The Start Button

Is located on your Taskbar to the far left. Its main function is to start programs, run programs on on other drives, such as your CD-ROM and to allow you access to utilities and other useful components.

The Start button, when clicked opens the Start Menu, and coming off of the Start menu are several sub-menus known as cascading menus for the way they open. Any menu item on your Start menu with a small black arrow pointing off to the right has its own cascading menu. For instance, on your Start menu is the Programs menu, when you place your mouse pointer on the Programs menu the Programs cascading menu opens. To hold a menu open simply click it once. Try it now . . .

Its good to know that most every thing on your Start Menu(s) are shortcuts. This means that your Start menu is customizable! More about that later . . .

The major items found on the Start menu are: Shut Down, Run, Help, Find, Settings, Documents, and Programs. I will lightly cover these in this session.

Shut Down - Is the PROPER method for shutting down your operating system software - Windows. Software is composed of many pieces parts, and just like Monopoly if you don't put it away properly, with all its pieces, then you'll have troubles the next time you to to play it -follow me?

Now, Shut down is NOT the proper way to 'put away' your programs when you done using them. You must, save anything of value you want to keep, and then click on the close button X in the upper most right corner of the program's window, or select Close from the File menu.

How do I know if I have a program open Jami? Well, look at your Taskbar, each button (raised sm. rectangles) represents a window or program you have open. Make sure your Taskbar is cleaned off (except for the Start Button, Win 98 toolbars and System Tray) by closing all open windows before going to Shut Down.

When you select Shut Down from the Start Menu the Shut Down window opens, revealing the Shut Down, Restart, and Restart in DOS mode options. The important difference between Win 95/NT and Win 98 is that in the first two Shut Down is the default, each new time you open this option Shut down will be selected. However, in Win 98 the software will remember your last choice -So if you selected Restart the last time beware next time you go to shut down, you will have to select it. New and improvements -Ha! This 'added feature' still catches me by surprise.

Run -is used mainly to execute or run a program from the CD-ROM like an encyclopedia program or other large software programs. The Run feature can also be used to install software. You experience this when you place a CD into your CD-ROM drive and it automatically starts the software on the CD to install software on your hard drive. But what if you leave a CD in the drive to use now and then, like I do with my dictionary CD?

Well, you could open and close the CD-ROM door to trick your OS into launching the program. Or create a shortcut to the program on your Programs menu, we will learn how to do this in a later session. Or use the Run Feature to run the program on CD. This last choice requires the window's skill to use the Open dialog box window to find where your software choice is located, so we'll save this one too.

Help - If your like most Windows users you have found that Help is not that helpful. I will try and give you some good advise for making the most of Windows Help. First, the Help feature located on the Start menu is for help with your OS software only. Believe it or not this is the number one mistake people make with using Help. Help is relative to where you access it from -that is to say, if you want help with setting tabs in a document don't go to Help on the Start menu. And if you want help on how to resize a window don't use the Help menu in your word processing program.

The reason why people make this type of mistake is because they don't understand which program runs what. Your OS is in charge of all hardware (up to the point where the owners manual takes over), and the user interface or how everything is presented to you the user (the GUI interface). It is also in charge of your files (after they are created), file management as it is called. So these areas are covered in the Help option on the Start menu.

For now, unless you just want some interesting reading, always use the Index tab in Help. To get the most out of Help you will need the proper name of the subject you want help on -this is the second hurtle to using Help. The best way to solve this is to ask someone, once you know that the thingy giving you trouble is called a Taskbar -getting help on it is a lot easier.

Find -I will cover using this feature later on in lessons 3 & 4 along with using Explorer to manage your files.

Settings -You use this feature of the Start menu for advanced purposes to access your printer folder, and control panel (plus a couple a extras added in Win 98).

The most valuable reason for wanting to access your printer(s) folder is to purge (kill) a print job -No more pulling out the plug in the back of the printer -shame shame shame!

When you are printing a small printer icon appears in your System Tray. Simply double click this printer icon to open a printer status window, and under the File menu at the top select Purge Print Job. Realize that time is a factor here. If your print job is small the whole thing will print before you can perform these steps. But this works great for that five page document with the mistake on page four.

The Control panel is used for controlling many of the functions of your system, and the user interface mentioned above. We will get into to it as necessary in later sessions.

