Appendix A: Windows Tips

This appendix briefly describes some techniques that are commonly used in Windows, both in the operating system interface and in applications, but which you may not be familiar with if you are new to your PC.

As was mentioned in the chapter Start Here for the Tutorials, we will generally say "Windows" as an abbreviation for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000 and/or Windows NT 4.0. The information in this appendix applies equally to all four, unless otherwise stated.

A.1 Standard Buttons on a Window

Most windows have up to three buttons at the top right-hand corner, on the window's title bar. Buttons that can appear here are:

	Close	Closes the window and whatever is running in it.
	Minimize	Reduces the window to an entry on the task bar at the bottom of your screen. This saves space on the screen - the window and whatever is running in it are still there.
	Maximize	Expands the window to fill the screen. Other things on the screen are still there, but hidden behind this window.
	Restore	Reduces a window from full screen to occupy only part of the screen.
	Context Help	Changes the mouse pointer to a question mark. Clicking anywhere with this pointer brings up brief help on the item you've clicked on, instead of executing the function normally invoked by that item.

A.2 Menus and Submenus

The commonest method of executing a function is to click an item on a menu at the top of the application's window. This makes a pulldown menu appear, and you move the mouse pointer down and click the name of the function you want.

If an item is followed by "...", it means a dialog box will appear where you can enter details.

If an item is followed by , it means the item is not itself a function, but clicking it will bring up a submenu, where you can click the function you want.

If you merely move the mouse pointer over an item with a submenu, and do not click, the submenu will appear anyway after a few seconds, and will disappear if you release the mouse button without clicking. In this book we generally tell you to click such an item, but you can do it either way.

A.3 Changing Folder

Often, when you need to select a file, you are presented with a dialog box showing all the files and folders that are in a particular folder. The dialog box is said to be open at this folder. Examples are the commonly used Open dialog box, shown in Figure A-1, and the Add Files to Project dialog box in Mainframe Express.

Figure A-1: The Open Dialog Box

Some or all of the following methods may have been implemented for moving around the hierarchy of folders:

To open a folder that is within the open folder, double-click it.
To move to the drive or folder containing the open folder, click .
To move to a drive or folder, type its path in the Filename field and press Enter or click whatever button normally executes the function (for example Open or Add). If you end the path with the name of a file, this will execute the function.
To see a full list of the hierarchy of drives and folders, click the down arrow to the right of the Look In field, which displays the name of the open folder. You can then change folder by clicking the folder you want. Merely moving the mouse pointer changes the selection, so to close this list without changing folder, either check the highlight hasn't moved or click somewhere outside the list.

A.4 Manipulating Folders

In the kind of dialog box described in the section Changing Folders, you can usually carry out functions like creating folders, and renaming and deleting folders and files.

This means you can do these things from within whatever software displayed the dialog box (for example, if you clicked Open on the IDE's File menu), which is sometimes more convenient than going into another session. You don't need to carry out the primary function of the dialog box, for example opening a file if it's the Open dialog box. After doing what you want, you can simply click Cancel.

To create a new folder within the open folder, click .
For other functions, right-click the name of a folder within the open folder and use the popup menu.

A.5 Tree Views

Hierarchical data, for example a list of folders (directories) and the folders within them, is often shown in a tree view. This is a list of items at the top level, with a "+" on the left of each item. Click the "+" to expand the entry to show the items immediately subordinate to it. The "+" then changes to a "-", which you click to compress ("close") that part of the tree again. Or click an item and type "*" (asterisk) on your numeric key-pad, to show all items subordinate to the item.

A good example is Windows Explorer (right-click My Computer on your desktop, and then click Explore), where the left-hand pane is a tree view showing the drives and folders on your PC.

A.6 Showing/Hiding File Extensions

In the lists of files shown in (for example) the Open dialog box or Windows Explorer, file extensions that Windows recognizes may not be shown. Instead, the file type may be indicated by an icon or a description. If you want to change your Windows settings so that extensions are shown, you can do so via Windows Explorer, as follows:

Right-click My Computer on your desktop, and then click Explore.
Click Options on the View menu.
Click the View tab.
Make sure Hide file extensions for known file types has no check mark - click in the check box if necessary to delete it.
Click OK.

You can now close Windows Explorer.

If you have a dialog box open while you are doing this, you may have to close it and reopen it before you see the change.

A.7 Column Headings in a List Control

Sometimes you see a table with several columns, with column headings on a gray background. In Windows, such a table is called a list control. Figure A-2 shows part of such a table.

