Option buttons

Option buttons (also called radio buttons) are a set of two or more mutually exclusive options. The name
radio button comes from the buttons on old-fashioned car radios, where pushing a button to select a
station automatically unpushed whatever button was previously pressed. Figure 2-11 shows a couple
option buttons available on the Start Menu tab of the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box
(which opens when you right-click the Start button and choose Properties).
Figure 2-11: The Start menu and Classic Start menu options here are mutually exclusive, as indicated by
the option buttons. You can select one or the other, but not both.
Choosing an option button is simple, just click it. Often you can click the text next to the radio button,
which provides a larger target. Choosing radio buttons with the keyboard is a little trickier. Within the
dialog box, you need to press the Tab or Shift+Tab keys until one of the radio button options is selected
(has a little gray border around it or its label). Then you can use the arrow keys to move that gray border
to the option you want. To move out of the radio button group, press the Tab or Shift+Tab keys.

Dimmed

(disabled) controls
Buttons aren’t the only controls that might be dimmed and disabled. At any given time, any control in a
dialog box, as well as any option on a menu, might be dimmed. This doesn’t mean something is broken.
It means that the control is not relevant or meaningful at the moment. Therefore, there’s no point in
selecting it. When you first open a dialog box, for example, the Apply button will be disabled, because
you haven’t yet made any selections to apply. As soon as the situation changes (for instance, you make
a selection that can be applied) and the control becomes meaningful, it will automatically be enabled
(undimmed).
Tip I’ve actually seen people click away repeatedly at a disabled control, as though
doing so will some how “wake up” that control. Trust me on this. It won’t.

Figure 2-10:

An example of buttons
If your hands happen to be on the keyboard rather than the mouse and you want to choose a button,
you can press the Tab key to move forward from one control to the next, or you can press Shift+Tab to
move backward through the controls until the button you want to press is highlighted with a dotted line.
Then press Enter to push that highlighted button.
The buttons play an important role in dialog boxes. Keeping them straight is important. Remember
these important points:
The Apply button (if available and enabled) applies your selection right now, without closing
the dialog box.
The OK button applies your selection(s) and then closes the dialog box.
The Cancel button (or pressing the Esc key) closes the dialog box without applying or
saving any options you selected. However, it does not undo any selections you have
already applied!
Any button that appears to be dim is currently disabled, and clicking it will do you no good.
The button will become enabled again once it can serve some purpose. For example, the
Apply button will be enabled only after you make some selection that you can apply.
Don’t forget the handy Help (?) button displayed near the top of many dialog boxes. You can click this
button and then click any option within the dialog box to learn more about that option.

Buttons

Buttons are simple. You click them with your mouse. If a button has an underlined letter in its label, you
can optionally hold down the Alt key and press the key that represents the underlined letter. For
example, as an alternative to clicking a button labeled Pattern, you can press Alt+P.
You might notice one button in a group has a slightly darker appearance than the others, such as the
OK button shown in Figure 2-10. That button is called the default button and, as an alternative to
clicking directly on that button, you can press the Enter key. Many dialog boxes also have a Cancel
button, which enables you to escape gracefully from the dialog box without saving any changes. As an
alternative to clicking the Cancel button, you can press the Esc key or click the Close (X) button in the
upper-right corner of the dialog box.

