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Web Design 1
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Web Design 1 -- IMED 1416 -- Section 81G01

Updated 6/3/2017 at 2:40pm

Essential Handy Hints

It is essential that you understand how to navigate your computer's operating system and how to handle the computer's files.

The hints in the following lists may assist you:

Using the Windows Desktop and Applications
File Management in Windows

Windows Desktop and Application (Program) Use

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  1. You can close the active open program window by using the Alt+F4 key combination.
  2. You can close most dialog windows (those with a "Cancel" button) by using the Esc key.
  3. You do not need to close one program to start another, on a PC. You can keep some programs running while you start another. You can, for instance, leave Notepad running while you start Internet Explorer to view the results of changes you have made to an HTML file on the desktop.
  4. You can switch from one running program to another on your PC by using the Alt+Tab key combination. Hold down the Alt key, and repeatedly press the Tab key until the program you want is highlighted (has a border around the icon). Then release both keys and the highlighted program will have its window become active and in front.
  5. You can use a variation on the previous theme and hold down Alt+Shift while you repeatedly press Tab to navigate in the reverse order through the running programs on your PC.
  6. On a Windows computer, you can use Window+D or Window+M to minimize all of the open windows and display the desktop. (The "Window" key is usually between the Ctrl and Alt keys on the left, and between the Alt and "Menu" keys on the right, on your keyboard.) Then you can use Window+D to restore the windows to their "open" state. (Window+M does not work in reverse.)
  7. You can display the "Run" window in Windows by pressing the Window+R keys.
  8. After you open the "Run" window, you can run some Windows apps by typing in the name of the application in the "Open:" input field, and clicking "OK" or pressing the <Enter> key. Some of the applications that you can run in this manner are Notepad, Wordpad, pbrush (Paint), Calc, and cmd (Command Window).
  9. You can display the "Start" button, the Start Menu items, and the Task Bar quickly in Windows by pressing the Window key.
  10. You can see a list of running applications (and use this list to stop apps that might be hung up or not responding) with Ctrl+Alt+Delete or with Ctrl+Shift+Esc. (On some machines, Ctrl+Alt+Delete will require you to click on a "Task Manager" button before you see the list of running applications.)

File Management in Windows

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  1. On a Windows machine, you can use Window+E to open Windows Explorer.
  2. Probably the first thing you need to change on most Windows installations is the "View" option for hiding file extensions. Many machines have this option set to "On" so you can't see the filename extensions of the files that you are working with.

    Here is how to change this option:
    1. Go to the "File" tab at the top of the Windows Explorer app.
    2. Click the "Options" choice.
    3. Click the "View" tab.
    4. UNCHECK the item towards the bottom of the list, which says "Hide extensions for known file types".
    5. Click "OK".
  3. When you are selecting files in Windows Explorer you do not need to select only one file at a time. You can select multiple files in the list that you are working with. You select multiple files like this:
    • Hold down the Ctrl key while you click on each file that you want to select.
    • Hold down the Shift key while you select the first and then the last file in a contiguous series of files. All of the files between and including the two files you click on, will be selected.
  4. You can use Ctrl+A to select all of the files in a folder.
  5. You can use Ctrl+C to copy a file, and Ctrl+V to paste it into the same or a different folder. If you paste a file into the same folder that you copy it from, Windows automatically renames the copy to a file name of "Copy of " plus the original file name.
  6. You can use Ctrl+X to cut a file, and Ctrl+V to move it into a different folder. Please note that the file does not actually get deleted/moved until you do the Paste operation with Ctrl+V.
  7. In Windows Explorer, if you drag and drop a selected file (or group of files) to a folder on the same drive as the drive that you are dragging from, the file operation is a move by default. You can change the operation to a copy by holding down the Ctrl key while you drag and drop the file(s).
  8. In Windows Explorer, if you drag and drop a selected file (or group of files) to a folder on a different drive than the drive that you are dragging from, the file operation is a copy by default. You can change the operation to a move by holding down the Shift key while you drag and drop the file(s).
  9. In Windows Explorer, you have many choices concerning how you want the contents of a folder displayed. You use the "View" main menu item to change the type of content listing that you want. In most Windows installations, the default view is "Icons".
  10. You can make the current "View" (see the previous item) into the default view by using these menu choices: "Tools", "Folder Options...", "View" tab, "Apply to All Folders", and the "Yes" button.

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