Figure A-2: Part of a List

Some or all of the following methods may have been implemented for rearranging the layout:

To make a column wider or narrower, click the line separating its column heading from the one to its right, and drag it to left or right. Note that columns can be reduced to nothing by doing this - if a column you expect is not present, drag the existing columns - you may uncover the missing one.
To adjust a column automatically to the width of its widest entry, double-click the line separating its column heading from the one to its right.
To see a list of columns in the table, right-click a column heading. Click entries in this list to include or exclude columns in the display.
To rearrange the order of columns, click a column heading and drag it onto another. The column will move to be immediately to the right of the one you dragged it onto.
To sort on a particular column, click that column's heading.
To reverse the order of entries, click the column heading of the field that the list is already sorted on. Small arrows by the column heading may indicate whether the list is in forward or reverse order.

A.8 Selecting Items in a List

Often you're presented with a list, and you need to select one or more items in the list before clicking a button to perform some action on the selected item or items. Examples are listboxes, the commonly used Open dialog box (shown in Figure A-1 above), and the Add Files to Project dialog box in Mainframe Express.

To select a single item you simply left-click on it, but in many cases you can also select multiple items. Some or all of the following methods may have been implemented:

Hold Ctrl while clicking multiple individual items. If you click any without holding Ctrl, you deselect all you've selected so far.
Click one item, then hold down Shift while clicking a second. This selects both and all in between.
Click the down arrow while holding Shift. This selects successive entries.
Type A while holding Ctrl. This selects the whole list.

A.9 Dropdown Lists

Sometimes you see a field with a down-arrow on the right. The arrow indicates a dropdown list, listing possible values you could enter into the field. Figure A-3 illustrates a field with a dropdown list, and Figure A-4 shows the same field with its dropdown list open

Figure A-3: A Field with a Dropdown List

Figure A-4: The Same Field with its Dropdown List Open

Some or all of the following methods may have been implemented for entering a value into the field:

Simply type the value you want.
Click the , then in the dropdown list click the value you want.
In the field, type the first letter of the value you want. The first value in the list that starts with that letter will be inserted in the field. In some implementations, you can type further letters to identify more closely the value you want; in other implementations, any subsequent letter you type replaces the earlier one and is taken as the first letter of the required value.

A.10 Popup Menus

Often, if you right-click on a window or object on the screen, a menu appears showing functions that are appropriate for that window or object. This is called a popup menu or context menu.

A.11 OK, Apply and Pushpin

Most commonly, when you have finished making changes in a dialog box, you click a button marked OK. This applies the changes you made, and removes the dialog box from your screen.

In cases where you might want to apply some changes and then make some more using the same dialog box, there is generally an Apply button instead. This applies the changes but keeps the dialog box on your screen.

Sometimes a dialog box has an OK button and a button called a pushpin. When the pushpin looks like this , the OK button works as normal. If you click the pushpin so that it looks like this , the OK button works like an Apply button.

Sometimes, when you select an item in a list to edit, a dialog box appears for you to enter the new details. A pushpin on the dialog box may control whether clicking a different item in the list closes the dialog box or loads the new item's details. An example is the PCT Properties dialog box in Mainframe Express's CICS Option.

A.12 Cut and Paste

In many applications, you can move an item as follows:

Highlight the item with your mouse. If it's a filename, a single click normally does this. If it's text, drag your mouse button along it to highlight the part you want.
If you want to copy the item, press Ctrl+C. If you want to move it, deleting it from its present position, press Ctrl+X.
Highlight the place where you want to put the item. If you want to insert the item, click there. If you want to replace existing text, drag your mouse pointer along the text to be replaced to highlight it.
Click Ctrl+V.

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X, and Ctrl+V are the shortcut keys for functions Copy, Cut, and Paste usually available on menus . It's usually quicker to use the shortcut keys. A few applications may use different shortcut keys for these functions.

You may find you can cut and paste text from the online version of this Getting Started book into Mainframe Express. This can save typing when the book gives a path to enter into a field.

A.13 Drag and Drop

In many applications, you can move or copy an item by "dragging and dropping" it.

Put your mouse pointer on the item or, if it's text, drag your mouse button along it to highlight the part you want.
Hold down the left mouse button while you move your pointer to the place you want to put the item.
Release the button.

This is called "dragging" the item, and "dropping" it at the place where you release the button.

This might copy the item, giving you a copy in the new location but leaving the original where it was; or move it, deleting it from the original location. It depends on the application. In many applications you can drag using the right mouse button, and then when you drop the item you get a popup menu on which you can choose whether to copy or move.

