10 Minute Guide to Schedule+ for Windows 95 - Appendix A - Windows 95 Primer  Microsoft Windows 95 is a graphical operating system that makes your computer easy to use by providing menus and pictures to select. Before you can take advantage of it, however, you must learn some Windows 95 basics. A First Look at Windows 95 You donít have to start Windows 95ñit starts automatically when you turn on your PC. After the initial startup screens, you arrive at a screen something like the one shown in Figure A.1. (Notice how the open programs look on the taskbar in Figure A.1.)   Figure A.1 The Windows 95 screen. Parts of the Screen As shown in Figure A.1, the Windows 95 screen contains many special elements and controls. Hereís a brief summary: The background on which all the pictures and boxes rest is the DESKTOP. The TASKBAR shows the windows and programs that are open. You can switch between open windows and programs by clicking the name on the taskbar. The START BUTTON opens a menu system from which you can start programs. Click on the Start button; then click on your selection from each menu that appears. Some ICONS appear on your desktop. You can activate one by double-clicking on it. Youíll learn more about these elements as we continue. Also Appearing... If your computer has Microsoft Office installed on it, you see the Office Shortcuts toolbar on-screen too. Itís a series of little pictures strung together horizontally, representing Office programs. Hold the mouse over a picture to see what it does; click on it to launch the program. See your Microsoft Office documentation to learn more. Using a Mouse To work most efficiently in Windows, you need a mouse. Here are the mouse actions you need to know: Point means to move the mouse pointer onto the specified item by moving the mouse. The tip of the mouse pointer must touch the item. Click on an item means to move the pointer onto the specified item and press and release the mouse button once. Unless youíre specifically told to right-click, you click with the left mouse button. Clicking usually selects an item. Double-click on an item means to move the pointer to the specified item and press and release the left mouse button twice quickly. Double-clicking usually activates an item. Drag means to move the mouse pointer onto the item, hold down the mouse button, and move the mouse while holding down the button. Unless youíre specifically told to right-drag, use the left mouse button. Controlling a Window with the Mouse Windows are the heart of the Windows 95 program. Windows 95 sections off these rectangular areas for particular purposes, such as running a program. You can control a window using the procedures shown in Figure A.2.   Figure A.2 Use your mouse to control windows. Scroll Bars If your window contains more icons than it can display at once, scroll bars appear on the bottom and/or right edges of the window. To move through the windowís contents, click on an arrow button at either end of a scroll bar to move in that direction, or drag the gray bar in the direction you want to move. Getting Help Windows 95 comes with a great online Help system. To access it, click your mouse on the Start button and click on Help. You see the dialog box shown in Figure A.3.   Figure A.3 Windows offers several kinds of help. There are three tabs in this box: Contents, Index, and Find. The Contents tab appears on top first. To move to another tab, click on it. Hereís how to use each tab: Contents Double-click on any book to open it. Sub-books and documents appear. Double-click on sub-books and documents to open them. Index Type the word you want to look up. The Index list scrolls to that part of the alphabetical listing. When you see the topic that you want to read, double-click on it. Finish The first time you click on this tab, Windows tells you it needs to create a list. Click Next and Finish to allow this. Then you see the main Find tab. Type the word you want to find in the top text box. Then click a word in the middle box to narrow the search. Finally, review the list of Help topics at the bottom, and double-click the one you want to read. When youíre done reading about a document, click Help Topics to return to the main Help screen, click Back to return to the previous Help topic, or click the windowís Close button to exit Help. Starting a Program There are many ways to start a program, but here is the simplest (see Figure A.4): 1. Click the Start button. 2. Click Programs. 3. Click on the group that contains the program you want to start (for instance, Microsoft Office 95). 4. Click on the program you want to start (for instance, Microsoft Access). Figure A.4 Click on the Start button; then click on each menu and submenu until you find the program you want to start. Another way to start a program is to open a document that you created in that program (the program automatically opens when the document opens). Double-click on a document file in My Computer or Windows Explorer to open it, or click the Start button and select a recently used document from the Documents menu. You can also start a program by double-clicking on its shortcut icon on the desktop. Shortcut icons are links to other files. When you use a shortcut, Windows simply follows the link back to the original file. Whenever you use a document or program frequently, you might consider creating a shortcut for it on the desktop. To do so, just use the right mouse button to drag an object out of Windows Explorer or My Computer. On the shortcut menu that appears, select Create Shortcut(s) Here. Using Menus Almost all Windows programs have menu bars containing menus. The menu names appear across the top of the screen in a row. To open a menu, click on its name. The menu drops down, displaying its commands (see Figure A.5). To select a command, click on it. Shortcut Keys Notice in Figure A.5 that key names, such as Enter for the Open command or F8 for the Copy command, appear after some command names. These are shortcut keys. You use these keys to perform the commands without opening the menu. Figure A.5 A menu lists various commands you can perform. Usually, when you select a command, Windows 95 executes the command immediately. However, the following exceptions are true: If the command name is gray (instead of black), the command is unavailable at the moment and you cannot choose it. If the command name is followed by an arrow, as with the Start buttonís menus, selecting the command causes another menu to appear, from which you must make another selection. If the command is followed by an ellipsis (three dots), selecting it will cause a dialog box to appear. Youíll learn about dialog boxes later in this lesson. Using Shortcut Menus A new feature in Windows 95 is the shortcut menu. Right-click on any object (any icon, screen element, file, or folder), and a shortcut menu appears, as shown in Figure A.6. The shortcut menu contains commands that apply only to the selected object. Click on any command to select it, or click outside the menu to cancel.   Figure A.6 Shortcut menus are new for Windows 95. Navigating Dialog Boxes A dialog box is the programís way of requesting additional information. For example, if you choose Print from the File menu of the WordPad application, you see a dialog box something like the one shown in Figure A.7. (Its exact look will vary depending on your printer.)   Figure A.7 A dialog box requests additional information. Each dialog box contains one or more of the following elements: Tabs bring up additional "pages" of options you can choose. Click on a tab to activate it. List boxes display available choices. Click on any item on the list to select it. If the entire list is not visible, use the scroll bar to find additional choices. Drop-down lists are similar to list boxes, but only one item in the list is shown. To see the rest of the list, click the down arrow to the right of the list box. Then click on an item to select it. Text boxes enable you to type in an entry. Just click inside the text box and type. Text boxes that expect numeric input usually have up and down arrow buttons (increment buttons) that let you bump the number up and down. Check boxes enable you to turn on or off an individual option. Click on a check box to turn it on or off. Each check box is an independent unit that doesnít affect other check boxes. Option buttons are like check boxes, except option buttons appear in groups, and you can select only one. When you select an option button, Schedule+ deselects any others you already selected. Click on a button to activate it. Command buttons perform an action, such as executing the options you set, closing the dialog box, or opening another dialog box. To select a command button, click on it. From HereÖ If you need more help with Windows 95, pick up one of these books: The Complete Idiotís Guide to Windows 95 by Paul McFedries Windows 95 Cheat Sheet by Joe Kraynak The Big Basics Book of Windows 95 by Shelley OíHara, Jennifer Fulton, and Ed Guilford

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