The rekonq Handbook

# The rekonq Handbook

Andrea Diamantini `<adjam7@gmail.com>`

Rohan Garg `<rohan16garg@gmail.com>`

Jonathan Kolberg `<bulldog98@kubuntu-de.org>`

Part of this documentation was converted from the KDE UserBase Rekonq and Rekonq/FAQs pages.

Update to Rekonq 2.3.2 by the KDE Documentation Team.

Revision 2.3.2 (KDE SC 4.11) (2013-08-20)

Legal Notice

Chapter 1. Introduction
Introduction

# Chapter 1. Introduction

Based initially on qtwebkit (and currently on kdewebkit), rekonq is a lightweight browser designed to use the WebKit rendering engine in combination with various KDE technologies, allowing it to integrate seamlessly into the KDE desktop. The name is a throwback to the venerable khtml-based Konqueror which is currently the default KDE web browser.

rekonq has already replaced Konqueror as the default browser in Chakra and Kubuntu™, with more distributions expressing similar intent for their future releases.

### Important

Like all KDE applications, rekonq is highly configurable. This document describes how rekonq behaves with the normal, default settings.

A three button mouse can be useful when you are running rekonq or any other KDE application. If your mouse only has two buttons then you should be able to set your system up so that you can simulate a middle mouse button by pressing both buttons at the same time.

If you are used to having to double-click to perform an action, then take care, because in common with the rest of KDE, rekonq defaults to single-clicking.

## Starting rekonq

rekonq can be started in the following ways

- From the application launcher select Applications → Internet → rekonq

- Alt+F2 will open KRunner, type `rekonq` (lower case) and press Enter to start rekonq

Chapter 2. Interface
Interface

# Chapter 2. Interface

rekonq main toolbar

By default, the rekonq window uses only one toolbar. This main toolbar consists of four navigation buttons (Back, Forward, Reload/Stop), the URL bar and a menu button Tools. This minimalist approach to the main toolbar marks the most significant user-interface departure from the traditional multi-toolbar paradigm followed by most other browsers like Konqueror.

Further, the main toolbar offers only limited customization –. This helps keep the rekonq UI simple and puts the focus on the web page on display.

rekonq URL bar

rekonq introduces a vastly improved URL bar that offers access to search engines from the drop down completion list itself. The completion list is also populated by matching items from your history and bookmarks.

rekonq new tab page

When started, rekonq displays the New Tab page, much of which is taken by a set of preview thumbnails of favorite web pages. These thumbnails offer a speedy way for the user to access their most frequently used web pages. There is also a pane at the top of this page allows the user to switch to previews of recently closed tabs and lists of bookmarked web pages, download and browsing histories.

To get back to the New Tab page, open a new tab or click the Close Tab icon if only one tab is opened.

rekonq hidden UI elements

Further configuration options activate several other UI elements hidden by default. These include a toolbar for bookmarks, a panel (a panel, being a mini-window that can be resized, detached or re-docked in the main window) each for bookmarks and history and a web inspector panel (handy for web development).

Chapter 3. Features
Features

# Chapter 3. Features

Under its minimalist appearance, rekonq packs a full set of powerful features. Some of them are described below:

## KDE integration

rekonq is designed with the aim of being a KDE browser. And it shows this.

### Appearance

It obeys your themes, fonts, window decoration, menu highlighting, and many personalization options you set for your desktop.

### Applications

rekonq opens a PDF file in an Okular kpart

rekonq plays well with other applications in the KDE family. rekonq will always use your chosen default applications to handle file types. PDF files, for example will open in an embedded Okular kpart within rekonq itself. Media files will open in Dragon Player (or any other designated default application for that filetype).

rekonq shares bookmarks etc. with Konqueror

Bookmarks, web shortcuts (more on these later), cookies and authentication information are shared with Konqueror. You will see the same set of bookmarks from either application and you can log onto a website in Konqueror and carry on seamlessly if you decide to switch to rekonq. Your passwords are stored securely in KWallet and can be used from either Konqueror or rekonq.

Your downloads can be optionally handled by KGet. Feeds from websites can be saved to Akregator (or Google Reader).

rekonq + Akregator

rekonq + KGet

Services
Services

## Services

### KIO support

rekonq browsing an FTP share

rekonq supports KIO services, including cookies, cache, proxies and network settings. KIO-slaves like file:/, ftp:/, man:/, help:/, info:/ etc. will work in rekonq, too.

### Dialogs

In addition to all this, rekonq uses KDE's own file dialog for opening/saving documents. This means, you have access to the Places navigation panel from Dolphin while you open or save documents.

Thus, rekonq looks, feels and behaves like a part of your KDE desktop.

Chapter 4. Webkit engine
Webkit engine

# Chapter 4. Webkit engine

rekonq uses the open source WebKit rendering engine which incidentally began life as a branch of the khtml/kjs libraries from the KDE project. WebKit is fast, powerful and used by many other popular browsers today including Google®'s Chrome®, Apple®'s Safari® and others.