Documents -This little feature gives you access to the last, twelve I believe, documents you have worked on. If you are currently working on a letter you can quickly access it from here tomorrow when you start up your computer. Once you reach your limit of documents the OS will put in the latest replacing the oldest.

If you should want some privacy concerning what you have been working on just Right mouse click your Taskbar and select Properties (last on the pop-up menu). From the Properties sheet click on the second tab over called Start Menu Programs under the Documents Menu click the Clear button and your tracks are covered, until you open another document :-)

Programs -From here is where Windows decided you should access your programs and run them. Along with this option, a lot of people using MS Office software use the MS Office Shortcut bar, which likes to hang around at the top of their screen covering the tops of their windows. The MS Office Shortcut bar is a nifty tool if you learn how to control and customize it, if you would be interested in a tutorial on it please email me and I'll put one up.

The only down side to the way Windows installs shortcuts to your Programs menu is that it installs shortcuts to a folder for whatever program is on your computer. And inside that folder are shortcuts to things you will use once or never, like the ReadMe file or uninstall utility. I believe, and teach, that coming off of your Programs menu should be shortcuts to your programs not folders of programs, and I show you how to customize your Start menus to make this true for you in session 7 of this tutorial, so stick around.

windows

windows - are the boxes that contain and present almost everything we work with in a Windows environment. You may not believe it, but even error messages come in windows. That's why knowing the components of windows and how to Minimizing, Maximizing, Resize, and move them is so important to using the OS Windows.

Let's look at the four basic components of a window. In the picture below I have enclosed each area in a light green rectangle with a #number inside.

The area numbered 1, is the known as the Title bar. So named because it displays the name or title of the window, and in the case of a word processor window like in our example it displays the title of the current document.

When multiple windows are open, how can you identify the active window? The active window has its title bar highlighted, usually bark blue, it is on top of all other windows, and its button on the task bar will look different from all buttons on the taskbar, depressed (pressed in), but not sad :-( If a window is not selected or active its Title bar is Grey and its Taskbar button is not depressed.

The area numbered 2, is composed of bars, in this case three. The first bar has menu options on it (you can tell its menus when one letter is underlined :-) this is the Menu Bar. The second has buttons on it, and no its not the button bar (no such thing), this is a Tool Bar and so is the third bar.

The area numbered 3, is the content area. This area changes depending on what type of window you are looking at. In this case, a word processor window, we are looking at the Document content window within the Word program window. Yes, that's right a window within a window -sorry. See the full window picture at the top of this subject -note the 'window buttons' to control each separate window in the upper right-hand corner. Two sets of window control buttons = two nested windows.

The area numbered 4, last bar . . . known as the Status bar! This area gives the viewer information which changes depending on what type of window you are looking at. In this case, you will find what page your on, how many inches down on that page you are and a bunch more 'info' about the window content.

All windows have a Title bar and control buttons, and Content area. The more complicated the window's function, the more complicated the components.

window Control -Minimizing a window will remove the window from the desktop and leave it as a button on the taskbar. While re-sizing, the window will keep it on the desktop, taking up less or more space depending on whether it was enlarged or shrunk. It is important to understand the difference between moving or minimizing a window and resizing it. We'll see why later.

Exercise: Minimizing, Maximizing, Restoring and Closing Windows

OR

1. Minimizing -with any window open, click on the minimize button (the first one from left to right, if you hold your pointer over it the word minimize will appear for a few seconds). This will minimize that window taking it off your Desktop leaving its window button on your Taskbar -if this window belongs to a program the program is still running.

2. Restoring -right mouse click on the window's button on your Taskbar and select Restore from the pop-up menu. This will Restore the window to its original location and size -your windows remember this information.

   Note: When a window is in Restored state you can move it and resize it, but when it is Maximized it is locked in place. This is why I recommend you leave your windows in Restored state but make them as big as the Maximize size. This way you get the best of both. You can tell which 'state' your window is in by the middle button.

   OR

   Here's where it gets tricky - if the middle button is showing one big box, like in the first picture above, then the window is in Restored state, because that is the Maximize button and its telling you that by clicking it you can go Maximized. If the middle button is showing two stacked little box icons then the window is Maximized because that is the Restore button conveying that you can restore this window if you click it. See what I mean by tricky? Hint you say: Just try and keep yours with the one box icon until you are comfortable with this duel feature.

