WINDOWS BASICS

Prof. Yitzchak Rosenthal 1

Mouse terminology

• Cursor: – Picture on screen that moves when you move the mouse. Used to point to items on the screen.

2 • Left Click: – click once on the left mouse button • Right Click – click once on the right mouse button • Click – (same as Left Click) • Double Click – click twice (quickly) on the left mouse button • Drag – click on the left mouse button (don't let go) while moving the mouse.

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Desktop terminology

desktop – the whole screen • • icon – a small picture taskbar – the bar on the bottom of the desktop • • • system tray – the rightmost area of the taskbar start menu – click on the word "start" on the leftmost area of the taskbar to access this menu. The "start menu" contains a list of the programs that are installed on the computer.

• • sub menu – a menu within a menu taskbar icon – an icon that is on the taskbar context sensitive menu – menu that pops up when you "right click" on an item. Different menus will pop up depending on where you right-click.

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Program terminology

• program • execute / run 4

Window terminology

• Window = the rectangle on the screen that contains the display of a running program 5 • Title bar = bar on top of a window. Contains the "name" of the window.

• Active window = the window that is currently “attached” to the keyboard. This window is on “top” of the other windows and has a dark blue title bar.

opening/closing/moving/resizing windows

6 • opening/closing/moving/resizing windows – close button – minimize button – maximize button = double click title bar – restore button = double click title bar – resize – drag window

Window terminology

• Portions of a window – menu – pane: portion of a window – separator bar: a line between two panes of a window, can usually drag the bar to resize the panes – scroll bar: 3 different ways to control: • click in empty area • drag "elevator" button • click on arrows on ends of scrollbar – toolbars • toolbar button • tool tip: move cursor over toolbar button and wait 1 second to see a short description of what the button does. Tip disappears after a couple of seconds.

• Many programs allow you to choose which tollbars are visible with the "view | toolbars" menu choice • drag a toolbar to "dock" it to a different location 7

Windows dialog boxes and controls

8 • dialog box: A small window that is launched by a program. Used to interact with the user.

• modal dialog box: A dialog box that will not let you work with the application unless you respond to it.

• Windows Controls: different types of controls – textbox – radio button – check box – dropdown list – select list – etc.

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Context Sensitive Menus

Right clicking

usually displays a

“context sensitive”

menu • This means that the menu choices will be

different

depending on where you clicked • Example – Right click on empty area of desktop to see one context sensitive menu.

– Right click on empty area of taskbar to see a different set of menu choices. 9

Multiple Document Interface (MDI)

10 • Multiple Document Interface (MDI) – Some programs allow you to open up several windows (child windows) inside the main window (parent window). You can minimize/maximize/close/resize each child window independently inside the parent window.

• The Parent window has the standard Minimize/Maximize/Restore butons • Each child window also has its own Minimize/Maximize/Restore buttons • Window menu has choices to – arrange the child windows or – to select a specific child window

Selecting Items

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Selecting

• Most programs allow you to select

items

by either

File selected in Windows Explorer (click on filename)

– clicking with the mouse on an item – or clicking and dragging the mouse around some items.

Text selected in Word (click and drag) • Selected items are often highlighted in blue (or other colors – see word example) Cells selected in Excel (click and drag) 12

Selecting Multiple Items at Once

• If you select multiple items you can work with them as a group. 13 • For example you select multiple files in Windows Explorer and then drag the entire group of files to a different folder.

• Two ways to select multiple files: – Shift + click : Selects a contiguous range of items – Ctrl + click : Selects multiple individual items – (Examples on next two slides)

Selecting With Shift-Click

• Shift + click – Selects a contiguous range of items • Step 1 – click on first item (don’t press shift) 14 • Step 2 – hold down shift and click on last item at same time.

Selecting With Ctrl-Click

• Ctrl + click – Selects multiple non-contiguous items.

• Step 1 – click on first item ( don’t press Ctrl) 15 • Step 2 – Click on every other item while at the same time pressing Ctrl.

Selecting with Ctrl-Click: Excel Example

16 • Select multiple non-contiguous ranges in Excel with Ctrl + click and drag – Step 1 • click on first cell in first range and drag (don’t press Ctrl) – Step 2 • While pressing Ctrl click and drag for every other range • Whatever you do now will be done to all the selected cells (e.g. change the color for all these cells)

Clipboard terminology

• Clipboard: – area in computer memory that stores information copied from a program • How to use the clipboard – Select information to copy to clipboard – Then do one of the following • copy: either choose "edit | copy" menu or press ctrl-c • cut : either choose "edit | cut" menu or press ctrl-x – Choose location where you want to put the information (in the same or in a different program) • paste: either choose "edit | paste" or press ctrl-v • paste special: choose "edit | paste special" - not in all programs – allows you to paste information from the clipboard in a different format 17

Common hot keys

• Hot Key – a "hot key" is a key sequence that you press on the keyboard to make windows or a program do something.

– This involves pressing either the "Alt", "Ctrl" or "Shift" key at the same time as pressing another key on the keyboard.

– Some hot key sequences involve pressing 3 keys at the same time.

18 • Common Hot Keys – alt-tab = switch windows (next) – shift-alt-tab = switch windows (previous) – ctrl-c = copy current selection to clipboard – ctrl-x = “cut” (or delete) current selection and put contents on clipboard – ctrl-v = paste clipboard contents into active program – ctrl-esc = show start menu – alt-(underlined letter in menu) = choose menu – PrtScr = copy a picture of the desktop to the clipboard – Ctrl-PrtScr = copy a picture of the active window to the clipboard