Using programs
This tutorial explores the layout of an app window in more detail, and gives an opportunity to practice opening, closing and navigating around several types of apps.
The components of an app
There are two types of apps you are likely to encounter, traditional desktop PC apps, and Modern, universal apps. There are a couple of differences in the user interface, and "Universal" apps are designed to be able to run on either Windows PCs, smart phones or Xbox, whereas desktop apps were written specifically for PCs.
Apps perform a wide range of functions, so the exact layout of each app varies, however there are a number of consistent elements which make up most apps.
The app icon:
Specifically found on desktop apps, this is the same image found on the taskbar, start menu or desktop shortcut for the app. As well as being a visually identifying feature, the app icon opens a "system" menu with options to close, resize or move the window via the keyboard. You can access this by pressing ALT+SPACE or clicking on the app icon.
Quick access toolbar:
Some apps have a "Quick Access Toolbar", a small group of icons on the title bar, which allow permanent, quick access to key features of the program (for instance the "save" button).
The Title bar:
The title bar takes up the top "line" of just about every window. The Title bar has the title
or name of the window on the left (directly on the left for universal apps, just to the right
of the app icon for desktop apps). There are two components to the window title: the file
which is currently open followed by the name of the app. For instance if you open a
document called "Office list.rtf" in WordPad, the title bar of WordPad would read:
"Office list.rtf - WordPad".
Menus and ribbons:
Different types of apps have different controls which we will look at shortly, however common between them is that almost all apps have a way of accessing most of its main features just under the title bar, either in text menus (similar to the left side of the start menu) or one or more rows of icons.
The status bar:
Many desktop style programs have a status bar along the very bottom of the window. This gives a brief snapshot of important information about the app or what it is doing. For instance an E-Mail app might use the status bar to indicate its progress downloading or sending a large email. A word processor might use the status bar to indicate how many words and pages are in the current document.
The main document window:
The bulk of the screen is used to show the current document or main elements of the app, for instance a web page in Microsoft Edge or the buttons and result in the calculator. In the next activity we will open WordPad, a word processor included with Windows which is a handy tool for writing and saving pretty much any kind of text note. Microsoft Word is another, more comprehensive word processor which is generally purchased bundled with Microsoft Office. Anything you do in WordPad can be done in Microsoft Office, although some features may be accessed slightly differently. Because anyone with Windows 10 already has WordPad.
Menus, Toolbars and Ribbons
We've looked at the different elements of an app Window and opened WordPad to see how these different elements appear.
WordPad we saw, has a "Ribbon" interface. That means that it has several headings - "Home" and "View". If you tap or click on these headings, or press ALT+H for Home or ALT+V for View, the buttons underneath change to reflect the heading that you have chosen (If they don't change then you were already in that ribbon). You can then press TAB to move to the lower ribbon or toolbar and keep pressing TAB to move sequentially through the items (or tap or click on the icon you wish to select. If you hover over an item with the mouse it shows a little explanation of what the option does, or in some cases it also gives a keystroke you can use to activate that item directly in future.
If you forget the keystrokes to get to specific areas, you can press ALT (and release) and the letters to press are indicated next to each option. You can use the ARROW keys to move around the headings, and then press TAB, so between ALT, the ARROWS and TAB you can get through to any of the available features.
WordPad also has a menu. If you tap or click on "File" or press ALT+F, it opens a text list of options called a menu. This is differentiated by being white text on blue where the other headings are black text on white.
If you use the shortcut to open the ribbon or menu, the keys you can then use to activate the options are then indicated in little boxes displayed next to each option.
Some older style apps only have a menu, in that case all the headings would open text lists. Many of those apps also have a toolbar underneith which looks like the ribbon buttons in WordPad, however in those apps the toolbar is "static" and is always displayed exactly the same.
In some apps, the menu is represented by three horizontal lines.
Some of the newer universal Windows apps don't conform directly to either of these conventions. When we opened the Feedback app, that it had a list of categories down the left, a search edit box up the top, and a list of sub-headings for the current category just under the search edit. These enable us to navigate through all of the sections of the Feedback app, but using it's own unique interface layout.