3. Closing -the last button is the close button, and when you click it it will not only close the window but exit the software that window represented. This is the quickest way to exit a program in Windows.

   Now, here's is where some confusion comes in - some special windows have buttons with the word close on them along with the Close button. In some of these windows having both they both operate the same way (give you the same results), but in some of these windows the button with close on it only closes the window, but the Close button closes the window and stops any process you were involved in with this window -in effect it also exits the process.

Exercise: Resizing and Moving Windows

1. To Resize a window (with a window open) -place your pointer at the lower right-hand corner on the diagonal corner marks, now click and drag the window in or out depending on your resizing needs.
   This method will change the window both vertically and horizontally. You can also accomplish a vertical size change by placing the very tip of your pointer on the top or bottom edge of a window and click and drag in or out. And for horizontal, place your pointer on the left or right side edges.

2. To Move a window -Click in a clear (free, unoccupied) area of the title bar and drag (holding down the mouse button) the window to its new position. See Windows Primer for more help with click and drag.
   BE CAREFUL you can drag a window off the screen, and in some cases loose easy access to its control buttons, which means more work for you dragging it back.

Multitasking - When you open a program, document, or window, a button appears on the taskbar. You can use this button to quickly switch between the windows you currently have open. Multitasking is the most efficient way to get your work done, simply move from your email to word processing and back again. Go a head try it . . .

Exercise: Switching between windows/programs fast

Do this exercise with two or more windows or programs open.

1. You may activate different windows (bring to the front so you can work with them) by just clicking on their Taskbar button. Do this now, first click on one window button on your Taskbar and then the other and watch how fast you can move from one program to another.

2. Activating a window can also be accomplished by clicking on part of the Window behind the active Window if you can see it. Doing this will bring the background window to the foreground quickly.

   Note: there is a limit to how many windows you can and should have open at one time. And it depends on your amount of RAM or computer memory. Because we humans can only do so many things at one time its not productive to have more than three windows open at a time. Of course as I write this I have five programs I am jumping in and out of, but Web page design is a special case =^)

The Keyboard & Mouse

Your Computer's keyboard has several keys worth taking a closer look at.

Backspace vs Delete keys - Two keys whose functions can easily become confused are the Backspace key and Delete key. The Backspace Key is located just above your Enter key, it is a Black arrow pointing left. And the Delete key is labeled Delete and located just right of your Enter key on the keyboard.

To Delete a character located in-front (right side) of your cursor (blinking I-beam) you press the DELETE key. To delete a character in-back (left side) of your cursor you would use the Backspace key to back-over the unwanted character(s).

Toggle keys - The Alt, Ctrl, and Shift keys are commonly referred to as toggle keys because they toggle extra features on and off. For example if you want a regular 'a' you press the 'a' key, but if you want a capital 'A', you then HOLD the Shift key and press 'a'. Toggle keys plus the keys on your keyboard give multiple results in this way.

The Function keys at the top of your keyboard, F1 through F12, work in the same way giving you different outcomes when pressed while holding one of the toggle keys than when just pressed by themselves. These function keys perform special jobs when utilized by various software programs. In most applications F1, for example accesses the help files for that program.

The Numeric Keypad - Off to the right of your alphabetic keys is a grouping of keys know as the numeric keypad, when the Num. Lock key on this group is engaged, indicated by the light above it, the numbers and calculator functions will operate. When the Num. Lock key is not activated, (the light is off) the arrows, delete and page movement keys will function. We could say the Num. lock key 'toggles' between the two faces of this keypad.

In-between the alphabetical key grouping and the Numeric keypad grouping are the Movement keys grouping and below that, the Arrow keys grouping. These work the same as they do on the Numeric keypad.

The Mouse - The mouse has two buttons, left and right. The left mouse button is always assumed when reading a direction or receiving a verbal direction to perform with the mouse.

Some mice have three buttons or a center wheel. The center button will give you a double click when you press it once and the wheel allows you all kinds of special scrolling features.

Its important to clean your mouse roller ball when ever your mouse doesn't glide smoothly -see your owners manual :-) for these instructions.

Okay, on to Lesson 3 . . .