Kontact

Kontact is a personal information manager and e- mail and groupware client. Developed is the cross-platform application for KDE.

A user of Kontact can either start an integrated graphical user interface, which contains all functions for email, contacts, appointments, notes, tasks, etc.; or individual applications. They all rely on the same settings and data. Kontact is a reference client of the Kolab groupware and in particular offers secure end-to - end encryption and offline.

Kontact provides a modular connection of the programs, which also in the future be developed and include additional modules without changing Kontact for it. This offers the possibility to integrate modules privately developed and adapted to the groupware fundamentally own needs.

Components

Contact arose from the consideration that there was no groupware client in the KDE environment until then. However, as already available were many individual programs together provide all the necessary functions for a groupware client, it was decided to bundle in a program. It was but down from the start value that is still the opportunity to start all programs individually. So Kontact, which was first included in KDE 3.2 was born. In the component- independent initial view unread emails, current events are displayed, for example.

Kontact functions depend above all on the features of the programs that can be integrated there:

• KMail as mail client
• KAddressbook as address management
• KOrganizer as date and Todolistenverwalter
• KNotes to Wish list management
• Akregator as news aggregators
• KitchenSync for synchronization of contacts and Others ( used OpenSync )
• KNode as Newsreader ( Usenet)
• KNewsTicker in a news ticker
• KWeather for Weather Display

Kontact making it easier to work, as not more than one program must be started individually, to read e -mails, manage addresses and schedule appointments.

KAddressbook

KAddressbook is the address management GUI KDE.

In addition to names, addresses and telephone numbers and pictures, birthdays and anniversaries, information about instant messaging addresses or special cryptographic information for the exchange of encrypted messages can be stored in KAddressbook. An import and export of information in many different file formats is also possible.

A team of developers has also written a version that runs on another system ( such as Windows).

KMail

KMail has a number of features that are not found in other programs of the same type. So KMail e- mails can store both in mbox format as well as in Maildir format and be adapted to special needs. Likewise, KMail can set up different virus scanners and spam filters using a designed to ease of use graphical wizard that automatically detects the corresponding available scanners and filters. The identification of unwanted or e-mails infected leaves KMail case completely integrated programs. In this way it is also possible to equip KMail with a phishing protection, if it is supported by a virus scanner, as is the case for example with ClamAV.

Another difference is the security features. KMail can extend the capabilities of cryptographic encryption modules. In addition to the standard modules for MIME and OpenPGP support any other modules can be loaded to extend the capabilities of KMail. Also the display of HTML - formatted e -mails or the downloading of data from the Internet through e-mails can be permitted only under certain conditions.

Other features are:

• Support for POP3, SMTP, local Mail Transfer Agent and ( Disconnected ) IMAP and local mailboxes
• Importing emails from Outlook Express, Pegasus Mail, Netscape Mail etc.
• Import address books from Outlook, Pegasus Mail, Eudora and Netscape LDIF ( LDAP format )
• Variety of filter options
• Display the signature status by color ( eg, red - invalid or unknown signature)
• Integration of the KDE address book
• Support for mailing lists ( among others display the messages in thread )
• ( select text, press Reply only highlighted text is copied to answer) intelligent Quoting
• Search in the mails by various criteria, display the results in virtual folders
• Display the MIME structure of an e -mail
• Support for multiple identities ( sender and receiver)

KMail got together in 2004 with mutt by Linux New Media AG, the Linux New Media Award in the category "Best mail client ."

KNode

KNode is a news reader that was developed for the KDE desktop environment. It was developed with the goal of enabling even novice users access to the Usenet. The focus, therefore, are an easy and intuitive operation and a solid functionality.

KNotes

KNotes is a program for the KDE desktop to replace the yellow sticky note, which are often arranged around the screen. For this, it creates virtual colored sticky note directly on the desktop, which can be equipped with any information.

The notes are saved automatically when you exit the program loaded and displayed again when you restart. Use freely adjustable colors and fonts. Both the default settings as well as settings for individual notes can be changed.

If the settings are made, the notes can also be printed or sent via e -mail.

Akregator

Akregator is a feed reader that can view and manage RSS and Atom feeds. The display is done either through a simplified representation of text or an embedded KHTML component. Calling an external web browser to display an item is also easy.

The user can set different retention periods for individual feeds and mark individual entries as important. The Articles marked entries are not deleted automatically after expiry of the required retention period.

KOrganizer

KOrganizer is the calendar and scheduling tool in Kontact. You can create multiple calendars and resources displayed alongside. The resources need not all be stored locally, but can also be integrated from external computers. There is also the ability to display birthdays from the KAddressbook.

History

The first release of KMail ( version 0.5.7 ) -actuated Stefan Taferner early 1998. KMail was modified by Don Sanders to become integrated as a component under the joint surface of Kontact in KDE - PIM suite, on 3 February 2004 was released as part of KDE 3.2.