Controls
As you use the computer and particularly when entering information or changing settings, there are a number of different types of controls you will encounter:
Text edit box:
We've already seen text edit boxes in action - can you recall where? Cortana's search edit box next to the start menu is an example of a text edit box - basically anything you can type into. We've looked at the layout of the WordPad window, and the main part of that Window, where we typed earlier, is also a text edit, just a lot bigger.
When the focus is in a text edit, a thin flashing vertical line indicates the current position. This enables you to move through the text you have written with the arrow keys and edit it in the middle, rather than only typing at the very end of what you have written.
Checkboxes / On-Off switch:
An On / Off switch works similarly to a light switch - it can be set to either "On" (by default coloured blue) or "Off" (coloured grey) and generally allows you to turn a feature on or off. You can click or tap a switch to "toggle" it, that is turn it from on to off, or off to on. Alternatively, when the switch has focus, press SPACEBAR.
Checkboxes are basically exactly the same, just represented slightly different visually. Checkboxes (sometimes also called tick boxes) are empty squares when "off", and filled with either a cross or a tick when "on".
Drop down list:
Drop down lists have a set range of choices, out of which you can choose one, for instance, days of the week or the choices of font size. Generally only the currently selected option is visible. You can tap or click to 'open' them, which displays the full list of options, and tap or click the one you want. With the keyboard, when the focus is on the drop down list you can press ALT+DOWN ARROW to open the list, UP and DOWN ARROW keys to move between the choices and ENTER to select a choice and close the list.
List Boxes:
A list box is similar to a drop down list, however it takes up a larger area on screen so you do not need to expand it. Depending on the type of list, it may be a single column which looks similar to a drop down list when expanded, or it may be multiple column. You can often navigate by pressing the first letter of the item you want, or by using the ARROW keys.
Scroll bars:
If an item is larger than will fit in its window or on screen, it might have scroll bars. These are thin grey bars either on the right, the bottom or both. Scroll bars have an arrow at each end. The whole area between these represents the total text (width or height of full document) and the dark grey area represents the amount and location of the currently visible text.
In an edit box such as in WordPad, as you use the ARROW keys on the keyboard to move through the document, or if you tap or click the lower part of the scroll bar on the right hand side the view will move down.
You can click or tap on the arrows at the ends of scroll bars, or on either side of the dark grey area to move in that direction. You can also click the dark grey area and drag it in the desired direction.
Radio buttons:
Radio buttons can be used to show a small number of options all on screen at once and similar to drop down lists, you can only select one at any time - like the pre-set stations on a radio.
Once the focus is on a radio button, you can use the ARROW keys to move between the other buttons - as you do the selection will move to the button you are currently on. You can also tap or click on the button you wish to select.
Buttons:
Buttons usually have their purpose written on them: "Save", "Open", "Cancel", "Submit". Tapping or clicking on them, or moving the focus to them and pressing ENTER will activate them and complete their action.
Many forms - where you enter information and then have a choice of buttons to submit or cancel the form, have a "default" button. The "default" button is the button that will be pressed if you press the ENTER key and the focus is not on another button. Usually this is the "Safest" option to prevent losing data. For instance when you are in WordPad, if you write something and then go to close the app, it will ask if you want to save it. There are several buttons, but the "default" button - the one that will be pressed if you just press ENTER at this point, is "Save" because saving your document is the safest option to ensure you don't lose your data.
Links:
Links work similarly to buttons in that when you tap or press one, or move the focus to it and press ENTER, the action associated with that link will be performed. Where buttons are generally coloured rectangles, links are generally displayed as text - usually blue or a different colour to the surrounding text, and sometimes underlined.
Using the calculator app
Let's have some more practice moving around an app. Another common app you might find useful is the calculator. It has the modern Universal Windows App style and a relatively simple interface.
We'll also use a part of the Start Menu we haven't looked at yet, the All Apps list. While we've looked at various places you can have shortcuts to apps you commonly use, and the search function to find things, sometimes you might want to simply scroll through all your apps. This is particularly useful if you can't quite remember the name to find it in search.