Information Technology Consulting & Solutions

Is Windows a big confusing mess? Have you tried to read books and other documentation for Windows and only gotten more confused? Then this is for you!

Many books covering the use of Windows are available but Windows has been around long enough now that the authors of these books make assumptions that you are familiar with some version of Windows from previous use. Since this isn’t always the case, here are the basics of Windows concepts and techniques.

My hope is that this document will give you the foundation you need to be able to better understand the books and other resources you have available and that it will make it easier for you to communicate when you have problems. Toward that end, I have attempted to include not only what you do but why you do it in the hopes that you’ll have a better understanding of what is being discussed and why you need to know it.

First, the best way to learn Windows is to use Windows. Certainly you need to read this and other documentation but by far, the easiest way to learn is to do. Experiment! Try different things! Explore! Eventually you’ll find the things you need, the things you don’t need and the best methods that work for you. Who knows, you might even find that you enjoy it. Use the computer while you’re reading this document. Try what it says to do. It will be much clearer to you if you do things as you read them.

If you are just now learning Windows, you are not a typical computer user so many of the books you have seem like they are providing more information than you need or they assume that you know some things that you don't. You need to become more typical to be able to take advantage of what Windows and computers have to offer.

So, why and how do people use computers these days? This might seem an obvious question but it's worth taking a look so that you can see why you don't seem to follow along well when reading computer books.

The ultimate goal of a personal computer and always Microsoft's goal is to completely replace every piece of paper you have with data on a computer. Theoretically, in today's computing environment, you can, send and receive mail, pay bills, write letters, do your taxes, get all the news you need, look up a recipe, generate a shopping list and order the groceries, balance your check book, etc. Very few use a computer this way but that is the intent and, with the advent of the Internet, it is possible today to do this. It will be more possible tomorrow and will eventually come to pass.

Most uses of a computer to some degree replace everything you do at your desk. For example, I track all of my financial information on the computer. That doesn't mean I still don't write checks nor does it mean that I don't record transactions in a paper check register. But I don't really have to. My computer could print checks for me or I could pay my bills online and in all the years that I've been tracking my checking accounts on computer, I have never needed to refer back to my paper register. I keep a paper register because it's one more backup to critical data. I expect I'll never need it but its there if I do. Obviously, I’m a belt and suspenders kind of guy when it comes to my finances.

This is how most people use a computer, i.e., they use it for a wide variety of different things and they do this wide variety of different things at the same time. They learn to do this at work because it’s necessary for their jobs. That knowledge comes home with them and they use it on their own computer.

Your desk may have a calculator, a telephone and a bunch of paper that is all for different tasks you do. There are your bills, your calendar, address book, etc. Your desk is a multitasking environment meaning it can do more than one thing at a time. It allows you to write a check while talking on the phone and balancing your check register with your calculator all at the same time.

Your computer, with Windows, is also a multitasking environment. Yet, if you’re still reading this document, you probably have always used it as a single tasking tool. No one has really pushed you toward using a computer to it's full potential because you've never really had a need to do so and it complicates things when you do.

Probably, any time you've used a computer in the past, it was either in DOS where you could run only one program at a time, or you were doing something that didn't require multitasking.

That has now changed. What you now want to do with a computer requires a greater understanding than you've needed in the past and this gives you an opportunity to enhance your knowledge and more fully utilize the computer. You are now trying to use the computer in ways that blow past the simplified environment of the past. The result is complication and confusion and you've got a bunch of catch up to do. So let’s get started.

Your work environment will, to a large extent, determine how efficient you are with Windows applications. Also, it’s just plain frustrating to constantly fight with clutter that’s in the way. Imagine how difficult it would be to use your computer if there was a stack of paper on the keyboard. Your mouse is no different. You’re going to need your mouse much more than you have in the past so it’s time to arrange your desk with this in mind.

Find your mouse, that’s that funny looking thing with the wire coming out of the back that’s buried under a bunch of paper. Dig it out of the stack and make room for it to the right or left of your keyboard depending on your right or left hand persuasion. When the mouse is positioned correctly, it should be easy to move your hand to the mouse from the keyboard and back again.

A large part of the interaction with Windows applications is done with the mouse so you need to keep its home free of paperwork and other clutter. Drinks in your mouse house are a big no-no! This is an electronic critter that needs a dry and clean environment to live in. If you don’t have a mouse pad, get one. This will make the mouse easier and quicker to use.

Moving the mouse moves the mouse cursor on the screen. If you run out of room to move the mouse in the direction needed, either make a larger home or pick the mouse up, move it in the opposite direction and set it down so you can slide it farther in the direction you need to go. If you do this a lot, let us know. We can adjust this so it doesn’t take as much mouse movement to move the cursor across the screen. When everything is adjusted correctly, you should be able to move the mouse cursor anywhere on the screen without having to pick it up and without having to perform any gymnastics maneuvers. The motions necessary should be natural and comfortable. If the cursor stays still when you move the mouse, let us know. This means your mouse needs to be cleaned or replaced.

Get ready! I’m going to throw some technobabble at you. Sorry, but you’ve got to be able to speak the lingo to be able to communicate your problems and resolve them.

Windows is technically speaking what is known as a graphical user interface or GUI (pronounced gooey). It’s intent is to provide a friendly environment for the user to manipulate data on his computer. In reality, as you’ve found out, this is not a terribly friendly environment. It is a daunting, huge thing with to many features and to many ways to do the same thing. Nevertheless, it’s certainly more friendly then being faced with a blank screen down at the bottom of which is:

C:\>

with a flashing cursor. At least most people think it is. If you’ve used DOS in the past, you’ll know what this is. If you didn’t, forget it and be thankful that this document isn’t a DOS primer.