Chapter 5. Auto-load/click-to-load plugins
Auto-load/click-to-load plugins

# Chapter 5. Auto-load/click-to-load plugins

rekonq demonstrating the click-to-load-plugins feature on youtube.com

One of the benefits of using the WebKit engine, is that plugins can be disabled from automatically loading. This comes in handy to surf websites fast, without being bogged down by flash plugins. In the so-called Click-to-load mode, you will instead see a button that you can click on to activate the plugin.

Chapter 6. Adblock support
Adblock support

# Chapter 6. Adblock support

rekonq blocking images on kde-apps.org

rekonq comes with an automatic subscription to the Easylist filter, which is updated every week. Additionally, you can set up manual filters to block loading of elements from web pages that match your criteria. You can even download and import additional published filterlists or export your list for backup.

For detailed information please read AdBlocK Filters.

Chapter 7. Web shortcuts support
Web shortcuts support

# Chapter 7. Web shortcuts support

rekonq allows you to pick from an extensive list of web shortcuts – these are keywords that allow you to search the web quickly. For instance, entering `gg:KDE` in the location bar will search Google for “KDE”, while `wp:KDE` will search Wikipedia for “KDE”. There are dozens of these defined by default. You can edit these or even define custom shortcuts to search on your favorite websites.

For detailed information please read Web Shortcuts.

Chapter 8. Privacy and security features
Privacy and security features

# Chapter 8. Privacy and security features

rekonq in private browsing mode

rekonq allows users to browse the web without retaining information about the visited pages in your history. Note that this feature does not necessarily make you anonymous on the Internet – it only prevents fresh information from being recorded on your computer. You can also delete your history, cookies and other private data anytime straight from the configuration menu button.

rekonq URL bar showing the SSL info icon

When viewing web pages over a secure connection, you can also view SSL information straight from the URL bar by clicking on the yellow lock icon.

Chapter 9. Advanced tab handling
Advanced tab handling

# Chapter 9. Advanced tab handling

rekonq showing a preview of a tab on hover

rekonq allows you to rearrange your tabs on the fly. Just drag a tab to the left or to the right and the other tabs will move out of your way. You can also hover over a tab to see a live preview of the web page being displayed there.

A context menu (right-click menu) gives access to more tab-related functions such as the ability to detach, clone, reload the tab.

Chapter 10. Session restore feature
Session restore feature

# Chapter 10. Session restore feature

If rekonq crashes, it will automatically attempt to restore your session, complete with all the tabs the next time you start it. If for some reason, the browser continues to crash upon restoring the session, rekonq will automatically start with a fresh session the second time.

Chapter 11. Full screen mode
Full screen mode

# Chapter 11. Full screen mode

rekonq supports full-screening the web page straight from the configuration menu button or through a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+F, by default). In the full screen view, the main toolbar will auto-hide and the web page will be displayed over your entire screen.

Chapter 12. Detailed rekonq configuration
Detailed rekonq configuration

# Chapter 12. Detailed rekonq configuration

## General settings of rekonq

You want to configure the general behavior of rekonq? You found the right place to get it explained.

To open the general settings click on the Tools icon and select Configure rekonq.

Here a List of configurable points and explanation for it:

When starting rekonq:

  You can configure what rekonq should do on startup.

Home page URL:

  You can either set your home page directly through tipping the URL in.

Use the New Tab Page as home page

  Enabling this option makes an empty new page the default home page of rekonq.

Set to Current Page

  Sets your home page to the one you are visiting at the moment.

Use KGet for downloading files

  This activates the KGet download integration. If this is active rekonq will download everything through KGet

List links with KGet

  If enabled, rekonq will display an additional context menu entry, which, when selected, lists all available links of the current website in KGet.

Configure the Tabs settings
Configure the Tabs settings

## Configure the Tabs settings

Here you learn how to change the settings for tabs.

To come to the dialog click on the Tools icon and open Configure rekonq → Tabs

Here a list of configurable points and explanation for it:

New tab opens

  Here you can choose the default behavior of rekonq when you open the new tab.

New Tab Page starts with

  Here you can choose the default contents for the new tabs.

When hovering a tab show

  Here you can choose to show a preview, the title, the URL or nothing.

Open as new window when URL is called externally

  This prevents rekonq to open links from external applications in an already running instance in another virtual desktop or activity, but opens them in the actual virtual desktop or activity in new windows instead.

Closing last tab closes window

  This forces rekonq to quit, when you close the last tab. If disabled, the view will switch to the New Tab content.

Activate previously used tab when closing the current one

  This makes rekonq storing your last opened tab and if you close your current one it will reopen the old one. This also can be useful if you use many tabs.

Open new tabs next to current tab

  This makes it to default that tabs are opened next to the currently active one when you open a link on a page from the context menu in a new tab.

Open new tabs in the foreground

  This makes rekonq switching to new tabs when you open a link on a page from the context menu in a new tab.

The last two options do not apply for new tabs opened from the tab context menu or using the New Tab icon.

Configure the Appearance settings
Configure the Appearance settings

## Configure the Appearance settings

Following will explain the configurable things and what they do on the Fonts pane.