Often, you can transfer an item between two lists or tree views in this way. A good example is Windows Explorer, where you can even have several copies of the same tree view, by opening Windows Explorer several times. You can drag a file to its new location in another copy of the tree view, if the whole tree view is too big for you to see both the source and target locations on your screen in one tree view.

Often, you can operate on a group of items. You select them as described in the section Selecting Items in a List above, and then press down the left mouse button on any one of them and drag. Be careful not to release the button till your mouse pointer is on the target location, or you'll deselect them all.

A.14 Copying Using Windows Explorer

Probably the best way to view and manipulate your files in Windows is to use Windows Explorer, which shows them in a tree view.

To start Windows Explorer, you probably have an icon on the Programs menu within your Start menu, or you can right-click My Computer on your desktop and click Explore on the popup menu. The left-hand pane shows a tree view showing all your drives and folders, and the right-hand pane shows a list of all files in the currently selected folder.

For example to copy vsamdemo.cbl from \mfuser\projects\gsdemo\idedemo\source\original into folder \mfuser\projects\gsdemo\idedemo\source:

Open Windows Explorer.
If the tree view for the drive containing \mfuser isn't expanded, click the "+" by that drive.
Similarly expand mfuser, then projects, then gsdemo, then idedemo, then source.
Click original, which is in the tree view under source.
The right-hand pane shows the contents of the folder original.
Put your mouse pointer on vsamdemo.cbl in the right-hand pane, and hold down the right-hand mouse button. With the button held down, drag it across to the icon for source in the left-hand pane (the word source becomes highlighted when the pointer is on it). Then release the button.
Click Copy Here on the popup menu.
If you get a message asking if you want to overwrite the vsamdemo.cbl that's already in the target folder, click Yes.

A.15 Copying using a Command Prompt

Although Windows is intended to be used through its fully graphical interface, it does provide a way you can do things via a command line. This is a window that emulates Microsoft's earlier operating system MS-DOS (often known as DOS). It is known on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 as the MS-DOS command prompt, and on Windows NT as simply the command prompt. We will call it the command prompt.

To start a command prompt, you probably have an icon on the Programs menu within your Start menu, or you may have an icon to double-click on your desktop. Within a command prompt window, you can enter commands such as cd to change directory (that is, folder), and copy to copy files.

For example to copy vsamdemo.cbl from \mfuser\projects\gsdemo\idedemo\source\original into folder \mfuser\projects\gsdemo\idedemo\source:

Open a command prompt.
Type x: and press Enter.
where x: is the drive containing \mfuser.
Type cd \mfuser\projects\gsdemo\idedemo\source and press Enter
Type copy original\vsamdemo.cbl.
This is the command to copy the file into the current directory from subdirectory original.
If you get a message "Overwrite vsamdemo.cbl (Yes/No/All)?", type Y and press Enter to confirm you want to overwrite the vsamdemo.cbl that's already in the target folder.

A.16 Resizing and Docking Windows

The ways you can change the shape and size of windows, and reposition the panes within a complex window, are best shown through a short tutorial using the IDE.

If you have closed Mainframe Express, open it as before. Make sure the IDE is not maximized - that is, is not ocupying the full screen.
The Output window is the white area with several tabs, one of which is Build. By default, the Output window is at the bottom of the IDE.
Place your mouse pointer on the gray border at the top of the Output window.
The mouse pointer changes shape depending on where it is. It's not possible to illustrate the shape, as the shapes used depend on your Windows settings. On this border it has its standard shape (often an arrow). If it's lower, within the Output window itself, or higher, where the border of the Output window meets the border of the main pane above, it may be different.
Hold down your left mouse button, and drag it up and to the right.
An outline representing the Output window moves with the pointer. As the pointer crosses the right-hand border of the IDE, this outline changes shape.

Notice that the tip "Press Ctrl to prevent docking" appears at the bottom of the IDE.
Release the mouse button.
The Output window attaches itself to the right-hand border. This is called docking.
Place your mouse pointer on the line dividing the left-hand border of the Output window from the border of the main pane, and drag it to the left till it's a convenient width.
Thus you can widen the pane in the usual way.
Place your mouse pointer on the gray border at the left of the Output window, and drag it to the right until it is outside the IDE.
This makes the Output window into a separate window outside the IDE. It is said to be undocked, or floating.
Put your mouse pointer on the title bar of the Output window, and drag it back to its original position so that it docks there.
Again, place your mouse pointer on the gray border at the top of the Output window.
Hold down your left mouse button, and drag it up until it is somewhere in the moddle of the IDE. Then release the button.
The output window moves, undocked, to the middle of the IDE.
Double-click on the title bar of the Output window.
This docks the window where it was last docked.

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