New task manager

[Duncan]

Dave Close posted on Sat, 23 Oct 2021 16:56:21 -0700 as excerpted:

> I just installed a new system and discovered I now have KDE 5.22.
> Generally, I approve of new and improved systems, but I have some
> questions and the web has not helped me find answers.
> 
> 1. How do I disable the "icons-only task manager" and enable one with
> more useful visible information? (I *hate* icons.)

Caveats:  I'm running live-git versions of pretty much all kde-frameworks/
plasma/gear (tho I haven't updated in a few days) and plasmashell is 
currently reporting version 5.23.80, so if anything is further changed 
since 5.22...  Additionally, I'm running on wayland and am affected by an 
already-reported bug whereby any of the taskmanagers fail to actually see 
any windows so all I get is the launchers.  Given that, I don't usually 
have any of the task manager plasmoids running and am not /entirely/ 
familiar with their current behavior.  None-the-less, after a quick test 
I can answer at least this one, not entirely sure on #2.


If the task manager (icons-only or not) is on a panel, configure-clicking 
(normally, right-clicking) on it, *provided* you can click it without 
clicking a pinned item (or presumably a window) altho that may require a 
bit of patience and/or expanding the panel and/or closing/unpinning 
enough stuff to have some empty space to click, should present a menu 
with a "Show Alternatives" entry.  Clicking that should show you the 
alternatives (three here, the normal and icons-only task managers and the 
window list).

If that's too much trouble (clicking exactly the right spot might be 
difficult, it was here tho I was able to do so after unpinning one of the 
four default applets), you can simply remove the existing task manager 
and (if desired) add the one you want, using the normal panel 
configuration and add widget items.

If the task manager (whichever one) is on the desktop/activity, the 
alternatives option doesn't seem to appear, or at least it didn't here.  
In that case you pretty much /have/ to use the remove-unwanted/add-
desired method.  Note that you'll need to be in edit mode.

Of course there's also the manual method of editing the (text-based, 
pretty much all kde/plasma configuration is text-based) configuration 
files directly.  I do some of my reconfiguration that way, but I'd have 
to do more testing to describe that in detail and most people that would 
be comfortable doing it can already figure it out, so I'll skip 
describing that unless you request it specifically.

> 2. How do I unlock the widgets on the new task manager? The tool list no
> longer seems to include that function and I don't find it elsewhere.
> I am able to add new widgets but I can't modify the properties of those
> already added.

As I said in the caveats I'm not entirely sure on this one -- here, the 
only way I could find to change the properties of a pinned item was to 
unpin it and start over with a re-add (which you mentioned did work), tho 
it's possible that's a bug.  But it seems to be affecting both you on 
5.22 and me on live-git-reporting-5.23.80, so...

Again, of course the manual text-editor method should work here too, if 
you prefer it.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman