Transcript Elementary Windows XP Topics covered in Chapter-3: • The Basic Elements of Windows XP – Desktop – Icons – Shortcuts – Taskbar – Start Button – Start Menu •

Elementary Windows XP
Topics covered in Chapter-3:
• The Basic Elements of Windows XP
– Desktop
– Icons
– Shortcuts
– Taskbar
– Start Button
– Start Menu
• Using a Mouse
• The Windows Keyboard
• Keyboard Shortcut Keys
• Cutting and Pasting
• Running Simple Programs
– WordPad
– Paint
– The Windows Media Player
– Pinball
Windows XP Terminology
Windows XP uses the following terms to name or describe
its basic components:
• Windows - rectangular portions of the desktop or screen that
appear as separate “boxes” or panes
• Desktop - an area of the screen where windows, icons and
other elements are opened and manipulated
• Icons - a small graphical representation of a program, a file
or other object
• Shortcut (or aliases) – a reference to an object so you can
access it from another part of the GUI.
• Menus - a window element that allow you to choose from a
“listing” of choices
• Toolbars - a graphical version of a menu
• Pointer - the symbol representing the mouse’s business end
• Pointing device - a mouse, trackball or touchpad
Many of these same objects can be found on UNIX,
LINUX, Macintosh and other GUI based Systems.
Standard desktop icons
(shortcuts)
Window Title bar
Menu
Toolbars
Start button
Taskbar
Desktop
•
•
•
Desktop = GUI metaphor to define the workplace.
It is an on screen work area on which windows,
icons, menus and dialog boxes, and other objects
appear.
Can be configured in many ways to suit needs and
tastes.
ICONS
Standard Desktop Icons
• They are small pictures or images that
represent a program file, a data file or some
command to perform a complex action.
• It makes easy to initiate actions, open
programs and files and manipulate objects.
Shortcuts
• It is a quick and convenient way to run a
frequently used programs or open a data file or
folder without having to use the Start Menu or
My Computer.
• It is nothing but a link to the actual program or
file or folder.
• All data files that are opened by using a shortcut
must have a file association.
• It can also reference hardware devices such as
printers and storage devices.
Taskbar
• Acts as a container for other objects.
• Provides a place to access programs that are opened.
• To restore a program that has been minimized to a fully functional
window by clicking its button on the taskbar.
• Other features (Detailed discussion in later chapters):
– The Start Button – gateway to the start menu
– The Notification area – provides a place for notice of important
programs that are running (System Utilities) and the system
clock.
• New features of XP taskbar:
– Group buttons of common programs.
– Hides icon in the notification area after short period of time, or
if they have not been accessed recently.
Open Program buttons
Notification Area
Start Button
• The Start Button opens the Start Menu.
• Start Button also has a shortcut menu that can be accessed
by right clicking on it.
• This menu provides important features of windows such as
windows explorer, taskbar and start menu properties, the
search tool, and the ability to open the start menu as a folder.
XP Start Menu
Current user
Pinned List
Most Frequently
Used Programs List
Click here for
the Programs
menu
Turn off or log
off the computer
Basic division of Start Menu:
• Current User
• Pinned items list
• The most frequently used
program list
• Standard items on the right
• All programs and log off /
turn off buttons
The Classic style Start Menu
Click here for the Programs menu
Turn off or log off the computer…the current
user is also shown here.
The Start Menu viewed as a folder in Windows Explorer
Shortcuts (or menu items) on the Start Menu
The Start Menu folder
The Start Menu is actually a subfolder stored within the Documents and Settings
folder (see above figure). To view the start menu as a folder, you can also select
the Open option from the start button’s shortcut menu.
Before we start, a few Mouse Pointers…
Because Windows XP is a GUI the preferred method of navigating the
system
is by way of a mouse. There are shortcut keys that can be used, but using a
mouse is faster and easier for most people.
Parts of a typical mouse:
• Right button
• Left button
• Scroll wheel
Mouse terms:
• Right Click - clicking the right mouse button once
• Left Click - clicking the left mouse button once
• Double-click - clicking a button twice in rapid succession
• Dragging - holding a button down over an object while moving the
mouse
• Dropping - letting the mouse button up after a drag
The Windows Keyboard
• Windows PCs use two basic types of keyboards that are
classified by the number of keys they have:
– 101-key Enhanced keyboard
– 104-key Windows keyboard
• The windows keyboard has some extra keys that
address windows specific functions such as opening the
start menu or opening the shortcut menu.
• Many new style keyboards also include keys or buttons
for connecting to the internet, sending and receiving
emails, and adjusting the volume of the sound system –
separate software is needed to manage them.
Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts are key combinations that can
be substituted for mouse actions, and visa versa.
They are fairly universal throughout Windows.
Shortcuts can be found on most
Windows application menus as
shown on the Left. These are
some of the most widely used
shortcut keys. Ctrl+Z means, for
example, press the Ctrl key and
the letter Z key at the same time.
Case does not matter.
Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts
Key Sequence
Action
ESC
Cancel the current task.
CTRL+C
Copy selected text or object.
CTRL+X
Cut selected text or object.
CTRL+V
Paste from the clipboard.
CTRL+Z
Undo the last operation.
DELETE
Delete selected text or object.
SHIFT+DELETE
Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin
CTRL+A
Select all.
F1
Display Help.
F2
Rename selected item.
F3
Search for a file or folder.
F4
Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer.
F5
Refresh the active window.
ALT+F4
Close the active item, or quit the active program. If no programs are open this command
will Quit Windows XP.