Using Dialog Boxes

A dialog box is sort of like a window. Instead of representing an entire program, however, a dialog box
generally contains some simple settings from which you can choose. The term dialog box comes from
the fact that you carry on a kind of “dialogue” with the box by making selections from the options it
presents. Controls within a dialog box are similar to the controls on any other kind of machine, be it a
car, dishwasher, or stereo. Controls enable you to control how a program behaves and looks.
As you may recall, many objects on your screen have properties, characteristics such as size, color,
and so forth that you can change. If an object does offer properties that you can change, right-clicking
the object and choosing Properties from the shortcut menu will take you directly to the Properties dialog
box for that particular object. For example, the desktop itself has properties that you can alter. If you
right-click the desktop “proper” (not the taskbar, not an icon, not an open window) and choose
Properties, you’ll come to the Display Properties dialog box shown in Figure 2-8.
Figure 2-8: The Display Properties dialog box
Tip The Properties dialog boxes for many objects also are available in the Control
Panel, which you can get to by choosing the Control Panel option from the Start
menu.
Within the dialog box, you see examples of some common controls. The following sections explain how
to work all the different kinds of controls you may come across in your daily use of Windows. The
sample Display Properties dialog box doesn’t offer all the controls discussed here. But trust me, you will
eventually come across all the controls described in the next few sections.
Tabs
Some dialog boxes contain more controls than can actually fit into the box. In this case, options are split
into two or more tabs. For example, the Display Properties dialog box contains the tabs shown in Figure
2-9. To view the options offered by a tab, click the tab you want. Alternatively, you can hold down the
Ctrl key while pressing the Tab key to move from one tab to the next. Pressing Ctrl+Shift+Tab moves
through the tabs in the opposite order, from right to left.

Taskbar Tips

As mentioned earlier, clicking an open window’s taskbar button is a quick and easy way to make it the
active window (bringing it to the top of the stack). However, you can do other things with the buttons as
well:
You can minimize an open window just by clicking its taskbar button. Clicking the button a
second time brings it back into view.
To see the options for a particular window, right-click its taskbar button.
Note Some of the options below require that the taskbar be unlocked. If you have any
problems, right-click the neutral area of the taskbar and select the Lock the
Taskbar option to turn it off.
To size the taskbar (to make it thinner or thicker), drag its inner edge (the edge nearest the
center of the screen) up or down.
To move the taskbar to some other edge of the screen, drag the neutral area to some other
edge of the screen. If it won’t go, try widening it first.
To size a toolbar within the taskbar (such as the Quick Launch toolbar), drag the dotted lines at
the edge of the taskbar to the left or right.
To add toolbars to, or remove toolbars from, the taskbar, right-click its neutral area and choose
Toolbars. Then choose any toolbar to display or hide.
To turn a taskbar toolbar into a free-floating toolbar that you can place anywhere on the screen,
drag the dots at the edge of the toolbar out onto the desktop.
To put a floating toolbar back into the taskbar, drag it back into the taskbar.
To rearrange items in the toolbar, drag the dots nearest the Start button to the right, past any
item that you want to put to the left of the current item.
To resize an item within the toolbar, drag its dots to the left, right, up, or down.
You can further personalize the taskbar in a variety of ways to suit your own work style and
environment. Chapter 13 describes some of those more advanced techniques. If you want to take a
quick look at the Properties dialog box that offers those additional options, just right-click the neutral
area of the taskbar and choose and choose Properties.
For the moment, I think our time is better spent on more basic skills. In particular, it’s time to talk about
those dialog boxes that come up from time to time, and how you operate the various controls they offer.

Cascading and tiling open windows

You can instantly arrange all the open windows on the desktop with just a couple of mouse clicks. Just
to the left of the Notifications area in the taskbar is a neutral area that never gets covered by buttons.
Right-clicking that neutral area displays the menu shown near that area in Figure 2-7. Options on that
menu for arranging open windows are summarized in the following list:
Cascade: Stacks open programs from the upper-left corner of the desktop with just their
title bars showing, as in Figure 2-7.
Figure 2-7: The taskbar’s right-click menu revealed near the Notifications area of the taskbar. Open windows
on this desktop are cascaded.
Windows XP Bible
page 31
Tile Windows Horizontally: Sizes windows equally (if possible) and presents them as tiles
with no overlap. If there are only two or three windows open, each is stretched lengthwise
across the screen.
Tile Windows Vertically: As above, but windows are stretched to the height of the screen.
Show the Desktop: Hides all open windows, leaving only their taskbar buttons visible
(same as clicking the Show Desktop button in the Quick Launch toolbar).
Undo: Undoes whichever option you last selected.
Note Calculator is unique in that its window cannot be resized. The reason that the
Calculator window is as large as it is in Figure 2-7 is because I switched to the
Scientific calculator by choosing View › Scientific from the Calculator’s toolbar.
When the desktop is crowded, consider minimizing all the open windows. Then click the taskbar button
for the program you want to work with, to open only its window on the desktop.