Windows in some form or another has been around for around 15 years. The first few versions were a joke and were generally used only by techies like me who wanted to play with Microsoft’s latest, greatest toy. Serious applications were still written for DOS.

This changed with the release of Windows 3.0 around 1990. This was the first version of Windows that had the required utility and stability to be used in a business environment. This version and the version following (version 3.11 or Windows for Workgroups) became the standard for PC GUIs. This version also marks the time when application developers began writing Windows applications and, as a necessity to use Windows, this marks the time when the mouse became an essential interface tool.

Microsoft released Windows 95 in the fall of 95. You may recall newscasts of people camping out over night to get their copy. While Windows 95 retained some of the characteristics of Windows 3.0, it drastically changed (and improved) the way the user interacted with the software. Windows 98 was released in 1998 and a second edition was released in 1999. Chances are your computer runs under Windows 95 or 98. There were very few changes between Windows 95 and 98. 98 was mostly a patch to repair bugs although it did enhance the use of the Internet somewhat. The second edition version was released to address Y2K issues and fix more bugs.

In the old DOS days, your computer could run one program at a time. This was always very limiting to most people. A typical user would be working in a Lotus spreadsheet and would need to access a word processing document to verify some number needed in the spreadsheet. Her only option was to exit out of Lotus, start Word Perfect, open the document, verify the number, close Word Perfect, open Lotus and open the spreadsheet to continue her work. Obviously, this was inefficient.

Windows changed this. Windows allowed the user to leave Lotus running in its own window and open Word Perfect in a second window. Windows also provided the means to easily switch back and forth between these two (or three or four) applications running simultaneously. This greatly increased the efficiency of working with a computer. This technique is what is meant by multitasking. The business community lapped this up big time for obvious reasons and this ability is what made Windows the interface of choice in the PC community.

Another huge advantage with Windows is that Windows compliant software works essentially the same way as all other Windows compliant software. For example, there is always a menu bar at the top of the window, the left most option of which is always "File", the next to the right is always "Edit", etc. While there are still differences among applications, the techniques used to access the various features are essentially the same. This greatly reduces the learning curve for applications because the user already knows a big chunk of what’s required to interact with the software.

You interact with Windows in four ways. You talk to Windows by using the keyboard and mouse and Windows talks to you by displaying information on the screen and by playing sounds over the speakers.

Anytime you interact with the system, you are interacting with one and only one control. A control can be a button, a text box where you type, a menu or a variety of other things. The key here is that you interact with only one at a time and the one you are interacting with is said to have focus. That is, your actions are focused on that control.

Most of this is obvious. All of the standard typewriter keys and the ten keypad work exactly as you would expect, assuming the Num Lock key is engaged. But there are a bunch of other keys on the keyboard.

These are function keys. What they do varies from application to application with the exception of the F1 key. If an application is Windows compliant, the F1 key is reserved for online help. If you are confused by something, almost always, pressing the F1 key will display information that will most likely straighten you out. However, not all applications implement this. If nothing happens when you press the F1 key it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Nor does it mean that the program is not working. It means there is no help available for what you’re doing at that particular time or the program does not support use of the F1 key. Actually, the function keys aren’t really used all that much in Windows applications as they are a holdover from DOS applications.

This is the control key. It is always used in conjunction with another key. For instance, Ctrl-C means press and hold down the control key, press and release the C key and release the control key. In most windows applications, this key combination means "Copy". There are a wide variety of control functions typically used in Windows applications. They are all poorly documented and are all handy. Here are a few of the more important ones.

Ctrl-C - Copy to the Windows clipboard. The clipboard is a temporary holding area where text, a file or a picture can be copied to later be "pasted".

Ctrl-X - Cut to the Windows clipboard. Cutting is like copying except this also removes the text, the file or the picture. It’s a combination of copy and delete.

Ctrl-V - Paste from the Windows clipboard. This pastes text, a file or a picture from the clipboard into the current application.

Ctrl-A - Select all. This combination is used to select all of the contents in a window. That may be text, or files or anything else that can be cut, copied and pasted.

For these to work, the application you are currently using has to support this. If you try one of these and nothing happens, that doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong or the application is not working. It means it’s not supported or the use of the feature is out of context to the application’s current state. Also, the Ctrl-C combination doesn’t actually change anything visually.

This is the alternate key. It is used much like control keys for performing special functions. The Alt key is used in two primary ways. First, it can be used to switch between running applications and second it can be used to select menu items and controls using what are called hot keys.

Switching between applications is done by pressing the Alt-Tab combination of keys. That is, press and hold the Alt key and then press and release the Tab key. If you have more than one application running, a small window will pop up showing you all of the application’s icons and the name of the application that is currently selected. Press the tab key again and the window will highlight the next application and so on. When you release the Tab and Alt key, Windows will switch to the application selected. This is a handy shortcut to bounce back and forth between running applications.

Hot keys are usually used with menus but also are used with other controls. If you look at a menu, you’ll notice that each entry has one letter that is underlined. This is the hot key for that menu. That is, to access the File menu using hot keys, press and hold the Alt key and press and release the F key. This drops down the File menu and shows you the options available. Each additional item in the menu should also have a hot key. However, once you’ve activated the menus with the first hot key (like Alt-F) subsequent menu selections don’t require the Alt combination. All you need to do is press the underlined key to select options in the pull down. For instance, to close a window without using the mouse, you can, press the Alt-F key combo to activate the file menu, then press the C key which executes the Close option or the X key which executes the Exit option.

