Elementary Windows XP

1
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

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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 mouses
  business end
• Pointing device - a mouse, trackball or touchpad

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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
Taskbar
Start button
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
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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.

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XP Start Menu
Current user
Pinned List

• 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

Most Frequently Used Programs List
Click here for the Programs menu
Turn off or log off the computer
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The Classic style Start Menu
Click here for the Programs menu
Turn off or log off the computerthe current user
is also shown here.
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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 buttons shortcut menu.
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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

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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.

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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.
CtrlZ means, for example, press the Ctrl key and
the letter Z key at the same time. Case does not
matter.
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Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts
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Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts
Probably the best known Windows keyboard sequence
is
CtrlAltDel
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.
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Windows XP Keyboard Shortcuts
Entering CtrlAltDel 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
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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.

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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

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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

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Cutting and Pasting

• You can perform these operations by using the
  following keyboard shortcuts instead of selecting
  a command from a menu
• Cut CtrlX
• Paste CtrlV
• Copy CtrlC
• Select All CtrlA

Selected text
Pop-up or Shortcut menu
Cutting, Copying and Pasting text using WordPad
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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 programs 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.

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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
files extension this is the only way that files
are associated with programs. It important to
understand that changing a files extension can
leave it with out a program that will open it.
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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
  files path, you can click the Browse button to
  use the Windows Explorer to locate it.

The Run dialog
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WordPad
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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).

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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
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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
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Media Player
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Pin Ball
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Play Time!