Now here are two ways in which you can make any open window the active window, with just a click of
the mouse:
Click on any visible portion of the window that you want to make active.
Alternatively, click the toolbar button for the window you want to make active (very handy if
that window is completely covered by other windows on the desktop!).
Instantly, the window pops to the top of the stack, no longer obscured by other windows. You then can
use the keyboard to work within that window if you like.
You also can use the keyboard, if you want, to make any open window the active window. Just hold
down the Alt key, and press the Tab key. A small box containing an icon for each open window appears.
Without releasing the Alt key, press the Tab key repeatedly until the title of the window you want to
make active displays. Then release the Alt key.
Tip The buttons in the taskbar will get smaller and smaller as you open more windows.
If you cannot read a toolbar button’s label, just point to the button. The full label will
appear in a ToolTip.
The bottom line is this: If you do something at the keyboard, and nothing happens (or something
unexpected happens), there’s a good chance that you weren’t paying attention to which window was the
active window at the moment. You can easily make any open window the active window by clicking
anywhere on that window, or by clicking the window’s toolbar button.

The active window

When you have two or more windows open on the desktop, only one window is the active window. If
you use the keyboard at all, it’s important to know which of those windows is currently the active
window, because that’s the only window that can accept keyboard input. If I were to try to type text into
the WordPad document shown in Figure 2-6 right now, no text would appear in the window. Why?
Because currently the Calculator program is in the active window, and only the program in the active
window will respond to input from the keyboard. The problem is easily solved. Just click anywhere on
WordPad’s window to make it the active window, and start typing.
If you look at the taskbar in Figure 2-6, you’ll notice that it now contains four new buttons labeled
WordPad Doc, Solitaire, Calculator, and My Computer (which actually represents the Windows Explorer
program, as discussed later). The taskbar always displays a button for each “running task” — that is,
each open program on the desktop. You can usually tell, at a glance, which window on the desktop is
currently the active window by the following clues:
The taskbar button for the active window is colored a little differently, and appears “pushed
in.”
The title bar for the active window is a little brighter than the title bars of the inactive
windows.
The active window is always at the “top of the stack.” That is, no other windows overlap the
active window.

Arranging Open Windows

Essentially, no limit restricts the number of windows you can open on your desktop. You can stack
windows one atop the other, in exactly the same manner you can stack sheets of paper one atop the
other on your real desk. And just like on your real desktop, you can quickly make a disorganized mess
of things. I

Moving a window without the title bar
As mentioned earlier, you can move a window about the screen by dragging its title bar. (Unless the
window is already maximized, in which case you need to shrink the window down a bit first.) Every now
and then, however, you might run into a situation where the title bar of the window isn’t visible onscreen.
This is often the case when some free Internet service places some irritating banner ad on your screen
that cannot be covered by any open windows.
Not to fear, however; there is a solution. Even without being able to see the title bar, you can move the
window by following these steps:
1. Click anywhere on the window you want to move, just to make sure it’s the active window
(the one capable of accepting input from the keyboard).
2. Press Alt+Spacebar to open that window’s system menu. (Don’t worry if you can’t see that
menu.)
3. Type the letter M to choose Move from the system menu.
4. Press the ˇ (down-arrow key) several times to move the window downward.
If it doesn’t work, it may be because the window is currently maximized and therefore cannot be moved.
In that case, repeat Steps 1 and 2. Then type the letter R to choose Restore (thereby shrinking the
window a bit). Then proceed with Steps 3 and 4.

Document area

Programs designed to help you create and edit things generally offer a large document area where your
work appears. The document might be a photograph, drawing, spreadsheet, written text . . . whatever. It
all depends on what the specific program you’re using at the moment is designed to do. We’ll get
deeper into the concepts of working with documents in Chapter 3. For now, let’s continue to look at tools
and techniques for managing open windows on your desktop.
System menu
The System menu enables you to move, size, and close the window by using the keyboard rather than
the mouse. You might find this handy if you do a lot of typing and prefer not to take your hands off the
keyboard to manage a window. To open the System menu, press Alt+Spacebar (hold down the Alt key,
press and release the spacebar, and then release the Alt key) or click the System menu icon in the
upper-left corner of the window. When the System menu is open, you can choose options in the usual
manner. Click the option you want. Alternatively, on the keyboard, type the underlined letter of the
option you want; for example, type the letter N to choose the Minimize option.