Note that once you’ve activated a menu, it will attempt to process all subsequent key presses. To deactivate a menu with the keyboard, press the Esc (Escape) key twice. The first press closes the pull down menu and the second press deactivates the menu.

Hot keys are also found on other controls like buttons. Pressing the Alt-Key combination for a button does exactly the same thing as clicking it with the mouse. You can always tell the hot key by looking for the underlined letter.

This is the key between the Ctrl key and the Alt key on the left side of the keyboard. It has a Windows logo. This key is a shortcut to the Start menu. When you press this key, the start menu automatically pops up for you. Oops! I didn’t want to do that. How do I return to the window I was in before? Simple, either click the window with the mouse, press the Alt-Tab key combination to switch back or press the Esc key to deactivate the menu. You’ll find the same key on the right side of the keyboard just to the right of the right Alt key. It does exactly the same thing.

Just to the right of the right start button key you’ll see a key that has what looks like a menu and a mouse pointer. This is the context menu key. It pops up a menu of options that apply to what you are currently doing. Press it now to see how this works and then press Esc to deactivate it. These options provide features that you may want to use in the context of what you are currently doing. For instance, if our roles were reversed and you were writing this instead of reading it, you might use this key to cut and paste text in this window. If you press this key again, you’ll see these options although they are probably disabled. (The light, faded out color of the option indicates that it’s not available or disabled which is an indication to you that you’ve not done something required to make it available or enabled.)

Now, grab your mouse and in this window, click the right mouse button. The same context menu should be visible. This is the primary use of the right mouse button. That is, the right mouse button is used to activate and display the context menu for the control that currently has focus. Press Esc to close the context menu. Not all controls have context menus so this won’t always do something.

The contents of the context menu vary greatly depending on what you are doing at that particular time. This makes sense when you think about it. The context menu is exactly that. It provides you with options that are applicable to, or in the context of, what you are currently doing. You get a much different context menu when you are working with a web page than when you are editing text in an email. The contexts are very different so the menus have different options.

There are still a bunch of keys that we haven’t covered. I’m assuming that you know how to use the arrow keys, the page up and page down keys, the home and end keys and the insert and delete keys. You can forget about the three keys above that group. You’ll never use them unless someone is helping you troubleshoot something.

Some people hate it some people love it. Those that hate it don’t know how to use it properly. The mouse is an incredibly agile tool that saves me literally hundreds of keystrokes a day. I often find myself completely troubleshooting and correcting complex problems on a computer using nothing but the mouse. If you think about it, that’s pretty amazing.

The primary function of the mouse is to control which control has focus. This is done by moving the mouse (and the mouse cursor) and by clicking the left mouse button. There are two kinds of left mouse button clicks, the single click, or simply click, meaning press and release the left key once, and the double click meaning press and release the left key twice and quickly. So when do you know to do a single click versus a double click? This is pretty simple, about the only place where you do a double click is when you want to click and open a shortcut. There will be more on shortcuts later. How do you know when something is a shortcut? Simple. Click it once. If it turns blue it’s a shortcut. If it doesn’t turn blue, it’s a button or some other type of control. When you click any control, you are switching focus to that control. That is, until the focus is changed, all interactions between you and the computer will be focused on that control.

When you single click anything other than a shortcut, you are also executing an underlying function that you don’t normally see. For instance, when you click a button, you are doing two things. First you are setting focus to the button. This is done with the down stroke of the mouse key. Second, you are "firing" the click function of the button. This is done with the up stroke of the mouse key. Want to set focus to a button without firing the click function? Simple. Move the mouse cursor to the button, press and hold the left mouse key, slide the mouse off of the button and release the mouse key. For any control to accept commands from the mouse, the mouse cursor must be on that control. What just happened is the down stroke of the mouse key moved focus to the control where the mouse was located, the button. When the mouse was slid off of the control, the button did not execute the up stroke.

This technique of pressing a mouse key, moving the mouse and releasing the mouse key is called click and drag or simply dragging. It’s usually used in word processors to select and move text. Try this. Move the mouse cursor over some text in this document. Now press and hold the left mouse key. Now move the mouse and release the key. You should see that some of the text is now white on a black (maybe blue) background. You have "selected" text. Now, move the mouse over some of the text that you’ve selected and click the RIGHT mouse button to pop up the context menu. Cut and copy should both be enabled now. If you were to select the copy option (click it with the left mouse key) you would copy the text you selected to the Windows clipboard from which it could be pasted into a new window or control. How much utility does this have for you? Maybe not much if you never use your computer for text editing but an awful lot if you do. There are many other applications for this method. If you find yourself typing the same thing over and over, like maybe a date, you can copy the date to the clipboard and paste it as required.

If you have a newer mouse, it probably has a wheel in between the two buttons. The mouse wheel is used to scroll up and down in a document. I use the term document loosely here. A document might be this document, an Internet web page, a spreadsheet, all kinds of things. Try this. Roll the wheel back and forth. See how the document scrolls up and down? If it doesn’t you have a problem with your mouse driver (the software used to run the mouse). This is easier than clicking the scroll bar. Note that you can do the same thing with the up and down arrow keys.

Click and release the mouse wheel. That is, without rolling it, click it like a mouse button. Now, look in the scroll bar to the right. You should see a new kind of cursor over there that tells you that you are in scroll mode. Now when you slide the mouse up and down, the window will scroll and keep scrolling in the direction of the mouse movement. The farther you move the mouse, the faster the scroll. To disable scroll mode and return the mouse to standard operation, click the wheel again. Try it.