Standard font

  Here you can set your default font. The first part is the name of the font followed by the size of the font.

Fixed font

  Here you can set your font for rekonq labels. The same synopsis like Standard font.

Serif font

  Here you can set your font for Serif labels. The same synopsis like Standard font.

Sans Serif font

  Here you can set your font for Sans Serif labels. The same synopsis like Standard font.

Cursive font

  Here you can set your font for Cursive labels. The same synopsis like Standard font.

Fantasy font

  Here you can set your font for Fantasy labels. The same synopsis like Standard font.

Default font size:

  To configure your preferred size of font.

Minimal font size:

  You can configure the minimal size of fonts in rekonq. Every smaller font will grow to that size.

On the Character Encoding pane:

Default character encoding:

  Here you can explicitly set the encoding for the pages without prescribed encoding. Use the common encoding of your native language.

On the Custom Style Sheet pane:

Path to custom CSS file:

  Here you can set the path to your CSS file used to format web pages.

Configure the WebKit settings
Configure the WebKit settings

## Configure the WebKit settings

Privacy configuration
Privacy configuration

## Privacy configuration

As you can see using this page you can control Javascript, tracking, history, passwords, cookies, and cache settings of rekonq.

Advanced configuration
Advanced configuration

## Advanced configuration

Using Proxy pane you can access the system wide proxy server settings. Just press Change them to open the corresponding System Settings module.

On the Misc pane you can configure various aspects controlling the browser.

Enable smooth scrolling

  If you enable this option rekonq will use smooth scrolling. Uncheck this option if the scrolling becomes choppy.

Chapter 13. rekonq FAQs, Tips and Tricks
rekonq FAQs, Tips and Tricks

# Chapter 13. rekonq FAQs, Tips and Tricks

## How do I set rekonq as my default browser?

Head to System Settings → Default Applications. Here, click on Web Browser to set your default browser. Select to open http and https URLs in the following browser and enter `rekonq %u` as the browser. Click Apply.

Setting rekonq as the default web browser

How do I load flash on demand?
How do I load flash on demand?

## How do I load flash on demand?

Click on the Tools menu button, and open the Configure rekonq dialog. Click on WebKit and under Plugin settings, select to Manually Load Plugins. Click OK.

Setting rekonq to not automatically load plugins

How do I enable Adblock?
How do I enable Adblock?

## How do I enable Adblock?

Adblocking should already be enabled for you using the Easylist adblock subscription. You can further configure it by clicking on the configuration menu button and choosing Tools → Ad Block to open Ad Block Settings dialog. Click on Manual Filters. Here, you can add custom filters using wildcard strings (e.g. http://www.site.com/ads/*) or regular expressions within forward slashes (e.g. `//(ads|dclk)\./`).

Clicking OK activates your adblock filters instantly.

rekonq AdBlocK (automatic) configuration

rekonq AdBlocK (manual) configuration

I have more questions!
I have more questions!

## I have more questions!

KDE Forums is always a good place to ask user-specific questions.

The rekonq website has release announcements for the latest stable and unstable releases along with more helpful links. You can also contact the developers on the #rekonq IRC channel or the mailing list with more questions.

Chapter 14. Credits and License
Credits and License

# Chapter 14. Credits and License

rekonq

Program copyright:

This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Developers

- rekonq Team `(rekonq AT kde.org)`

Documentation copyright 2008 Andrea Diamantini `(adjam7 AT gmail.com)`

Documentation copyright 2009-2010 Rohan Garg `(rohan16garg AT gmail.com)`

Documentation copyright 2010 Jonathan Kolberg `(bulldog98 AT kubuntu-de.org)`

List of the UserBase contributors can be found on Rekonq and Rekonq/FAQs page history.

This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Appendix A. Installation
Installation

# Appendix A. Installation

## How to obtain rekonq

Stable Packages of rekonq can be downloaded via standard repositories of your distribution

You also can compile rekonq yourself see Compilation and Installation for that.

Requirements
Requirements

## Requirements

In order to successfully use rekonq, you need at least Qt™ 4.8.x and KDE 4.8.4.

Compilation and Installation
Compilation and Installation

## Compilation and Installation

If you wish to compile rekonq, you have to install the headers of kdelibs and you need git and the build essentials installed.

Under Debian/Ubuntu™ you get those through running

`sudo apt-get `install` `build-essential kdelibs5-dev git-core``

Under OpenSuse you get those through running

`sudo zypper `in` `libkde4-devel git-core gcc gcc-c++ make cmake``

We will be using git, as the most recent code is available on the git repository. The KDE Projects web page for rekonq can be found here. Stable releases, can also be downloaded here in form of tarballs.

Now we need to checkout the latest code. To do so, in a terminal run:

`git `clone` `git://git.kde.org/rekonq``

To compile the code type in the following

`cd `directory_where_rekonq_source_code_is``

`mkdir `build``

`cd `build``

`cmake `-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=`kde4-config `--prefix``` `..``

`make`

`sudo make `install``