a necessity these days to cope with overflowing inboxes and unending streams of spam. Kontact’s email module, KMail, helps you manage POP3 and IMAP mail, with SMTP support. It features an integrated spellchecker, a search tool and strong filter abilities. Integration with Kontact allows you to share email folders with ease.

Akregator In the “old” days, we used to have to visit individual blogs and Web sites to check news or read new posts. The most efficient way to keep up with all your favorite Web sites now is with a feed reader. Kontact’s feed reader application, Akgregator, collects posts from RSS/Atom-enabled Web sites and displays them in a simple, easy to read format. It even notifies you when you have unread feeds.

KNotes Sometimes its the little things that make life easier. Bundled with Kontact, KNotes functions just like the paper version of sticky notes so you can leave reminders on your computer’s desktop, even when Kontact isn’t running. You can change the font and background color to easily categorize your notes, and even drag them into your calender to instantly create an event. For really important reminders, set KAlarm to display nagging pop-ups on your screen or play a sound to get your attention.

KMyMoney Whether you need to keep track of your personal or your business finances, KMyMoney has the tools you need to reconcile your bank accounts. It supports multiple types of accounts, allows fine-grained categorization of expenses and income, and easily exports / imports QIF files.

KTimeTracker To keep track of how much time you spend on your daily tasks, use KTime Tracker. Use it casually to make sure you’re managing your time as efficiently as possible, or use it while you work to keep track of billable hours. KTimeTracker will export your time history as a comma-delimited text file so it’s readable by billing and invoicing applications, and even associate tasks according to the desktop you’re using.