All Windows applications run in a window and they all have common characteristics. You’re looking at a typical window right now. Here are the basic components.

There are two basic types of windows. One is called a dialogue window and the other is called a document window.

A dialogue window is usually asking you to respond to a question and usually has an OK button. It might also have a Yes button, a No button or a Cancel button. Dialogues normally require you to complete the interaction with them before proceeding with anything else. Here’s a typical dialogue window.

See how it’s asking a question and wants me to respond with a Yes click or a No Click? Simple enough. Note that there is an X button in this window but you generally respond to a dialogue by clicking one of the other buttons and, in this case, the X button is disabled which forces me to respond with either a Yes or a No.

Dialogue windows are also used to select and set options. Often these are tabbed dialogue windows. Here’s an example.

This is the options window for Microsoft Word 97. It’s used to set the various defaults for using Word. While we won’t go through all of the options, do note a few things about this window.

First it’s a tabbed dialogue. You can tell this because it has what appear to be file folder tabs at the top of the window. These tabs are clicked with the mouse to access additional options on other pages in this window.

Also note the possible interactions. In addition to all of the controls used to set options, there’s an OK button and a Cancel button. The OK button closes this window and saves the changes, if any, that you have made. The Cancel button closes the window without saving changes. You’ll also see that the X button at the upper right of the window is enabled. A very common mistake with dialogues is to set options in a dialogue and then click the X button to close the window. This is equivalent to clicking the Cancel button so the changes are not saved. In general, anytime you are working in an options dialogue window, you want to use the OK or Cancel button to exit from the window.

Document windows are used to display application documents, again this term is used very broadly. Here are the basic components of a document window.

The banner tells you the name of the application and the type. In this case, it’s the window used to edit a Word document, named "A Windows Primer". It also has an icon, the picture on the left and three buttons on the right. There will be more on these in a minute.

The banner is more than just a label. It can also be used to move a window around on the desktop. The way you do this is by clicking and dragging in the blue part of the banner. (Note that this won’t work when the window is maximized… patience, that’s coming).

This is the system menu for this window. If you click this, you’ll see a context menu for the window. Try this in this in the current window to see what’s there.

This button is used to minimize the window. What this means is to temporarily stop displaying the window on the desktop. This is convenient for getting things out of the way. Note that this button does not close the window. Rather, it’s just temporarily hidden and will still have a button in the task bar. (More patience… I’ll get to the task bar shortly.)

This button is used to make the window as big as it can be within the confines of the desktop. When a window is maximized, this button changes to this . This tells you that the window you’re currently working with is maximized. Click this button again and the window is no longer maximized and can be moved on the desktop.

This button closes the window. That is, the window is destroyed. Sometimes this is appropriate but, when you want to come back to the window later, the better way is to use the minimize button to temporarily get it out of your way without destroying it.

Some applications have what are called parent windows with child windows that are displayed within the parent window. Word is one such application. This kind of window will have multiple sets of buttons like the above. The outer set is for the parent window and the inner sets are for each child window. When you minimize a child window, an icon is displayed at the bottom and within the parent window.

Technically, applications that support child windows are called Multiple Document Interface or MDI applications. Applications that don’t are called Single Document Interface or SDI applications. Notepad is an example of an SDI application.

Just about all windows have a menu bar and they work as described above.

Toolbars provides buttons that execute the more common features of an application. This toolbar is the toolbar used with my version of Word. For instance, by clicking the Save button; the document I’m currently working on will be saved. It’s often difficult to tell exactly what a button is supposed to represent. For instance, what’s that button with the diskette? Tool tips are provided to make it easier to understand the purpose of the button. To see a tool tip for a button, move the mouse cursor over the button and don’t move it for a moment. Don’t click the button, just move the mouse cursor.

The little yellow label is telling me that the diskette button is used to save the document I’m currently working on. Tool tips are almost always provided for buttons in toolbars and are often included for other controls as well. You always use the same technique to see a tool tip.

Here’s a screen shot of one of my computers. I’ll use it to describe the various components of the Windows desktop interface.

First there’s the big black area at the top that takes up most of the screen. This is called the desktop. The desktop is the area where Windows displays a running application. It’s also used to display icons (all of those little pictures) or what are now typically called shortcuts. Note that your desktop might not be black. Black is just the color I prefer.

Shortcuts are exactly that; shortcuts to some underlying program, file or something else. Shortcuts are always double clicked to open them.

The task bar is at the bottom of the screen. It contains the start button on the left, a tool bar to the right of the start button, an applications bar to the right of that, and a status bar at the far right. A vertical line delineates the sections of the taskbar.

This is the primary means for accessing all functions installed on your computer. For instance, though I have a shortcut to Quicken on my desktop, I can also access it by clicking the start button, clicking Programs, clicking Quicken and clicking Quicken Deluxe 98. Obviously it’s easier to double click the shortcut on the desktop but there isn’t a shortcut for all of the options available. If there’s no shortcut, you access it through the start button. This is also how you shut down the computer. (Click Start, click Shutdown and select the desired option from the resulting dialogue window.)

The problem with shortcuts on the desktop is that they are obscured by a running application. Microsoft took care of this by adding a toolbar to the task bar where shortcuts to your more common programs can be clicked without having to move or minimize a running application. They added this feature with Windows 98 and Internet Explorer 5.0. If you are using Windows 95, you may not have a toolbar on your taskbar. Note that these are buttons and need to be clicked only once. Anything that is on a toolbar is a button.