Status bar

The status bar along the bottom of a window plays different roles in different programs. However, a
common role is to display helpful information. For example, the status bar at the bottom of the WordPad
window often displays the helpful message For Help, press F1 to let you know that help is
available for the program. When you point to a toolbar button in WordPad, the status bar message
changes to describe the purpose of that button.
Tip Virtually any program you use will also offer a Help option in its menu bar, which
you can choose to get help with that particular program.
Like toolbars, a program’s status bar is often optional. You can usually turn it on and off by choosing
View › Status Bar from the program’s menus.

Toolbar

Some windows also have a toolbar just below the menu bar. The toolbar provides one-click access to
the most frequently used menu commands. Most toolbars provide ToolTips, a brief description that
appears on the screen after you rest the mouse pointer on the button for a few seconds. Other
programs, including WordPad, might show the descriptive text for the button you’re pointing to down in
the status bar.
Toolbars are optional in most programs. You can turn them on and off using options from that program’s
View menu. Some programs even offer customizable toolbars (although WordPad isn’t one of them). If
a toolbar can be customized, right-clicking the toolbar and choosing Customize from its shortcut menu
will take you to the options for customizing the toolbar. For future reference, keep in mind that if you’re
looking to learn more about the toolbars in a specific program, you can open that program’s help system
and search for the word toolbar.

Occasionally,

you will come across a menu option that acts as a toggle, which is to say the option
represents some feature that can be turned on, or turned off. If you open the View menu in WordPad,
for instance, you might notice that some of its items have check marks next to them, as in Figure 2-5.
Choosing an option that has a check mark next to it turns the toggle off and removes the check mark. If
you choose the currently checked Toolbar option in WordPad’s View menu, for example, the Toolbar
option is turned off, which makes the toolbar disappear from the screen. To turn the toolbar back on,
choose View › Toolbar again to switch that option back on.
Figure 2-5: The View menu in WordPad is open.

Shortcut Keys

(Key+Key)
Many keyboard shortcuts are actually combination keystrokes, expressed as Key+Key. These involve
holding down the first key, tapping the second key, and then releasing the first key. For example, Ctrl+A
means hold down the Ctrl key, press and release the letter A, and then release the Ctrl key. Shift+F1
means hold down the Shift key, press and release the function key labeled F1, and then release the
Shift key. Alt+Enter means hold down the Alt key, press and release the Enter key, and then release the
Alt key.
As you’ll eventually discover, most combination keystrokes start with one of the following special keys:
Ctrl (Control), Alt (Alternate), or Shift. That’s partly because those keys never actually type any
characters on the screen. Most keys offer Ctrl, Alt, and Del keys on both the left and right side of the
keyboard, so you can use either hand to press the combination keystroke.
Many menu options display shortcut keys. These are keystrokes you can use as an alternative to going
through the menus. If you look to the right of the Save option in the File menu shown in Figure 2-4, for
example, you’ll notice the shortcut option Ctrl+S. So let’s say you’re working on a document and you
want to save your work. Your hands are on the keyboard rather than on the mouse. Instead of going
through the menu and choosing File › Save, you can just press Ctrl+S on the keyboard if you prefer.
If you don’t know the shortcut key for performing a task, but would still prefer to use the keyboard rather
than the mouse, you can work the menus right from the keyboard. Just press and release the Alt key.
You’ll notice that each option in the menu suddenly sports one underlined letter. After you press the Alt
key, for example, the letter F in the File option will be underlined. After the underline appears, you can
just type that underlined letter to open the corresponding menu.
When the menu is open, you can use the ‹,›, , and ˇ arrow keys on the keyboard to move the
selection highlight about the menus. To choose the currently highlighted option, press Enter. Optionally,
you can just type the underlined letter of the option you want.
Tip Remember, shortcut keys and other keyboard alternatives are just an alternative
for people who prefer the keyboard to the mouse. You can always use the mouse
to work the menus.