The Menubar

In the menu bar you find all the actions of KTurtle. There are in the following groups: File, Edit, View, Tools, Settings and Help. This section describes them all.

The File Menu

File->New (Ctrl-N)

Creates a new, empty Logo file.

File->Open... (Ctrl-O)

Opens a Logo file.

File->Open Recent

Opens a Logo file that has been opened recently.

File->Open Examples (Ctrl-E)

Show the folder with examples Logo programs. The examples should be in your favorite language that you can choose in Settings->Configure KTurtle....

File->Execute Commands (Alt-Return)

Starts the execution of the commands in the code editor.

File->Stop Execution (Escape)

Stops the execution. This action is only enabled when the commands are actually executing.

File->Save (Ctrl-S)

Saves the currently opened Logo file.

File->Save As...

Saves the currently opened Logo file on a specified location.

File->Save Canvas

Saves the current drawing on canvas into an image.

File->Print... (Ctrl-P)

Prints either the current code in the editor or the current drawing on the canvas.

File->Quit (Ctrl-Q)

Quits KTurtle.

The Edit Menu

Edit->Undo (Ctrl-Z)

Undoes the last change to code. KTurtle has unlimited undo's!

Edit->Redo (Ctrl-Shift-Z)

Redoes an undone change to the code.

Edit->Cut (Ctrl-X)

Cuts the selected text from the code editor to the clipboard.

Edit->Copy (Ctrl-C)

Copies the selected text from the code editor to the clipboard.

Edit->Paste (Ctrl-V)

Pastes the text from the clipboard to the editor.

Edit->Find... (Ctrl-F)

With this action you can find phrases in the code.

Edit->Find Next (F3)

Use this to find the next occurrence of the phrase.

Edit->Replace... (Ctrl-R)

With this action you can replace phrases in the code.

The View Menu

View->Full Screen Mode (Ctrl-Shift-F)

With this action you toggle the full screen mode.

Note: When code is executed while in full screen mode everything but the canvas is hidden. This makes it possible to write “full screen” programs in KTurtle.

View->Show Line Numbers (F11)

With this action you can show the line numbers in the code editor. This can be handy for finding errors.

The Tools Menu

Tools->Color Picker (Alt-C)

This action opens the color picker. Using the color picker you can easily select a color code and insert it in the code editor.

Tools->Indent (Ctrl-I)

This action “indents” (adds white space at the beginning of) the lines that are selected. When “indentation” is used properly this can make code much easier to read. All examples use indentation, please check them out.

Tools->Unindent (Ctrl-Shift-I)

This action “unindents” (removes the white space at the beginning of) the lines that are selected.

Tools->Clean Indentation

This action cleans “indentation” (removes all the white space at the beginning of) the lines that are selected.

Tools->Comment (Ctrl-D)

This action add comment characters (#) in from of the lines that are selected. Lines that start with a comment character are ignored when the code is executed. Comments allow the programmer to explain a bit about his code or they can be used to temporarily prevent a certain piece of code from execution.

Tools->Uncomment (Ctrl-Shift-D)

This action removes the comment characters from the selected lines.

The Settings Menu

Settings->Show/Hide Toolbar

Toggle the Main Toolbar

Settings->Show/Hide Statusbar

Toggle the Statusbar

Settings->Advanced Settings

Here you can change things you normally do not need to change. The Advanced Settings submenu has three items: Configure Editor... (the standard Kate editor settings dialog), Configure Shortcuts... (the standard KDE shortcut settings dialog) and Configure Toolbars... (the standard KDE toolbars setting dialog).

Settings->Configure KTurtle...

This is used to configure KTurtle. Here you can change the language of the Logo commands or set a new initial canvas size.

The Help Menu

Help->KTurtle Handbook

This action shows the handbook that you are currently reading.

Help->What's This? (Shift-F1)

After activating this action the mouse arrow will be changed into a “question mark arrow”. When this arrow is used to click on parts of KTurtle main window, a description of the particular part pops-up.

Help->Help on: ... (F1)

This is a very useful function: it provides help on the code where the cursor in the code editor is at. So, e.g., you have used the print command in your code, and you want to read and to know what the handbook says on this command. You just move your cursor so it is in the print command and you press F1. The handbook will then show all info on the print command.

This function is very important while learning programming.

Help->Report Bug...

Use this to report a problem with KTurtle to the developers. These reports can be used to make KTurtle future versions better.

Help->About KTurtle

Here you find information on KTurtle like the authors and the license it comes with.

Help->About KDE

Here you can find information on KDE. If you do not know yet what KDE is, this is a place you should not miss!