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 Create A Web Page "Shortcut" On Your Linux KDE 3 Desktop

In Windows, and when using Gnome under Linux, you can create a shortcut to a web page simply by dragging the URL from Firefox to your desktop. However I have noticed that, despite what it says in the help text, when using Firefox from within either Kubuntu 6.10 (Edgy) or SuSE 10.0, dragging an icon from the location bar to the desktop (even when holding combinations of the Shift, Ctrl and Alt keys) just creates a text document rather than a link. To create the link you really want, these are the steps. (If you want to create icons for applications on your desktop, see this article. If you want to create desktop "system" icons such as ""My Computer", "Trash" and "Printers" see this article.)

Create a link to a web page on your KDE desktop
from the Firefox browser
  1. Once you have the page displayed in Firefox, you will see a tiny icon to the left of the web address in the location bar. 
  2. Click that icon once to select the entire web address. 
  3. Move your mouse to the right, slightly, until the cursor is over the URL's text. 
  4. Right-click anywhere on the selected text and select Copy. 
  5. Minimize the Firefox window.
  6. Now find a blank spot on your desktop and right-click. 
  7. From the menu, select Create New, Link to Location (URL).
  8. Right-click in the field labeled "Enter link to location (URL)" and select Paste. 
  9. Finally, give your link a name in the "File name" field and click OK to create the link.
If you are using Konqueror as your browser, or if you are using Gnome rather than KDE, creating desktop URL links is handled much more like it is in Windows. For example, here are the steps for Konqueror.

Create a link to a web page on your KDE desktop
from the Konqueror browser
  1. In Konqueror's location bar (where you entered the web address) you will see a tiny icon to the left of the web address. 
  2. Drag that icon to your desktop and KDE will ask you whether you want to copy the page or create a link to the page. 
  3. Select Link Here to create the link. 
(If you hold the Shift and Ctrl keys while you drag, KDE just creates the link without asking.)

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Updated 23-Oct-2007

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