Glossary of Windows Terms

Button -  A square box on the screen that can be "pressed" to perform a function.  You can "press" a button different ways.  1)  If the button is focused, press the Enter key.  2)  If the button has as label with a letter underlined, then press that letter's key on the keyboard.  For example, if the button says "New", pressing the "N" key will activate the button.

Clipboard - The term that Windows uses to describe a temporary storage place for text that gets cut or copied.  Anything in the Clipboard can be "pasted" into a report at a later time.  The current contents of the Clipboard get replaced every time you cut or copy new text.

Close - The term used to remove a window from the screen.  Windows can be closed via different methods.  1)  Clicking with the mouse on the little button located at the top right corner of the window that has the "X" on it.  2) Pressing any button called "Cancel", "Close", or "Exit".

Cursor - The flashing vertical bar that shows where you are currently typing.  Sometimes called the "insertion point".

Cursor Keys - Refers to the keys that have the "arrows" on them.  Pressing a cursor key will cause the Cursor to move in the appropriate direction.

Cut and Paste - "Cut" means "delete" and "paste" means insert.  Frequently in word processing, you will need to delete, copy, and insert chunks of text.  Text can be "cut" (deleted) out of the report and, if required, "pasted" (inserted) back into the report in another location.  Text can also be "copied" (not deleted) and pasted.

Double-Click - Refers to the mouse technique used to indicate which object is to be selected.  To perform a Double-Click, point the mouse's arrow at the object to select, then press the left mouse button twice in quick succession.  This will start up or select the object that you pointed to.

Edit Field - A rectangular box that you can type text into. 

Escape Key - The key that has "ESC" on it, usually at the top left corner of your keyboard.  Pressing the ESC key will normally cause something to be cancelled.  For example, pressing ESC may cause a window to close.

Focused - The term used to describe which object on a form that is currently selected and active.  For example, buttons that are focused have a small box drawn around their labels so that you can see that the button is focused.  Any button that is focused can be activated by pressing the Enter key.

Folder - A storage place for Icons.

Font - The term used to describe the style of the characters on the screen.  Typical fonts include "Arial", "Courier", and "Times New Roman".

Function Keys - Refers to the keys at the top of the keyboard that start with "F".  Function keys usually have specific actions that they perform, for example, saving a report.

Highlight Bar - Indicates (via a different color) which row is being selected in a table.  Many ChartNet screens show tables (with rows and columns) and require the user to select a specific row.  Placing the highlight bar on a specific row and pressing the Enter key will select that row.

Icon - The name that Windows gives the little pictures that appear on the screen that usually have a title underneath them.  Double-Clicking on an Icon will open up (start) that Icon.

Maximize - The term used to make a window bigger to fit the entire computer screen.  To maximize a window, use the mouse to click on the little button at the top right corner of the window that has a picture of a square.

Minimize - The term used to make a window disappear from the screen but keeps running on the Windows Task Bar.  To minimize a window, use the mouse to click on the little button at the top right corner of the window that shows a black line at the bottom of it.

Menu - A list of program options that usually appear at the top of a window.  Menus can have "sub-menus" underneath them.  Usually, a menu item can be selected by holding down the ALT key and pressing the key that is underlined in the menu item.  For example, to activate the menu item called "File", hold ALT and press F.

Mouse - A device that is attached to the computer that you control with your hand that is used to perform actions on the screen.  Usually the mouse has 2 buttons (left and right), that perform different actions. 

Selection - A chunk of text that has been selected or highlighted.  "Selected" text has a different color than non-selected text.  Once text is selected, different actions can be done on the selected text, for example, making all the characters the same font.  Selected text can also be cut, copied, and pasted.

Scrolling - Moving the highlight bar up or down in a list box or table.

Task Bar - The bar, usually at the bottom of the screen, that shows a button for each program that is currently running on the computer.  Clicking on a task bar button makes that program the active program.

Tool Bar - A bar on the screen that contains buttons that represent different "tools" available to the user.  For example, ChartNet's word processing screen contains a tool bar that has buttons for bold, underline, and italics.  Buttons on tool bars must be accessed by pointing to them with the mouse and pressing the left mouse button - they cannot be accessed via the keyboard.

Window - A rectangular box that appears on the screen that you can interact with by pressing its buttons, filling in edit boxes, selecting menu choices, etc.