The applications bar is located to the right of the toolbar. This bar contains buttons for all applications that are currently running. In the picture above you can see that at the time I took the screen shot, I had seven different applications running simultaneously. If you start Internet Explorer, it will be displayed in the application bar as well. You can easily switch between running applications by clicking on a button in the application bar or by pressing the Alt-Tab key combination. For instance, you might have maybe three buttons in the application bar. Let’s say they are:

Internet Explorer

Outlook Express

Microsoft Word

Suppose you are editing a word document and you need to include information from an email you received from a friend. You also are bidding on a very rare cookie jar on Ebay using Internet Explorer. Admit it. I know you’ve got a thing for cookie jars.

Rather than starting and stopping applications, you have all of these applications running at once and switch back and forth between them. Here’s what might be a typical scenario.

1. You’re editing in your Word document and you need to take a look at that email. Just click on the Outlook Express button in the application bar. It’s not there? Click on the Outlook Express button in the toolbar and the program will start for you or, minimize Word and double click the Outlook Express shortcut on the desktop. There’s the email you need to see.
2. Time to check on your bid for that cookie jar. Just click on the Internet Explorer button in the application bar. Poof! Internet Explorer pops up and you find someone else has outbid you! Quick! Put in a new bid because you’ve just got to have this jar! Phew!
3. Time to get back to that Word document. Just click the Word button in the applications bar and you’re right back where you were when you switched over to Outlook.

Now notice that you never clicked a window’s X button anywhere in this scenario. The reason why is that you were in a series of events that required that the window be made available again. All you needed to do was switch back and forth between a series of windows or running applications. That’s the multitasking part of Windows that is so handy. In fact, before you start an application, it’s always a good idea to glance at the applications bar to see if the application you need is already running.

Eventually of course you are finished with a particular window. Then, and only then, is it appropriate to destroy the window by clicking the X button or accessing the Close or Exit option in the File menu.

Command Buttons – Command buttons perform some action like requesting a save or printing a report. To use these buttons simply click them with the mouse. You can also use the hot key to "click" the button. In the case of the button shown, pressing the Alt-O key sequence will click the OK button. When a command button has focus, there will be a dashed rectangle around the text on the button face. When this is the case you can also click the button by pressing the space bar. Some buttons will be default buttons meaning that they will be clicked when the ENTER key is pressed. You’ll usually see this in dialog windows. When a button is default, its border will be a dark black rectangle. Buttons can also be Cancel buttons. This doesn’t mean that the text says Cancel although this is quite common. Instead, the button will be clicked when the ESC key is pressed. This is also most common in dialog boxes. When a button is a Cancel button, its border will be a white rectangle.

Text Boxes – Text boxes are used to enter text or numbers. When a text box has focus, you will see an edit cursor in the entry portion of the control. The edit cursor is a vertical bar that shows you where text will be inserted if you type a key. Some text boxes are designed to accept only certain types of characters. For instance, a text box for a phone number will accept only numbers for input.

When a text box has text already entered, the text in the text box will usually be selected when the control receives focus. The text box to the left shows what this looks like. When text is selected in a text box, any key press in the text box will clear the text that is selected and replace it with the key that has been typed. You can select a specific part of the text yourself with the mouse. To do this, click and drag from the beginning of the text you wish to select to the end of the text you wish to select.

You can also do this with the keyboard. Use the arrow keys to position the edit cursor before the first character you wish to select then, while holding down the Shift key, press the right arrow key. Each key press will select one character. You can also use the Home and End keys while holding down the Shift key to select more than one character at a time.

Use one of the following procedures to select all of the text in a text box:

• With Keys – Press the Home key to move to the beginning of the text. Press and hold the Shift key and press the End key.
• With the Mouse – Simply double click the text or click and drag from the beginning to the end of the text.

To clear the text in a text box, select all of it using one of the methods above then press the Delete or Backspace key.

When text is selected, it is available to be cut or copied to the Windows clipboard. As mentioned above, the clipboard is a temporary holding area you can use to copy text from field to field, window to window or even application to application. To do this, select the text you wish to cut or copy using one of the methods above. With the mouse, click either the Cut or Copy button on the tool bar, select the Edit menu and either the Cut or Copy option or right click to bring up the context menu and select cut or copy. Like I said, Windows provides to many ways to do the same thing. Cut removes the selected text while copy copies the selected text. Notice also that there are short cut keys to perform these operations

Once you have cut or copied text to the clipboard, you can paste it to a different control by clicking the Paste button on the tool bar, selecting the Edit-Paste menu option, or by using the shortcut key, Ctrl-V.

Combo Box – Combo boxes, also called combos, allow you to select a specific option. Most combo boxes require you to select a specific item from the list of acceptable values. When you type a key in a combo, or click the down arrow button at the right end, the list automatically drops down.

The combo to the left shows the list when it is dropped down. To select an option from the list, use the mouse to click the appropriate option or use the down and up arrow keys to move to the option and press the Tab key to move to the next control.

List Boxes – List boxes are similar to combos. The biggest difference is that list boxes show their options all of the time. Also, some list boxes, such as the one shown here, allow you to select multiple options. Combos never do this.

To select an item in a list box, simply click it with the mouse. Clicking a selected entry will deselect it.

Option Groups – Option groups allow you to select one of many options. In all cases, selecting an option in an option group automatically deselects the other options in the group. This means only one option is selected at one time. This type of control is sometimes called a radio button because it behaves the same way station buttons work on your car radio. To select an option, simply click it with the mouse.