CTRL+ESC
Display the Start menu.
SHIFT+F10
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item.
TAB
Move through the active controls (buttons, textboxes, etc.) on a window or dialog box.
ALT+
letter
Underlined
Carry out the corresponding command or select the corresponding option. This is
usually on a menu or command button.
Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts
Probably the best known Windows keyboard sequence is:
Ctrl+Alt+Del
This can be used under Windows 98 to attempt to
recover from a frozen or hung system. It may or may not
do anything at all, it will usually reboot the troubled PC as
the solution.
Windows XP uses the same sequence, however the
operating system is more stable and it actually works to
solve a problem or shutdown the offending software.
Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts
Entering Ctrl+Alt+Del will open the Windows XP Task
Manager window, which can be used to switch to, or end
any unresponsive application simply by selecting it from
a list (detailed discussion in the later chapters).
Task Manager
Cutting and Pasting
• The process of selecting either some text or
another object (such as a shortcut or an icon),
removing it from its current position and placing
it somewhere else is called “Cutting and
Pasting”.
• Copying an object or text is used to place a copy
of the selected item in another location while
leaving the original intact.
• Cutting/Copying and Pasting can be done using
both a mouse and the keyboard.
Cutting and Pasting
Step 1: To Select text (or an object):
• Select the text by clicking on it once with the left mouse button
• To select more than one Word of text:
• Select the text by clicking on the beginning of the text you want to
select with the left mouse button and dragging the cursor over the rest
of the text you want to use. You can do this process in either direction
and also span multiple lines or pages.
• To select more than one Object:
• Select the first object by clicking on it once with the left mouse button
then press and hold the Control key while you click the rest of the
objects you want to select.
• To select all the text or objects in the window:
– Place the mouse cursor in the window that contains the objects
and,
– From the Edit menu, click the Select All command Or,
• Press the Ctrl-A shortcut keys
Cutting and Pasting
Step 2: To Cut or Copy an object or text:
• Select the object(s) or text as noted in the previous steps
• Right click to display the pop-up menu
• Select either Cut or Copy from the menu
Step 3: To Paste the selected object:
• Place the mouse cursor at the desired location
• Right click to display the pop-up menu
• Select Paste from the menu
Cutting and Pasting
You can perform these operations by using the following
keyboard shortcuts instead of selecting a command from a
menu:
Cut
Ctrl+X
Paste
Ctrl+V
Copy
Ctrl+C
Select All
Ctrl+A
Selected text
Pop-up or Shortcut
menu
Cutting, Copying and Pasting text using WordPad
Running Simple Programs
There are four main ways to run, open or launch a program with
Windows XP:
• Clicking an Icon on the desktop.
• Selecting a command from the Start Menu.
• Using the Start Menu Run command.
• Clicking on a file that is associated with a program.
The first two methods are much the same and use the basic idea of a
GUI. Toolbars, Menus and Icons can all be used to launch
programs or open files.
The Run command is a way that allows a user to enter a program’s
filename and other parameters on a command line. This is much
the same way it is done under DOS or other text-based operating
systems. For instance, you could enter the command
wordpad.exe, and the program WordPad would open.
Running Simple Programs
File Associations are another way for Windows to further automate its GUI. By
associating a data file with a specific program used to open it you can run a program and
open the selected data file. If you double click on a data file, it will open the associated
executable file if it has one, or you will see a dialog like:
When you see the dialog box shown here, no
program is currently associated with this data
file. At this point, you can either select the
program you want to use to open this file, or
let Windows try to assign one. The
association can be just for this current
operation or you can make it a permanent
association, so that Windows will always
open this type of file with the selected
program. Associations recognize a file’s
extension; this is the only way that files are
associated with programs. It important to
understand that changing a file’s extension
can leave it with out a program that will open
it.
WordPad
• Windows XP includes two word processing programs, NotePad and WordPad.
NotePad is a very basic text editor while WordPad gives you more complex editing
capabilities such as embedding graphics into a document.
• WordPad also allows you to save your documents in a format that further allows them
to be opened and edited in Microsoft Word.
• Files with the DOC extension are associated with WordPad unless Microsoft Word is
installed. In that case, Word is the default program for this extension.
To run WordPad from the Run command
on the Start Menu:





Click the Start button, then
Select Run…, next
Enter “wordpad” in the text box, as shown
Press the OK button.
If you do not know the name of the file or the file’s
path, you can click the Browse button to use the
Windows Explorer to locate it.
The Run dialog
WordPad
Paint
• Windows Paint is a graphics and drawing program that
has been included with Windows XP
• With it, you can create, view or manipulate images and
save them in many different file formats.
• Paint will also open whenever you select a file from your
system that is associated with it by it. You can cut or
copy screen images or other objects and paste them into
Paint to modify or save then as a graphics file (Creating
a screen capture file is discussed in detail in later
chapter).
Paint
To run Paint from the Start Menu:
•
Click the Start button, then
•
Select All Programs, next
•
Select the Accessories
submenu, then
•
Click the Paint command as
shown here
Paint Menu
command
Selecting the menu command to start Microsoft Paint
Paint
•
The default image type is a bitmap
(.bmp) file.
•
Other image file formats supported by
Paint are:
–
–
–
–
JPEG(*.JPEG, *.JPG, .JPE, *.JFIF)
GIF (*.GIF)
TIFF (*.TIFF, *.TIF)
PNG(*.PNG)
Microsoft Paint with no file selected
Media Player
Pin Ball
Play Time!