Images

Visit http://www.chrisgreaves.com/blogwindows/ to read these posts with associated images and screen shots.

In praise of DOS

Two months ago I purchased an IBM server for $150, 2002 model, mainly for the case and power supplies. It has scope for NINE (count 'em) removable drives. yee-hah.
last weekend I settled in to network all three computers - the IBM server, the old Big beige Box, and the workhorse Laptop.

No doubt about it - DOS batch files are still a great way to automate systems.

Mouse Double-click

With the mouse pointer on the yellow folder icon alongside a file in Windows Explorer, and still grasping the mouse, tap the left-button of the mouse twice, as quickly as you can.

The document or workbook should open as if you had opened its application and then chosen File, Open from the application menu.

You can of course, double-click on an application file in Windows Explorer.

Next time you do use File, open to browse to a file, double-click to open it; there’s no need to click once, slide the mouse to the Open button, and then click there.

And while we’re at it

– no more clicking that ridiculously small thingo near the top-right of a window. To maximize any window – double-click in the blue title bar – it’s a much bigger target!

Mouse cursor movement

Point and Click the mouse at any position in the text.

The mouse and cursor pointer are co-incidental.

Slide the mouse pointer away.

The text pointer remains in place.

Clicking the mouse establishes the position of the text cursor.

Mouse Click

With the mouse pointer on the main menu word "File", and still grasping the mouse, tap the left button of the mouse.

The drop-down File menu should appear, as if you had used Alt-File.

With the mouse pointer on the word "File", and still grasping the mouse, tap the left button of the mouse to remove the File menu. (You could as easily let go of the mouse and tap the keyboard ESCape key!).

Keyboard Text Selection

The cursor selection keys are an essential skill in text manipulation. Skills learned here will apply right across all versions of all Windows desktop applications.

Hold down the Shift key and use any of your movement skills to select text.

"S" for shift, "S" for selection.

Tap any cursor movement key to break the selection

Cursor movement breaks selection.

Keyboard cursor movement

The cursor movement keys are an essential skill in text manipulation.

Skills learned here will apply right across all versions of all Windows desktop applications.

Use the right-, left-, down- and up-arrow keys to move around your text one character at a time.

Hold down the Ctrl key and tap the left- right- up- and down-arrow keys.
Ctrl-arrow moves one word at a time sideways, one paragraph at a time vertically..

Hold down the Ctrl key and tap the Home key.
Hold down the Ctrl key and tap the End key.
Ctrl-Home, Ctrl-End move to the start and end of a document.