To select using keys, set focus to the group either by tabbing to it or by pressing the hot key for the group, in this case Alt-L. Once the control has focus, use the arrow keys to move the selected option. In this case, you would use the left and right arrow keys. Other option groups are arranged vertically. In this case, use the up and down arrow keys. Once you have the option selected, press the Tab key to move on to the next control.

Date Text Box – Date text boxes are used for entry of dates. Date text boxes look a lot like combos but behave a bit differently. First, notice how the month is the only thing selected when the date text box receives focus. You can use the plus (+) and minus (-) keys to increment and decrement the selected text by one. Use the left and right arrow keys to move between the three fields, month, date and year. You can also click the down arrow button at the end of the control. When this is done, a pull down calendar is displayed and you can select the date you wish with the mouse. Of course, you can also simply enter the date.

This is the pull down for a date text box. Use the command buttons at the top to move from month to month. Then select the date you wish by clicking it with the mouse. The currently selected date is shown with a gray oval over it, in this case the sixteenth. The current date will be circled in red and also displayed at the bottom of the calendar. In this case, the current date is not displayed in the calendar because the month of September is not displayed. You can set the control to today’s date by clicking today’s date shown at the bottom of the calendar.

Check Boxes – Check boxes are used to set an option to either yes or no. When the check box is checked, the option is yes. When the checkbox is unchecked, the answer is no. To change the value of a check box, simply click the white box with the mouse. To do this with the keyboard, set focus to the control by tabbing to it and press the space bar to toggle the value. When the control has focus there will be a dashed rectangle around the text portion of the check box.

Tabs – Tabs are used to switch between pages of data in a single window. To switch between tabs, simply click the tab you need with the mouse. You can also do this with the keyboard by pressing the hot key to the tab if there is one. Tabs are usually used with option dialogue windows.

Sometimes you’ll find that you can’t interact with a control. When this is the case it’s disabled. A disabled control will ignore all of your efforts to interact with it. What this is telling you is that you haven’t done something necessary for the control to be enabled. It’s easy to tell when most controls are disabled. They have a grayed out appearance. However text boxes are an exception. If there is no text in a text box, it’s sometimes difficult to tell. A disabled text box looks just like an enabled one if there is no text. If there is text, the text will be grayed out.

Here are two command buttons that show the difference in appearance between the enabled and disabled status of a control.

This button is enabled and can be clicked. Note the black text.

This button is disabled and cannot be clicked. Note the grayed out text.

Perhaps you’ve been trying to read one of those books you’ve got and found yourself asking, "This book told me how to open a file but why would anyone want to do that?" An appropriate response to that might be, "Why would anyone want to store and access papers in a file cabinet?" These are essentially the same things and most likely this is the best way for you to think of this.

Inside your computer, in that box that sets on the floor, there is a device that’s called a hard drive. It stores data in essentially the same way that files are stored on a floppy diskette but it stores much, much more than will fit on a floppy. Your computer probably has only one hard drive but could have several. When you think of the hard drives in a computer, think of them as a file cabinet. Think of each individual hard drive as a file drawer in the file cabinets. Within the file drawer are file folders or what used to be called directories. Within each file folder are documents or what are still called files. Every application that is available on your computer is stored in a file in some file folder on some hard drive. The data that the application uses is also stored on your computer’s hard drive. For instance, your Word document you were editing above will be stored on the hard drive if you remember to save it.

If you needed to access that document again, you would need to know what it was named, in which folder it was stored, and in which drawer the folder was stored. Just like you have to know where that piece of paper you stuck in a file is located. That’s why the book was discussing this. To fully utilize the computer, you’ve got to know how the filing system works.

You locate files on your hard drive by double clicking the My Computer shortcut on the desktop. The first page of this shows you all of your drives and a few other things as well. In this, you’ll see an entry for your A: drive, the floppy, your C: drive, the hard drive and your D: drive the CD ROM drive (you’re drive letter assignments might be a bit different). These are all file drawers in your My Computer filing cabinet. By double clicking a drive, you open it up. Try double clicking the C: drive. That opens that file drawer and you can see the file folders stored there. There will probably be a folder there that’s named My Documents. This is the default location for storing letters, spreadsheets and such that you create with the Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel and others). Open this folder by double clicking the folder icon. Behold! There are all of your documents! Double click the document you need and Word will automatically open it for you.

What exactly is this? Simply put, the Internet is one great big network of computers that you can access for information. Most of the information on the Internet will be useless to you and it’s a pain to sift through but much of it is very valuable. For instance, since you have a thing for cookie jars, you would most likely be interested in finding information pertaining to this critical part of your life.

Most times you access the Internet through a browser. Probably the browser on your computer is Internet Explorer but it might be Netscape or AOL. Regardless, other than some appearance differences, they work in essentially the same way. The information from the Internet is displayed in pages in your browser window. Each page is defined by a unique address. To access the page, you type the address of the page in the address text box of the browser. For instance, to see the main page of the Data Systems website, you type www.datatasy.com in the address. This is a unique address and is made up of segments separated by periods. The www part stands for World Wide Web. The "datasy" part points to the Data Systems address on the World Wide Web and the com part says that Data Systems address is a commercial site. Other designators for the type of site are gov for government, net for network sites connected to the main branches of the Internet, edu for education, etc.

When you type that address into your browser and press the Enter key, the browser sends a signal to your internet service provider (ISP) which sends a signal to Data Systems’ ISP, which sends a signal to the Data Systems web server, which sends the page back to the Data Systems ISP which sends the page to your ISP, which sends the page to your computer, which displays it in the browser. Phew! What a trip! All pages you access work essentially the same way albeit from different computers. Here’s the Data Systems page.

This page is stored in a file on the Data Systems web server. Mostly it’s just text but on the left hand side there is a row of what look like buttons. These are actually what are called hyperlinks. A hyperlink is always clicked once. In fact, all controls in a web page are clicked once. There is no double clicking on the Internet. Hyperlinks traditionally look like text that’s usually a different color and underlined. For example, this, www.datasy.com should be blue and be underlined as your reading this. This is an indicator to you that it’s a hyperlink. If you click it, Internet Explorer will automatically start and take you to the address specified. Hyperlinks are addresses that point to another page and that page is displayed when you click the link.

The toolbar is used a lot in IE. Here’s the more important buttons.

Back - This takes you back one page. If it’s grayed out, like in the picture above, it’s because there’s no place to go back to.

Stop - You can click this button when things are running very slowly and you want to try a different way or go to a different site. For instance, if the Data Systems web server was down and you tried to go to the Data Systems site, IE would try for quite a long time before it finally gave up and gave you a page that says it couldn’t connect. If you get tired of waiting, you can click the stop button and IE will stop trying. This allows you to enter a new address or whatever rather than having to wait for the page to error off.

Refresh - Clicking the refresh button will reload and redisplay the page you are currently on. Sometimes when a page fails to load, clicking the refresh button will correct the problem.

Home - This button takes you back to your "home" page. The home page can be any page you want. You set your home page by selecting the Tools menu and the Internet Options menu. You set your home page in the top part of the dialogue window. You can enter the address directly if you know it or, if you’re currently in the page you want to be your home page, just click the Use Current button. Click the OK button to save your changes. Now, when you click the Home button, IE will take you to the page you specified. This will also be the first page displayed when you start IE.

Search - The search button opens another pane in the browser window where you can type a word or phrase to search for on the Internet. You can also do this by typing a question mark in the address followed by the word or phrase you want to find. For instance, suppose you wanted to find sites relating to your cookie jar addiction. Simply type "? cookie jar" (don’t include the quotes) in the address and press the enter key. You’ll see a list of sites that have something to do with cookie jars. You can go to these sites by clicking the hyperlinks. Not what you’re looking for? Click the back button to go back to the search results page and try a different link.

When searching the Internet, it’s best to be as specific as possible with what you are searching for to limit the amount of information returned. Suppose you wanted to locate sites specifically for antique German cookie jars. To eliminate French cookie jars from the search results, search specifically for antique German cookie jars by typing, "? antique german cookie jar" in the address and pressing return. While some sites shown may feature French cookie jars, you won’t find any entries in the search results that don’t include antique German ones. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, make the search criteria more general, i.e., search for "german cookie jar" even though you’re interested only in antique ones.

As far as the Internet goes, this is probably the greatest part of it and certainly it’s the most commonly used part. Email and the rest of the Internet will eventually bankrupt the United States Postal Service.

To receive email you must have an email program up and running. Probably for your computer this is Outlook Express although there are other options available. You may also receive and send email through your browser if you use AOL. For now we’ll assume you use Outlook Express. If you look at the taskbar’s application bar and you don’t see a button for Outlook Express you will not receive email and you can’t send.

There’s probably a shortcut on the desktop and a button in the taskbar’s toolbar for OE. Generally, you want this program to be running all the time if you have a broadband continuous connection to the Internet. Huh? Sorry, more technobabble. There are generally two methods for accessing the Internet from your home computer. These are by analog modem, which is called a dial up connection, or by cable modem or digital subscriber line (DSL), which are both continuous connections.

Dial up connections are active only when you specifically ask the computer to connect. If you have this type of connection, you will be prompted to connect when you start your browser, at which point the modem in your computer will dial the access phone number, make some really irritating noise and finally connect.

Continuous connections are always connected (continuous connection) and provide much faster performance (broadband) than dial up connections. Most cable providers are now providing these services and they are also usually available from your phone company. In addition to the performance improvement, continuous connection is exactly that. It’s always connected which makes things easier for you. It’s also more reliable than a dial up connection. If you have continuous connection, and if your email program is running, you can send and receive email at any time.

When you have new email that you haven’t yet opened, there will be a small envelope icon in the status bar of the task bar. That’s way over on the right hand side of the taskbar next to the clock. Here’s my version of the Outlook Express window. Yours will most likely look a bit different but the concepts are the same.

First, take a look at the left window labeled Folders. The folders you’re interested in are the Local Folders. These are…

Inbox - The folder where new mail is received. As you can see in the picture, I have one unread message in my inbox folder. I can tell this because the inbox name is bold and has a (1) to the right of the name.

Outbox - This is the folder where email you send is placed. This folder is the equivalent to your mailbox with the flag raised. It will be emptied the next time the postman comes along. If you have continuous connection, this happens very quickly. In general, your outbox will always be empty but, if your Internet connection is not working or if you have a dial up connection, you can still send email. It will be placed in the outbox until your ISP gets its act together and reconnects you or you connect to the Internet through your dial up.

Sent Items - Email that you send successfully will be stored here. You can open this file and view and resend email messages you’ve sent in the past.

Deleted Items - When you are through with an email message, you can select it and with the mouse and delete it by pressing the delete key. When you do, it’s moved to the deleted folder. From time to time, you need to empty the deleted folder. Just click the deleted folder in the folders pane, and then click the first message in the Outlook Express pane (the one on the right). Next, press Ctrl-A to select all and press the delete key. OE will ask you if you really wish to permanently delete the selected items. Click the Yes button to complete the deletion.

Drafts - The drafts folder is a temporary holding area for email you have composed but not yet sent. This allows you to start an email, save it and then come back to it later to complete and send. You probably won’t use this much if ever but it’s available if you want.

To send email to someone, you must know his or her email address. For instance, I have a couple. There’s dlessmann@home.com (notice this is a hyperlink? If you click it you’ll automatically be composing an email to me.) I also have an email address dlessmann@datasy.com. Both addresses will get email to me. Now, you probably don’t want to try to remember something so esoteric as one of these addresses. To make this easier, there’s an Addresses button on the OE toolbar. Click this and you can define addresses for people.

Here’s what the window looks like for doing this…

To create a new entry, click the New button and select New Contact. That will show you this…

I’ve already entered the information that would apply to me. For the email address, just type the email address in the text box and click the Add button to add it to the list of addresses. Click the OK button when you’re done however notice that the tabs up at the top. If you click the Home tab you could enter my mailing address, phone number, etc.

In other words, this feature can replace your paper address book, or not if you like your paper.

Now you’ll see an entry for me in the Addresses window. Close this window by clicking the X button. Now, if you look in the Contacts pane of the OE window, you should see an entry for me.

To send an email to me, all you need to do is double click my name in the contacts list. This will generate a new email message window to type in. Here’s the window…

Normally you would enter a subject and the contents of the message. When you’re done, just click the send button and away it goes, first to the outbox and, if your connected to the Internet, eventually to my computer.

You can also send email to more than one person at the same time. To do this, you click the book next to To: in the message window. Assuming you have additional contacts defined, you can select them and add them to the recipients list. You can also carbon copy by doing the same thing with the book next to Cc:.

You don’t have to define a contact to send an email. If you wish, you can just type the email address in the To: text box. To do this, click the New Mail button in the OE toolbar. Then, in the blank To: line, just type the email address. Here’s what this might look like along with a subject and some body text.

When you get an email from someone you can easily send a reply. If you double click the email message to see it in a bigger window, there will be a reply button you can click to send a response. There’s also a reply button in the OE tool bar. This will do the same thing.

Forwarding Email

Sometimes you may want to forward an email to someone else. To do this, just click the Forward button in OE’s toolbar and specify the address just like for a new message.

That’s email.

FIRST AND FOREMOST!!! WINDOWS CRASHES! Further, applications crash within Windows. If in doubt, restart the computer. Almost always the best way to handle this is to shut everything down, restart the computer and start over. Restarting the computer fixes most problems.

First, you need to decide what’s running slowly. If you’re on the Internet, the problem is more likely the computer you’re talking to rather than your computer. Nevertheless, the thing to do to attempt to speed it up is to shut down Internet Explorer and reconnect. This may help, and it may not. If your computer is running slowly, then restart it.

If you can, when you do shut down the computer, do it in the proper way by clicking the start button and shutdown. Sometimes this is not an option. In this case, the only thing you can do is press the reset button or the power switch on the box on the floor.

This usually occurs when an application locks up. First, press the num lock key and see if the num lock light on the keyboard turns on and off. If it doesn’t, it means Windows is locked up and probably the only thing to do is to press the reset button. However, before you do that, there are some things to try. First, can you move the mouse cursor? If you can, try clicking the Start button to perform a shutdown. If that doesn’t work, press the Ctrl, Alt and Delete key at the same time. This may bring up a close program window that lists the programs that are currently running. Look for one that says "Not Responding". If you see this, this is the program that has you locked up. Click it once with the mouse and click the close button. This will normally free up the computer and allow you to try again. If that doesn’t work, press Ctrl, Alt and Delete again and click the Shutdown button. This may shut the computer down in the proper manner, which is always preferable to resetting the computer. If that doesn’t work, you’re stuck. All you can do is reset the computer.

Every so often you’ll see a blue screen with some vague and useless message like "A general protection fault occurred in Kernel32.VXD at address 0X0FE30…" If you read the entire message, you’ll see that you have two options, press a key and see if Windows can clear the problem up and keep working or press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to restart. You ought to give Windows a chance so press a key and let it try. Maybe five percent of the time Windows can get back on track but normally, the same blue screen is displayed. Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to restart or press the reset button. Should Windows actually handle the error, it’s not a bad idea to go ahead and restart the system just to flush things out.

From time to time you will get a dialogue that has a message similar to the one above. In this case, click the OK button in the dialogue and restart the machine. If the problem persists, you need to contact Data Systems to troubleshoot and hopefully correct the problem.

First, try pressing the F1 key. This will typically bring up a help window that can help you through your quandary. If that doesn’t work, there is almost always a help menu option. This brings up the help window for the application you are currently working with. There’s scads of information in these help files but it’s often difficult to find the answer to your issue.

Usually the best way is to use the help index. To do this, click on the index tab at the top of the help window and type in a word you think might point you in the direction you need for a solution. This is like the index in the back of a book and will usually find a help topic or two that might give you the answer you’re looking for. Regardless, perusing the help files is a good way to learn about the application and how to use it.

One more word about the help options in the help menu. When you are browsing the Internet, if help is available for the Internet page it will be displayed as a hyperlink on the page. The help menu in Internet Explorer will not provide help for the page your looking at. For instance, it won’t tell you how to enter a bid for that cookie jar on the Ebay web page. There’s probably a hyperlink on the page to help you with that.

But you’re not through. This is only the basics and should provide you with the information you need to continue your journey through the wonderful world of Windows. Want to know something else? Tomorrow it will all be different. Every day new technology is introduced that changes the way and why we interact with computers. Learning to use your computer is not a once only thing. It’s a continual experience and usually well worth the effort. Have fun!

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