Chapter 2: Running Programs

Choosing Settings on Dialog Boxes

A dialog box is a special kind of window that enables you to change settings or give commands in a program. For example, in most programs, when you give a command to open a file, you see an Open File dialog box that enables you to specify which file you want to open. You must exit the dialog box before continuing to use the program. Most dialog boxes include buttons to exit, with names like OK, Close, and Cancel.

As programs have gotten more complicated, with more and more settings, dialog boxes (like the one shown in Figure 2-3) have also gotten fancier. They may also include a menu bar, a toolbar, tabs (like the ones on manila folders), graphics, and buttons that display other dialog boxes.

Figure 2-3: Dialog boxes may contain many types of settings.

If a window has a question mark button in its upper-right corner, click it and then click the setting about which you want help. If the window doesn't have a question-mark button, click the Help button, if there is one, or press F1. Another way to obtain help is to right-click the setting you need information about and choose the What's This? command from the shortcut menu, if it appears.

Settings in Dialog Boxes

• Text box A box you can type in. To change the text in a text box, click in the box and edit the text. To replace the text with new text, select the entire contents of the box and type the new text. Some text boxes accept only numbers and have tiny up- and down-arrow buttons that you can click to increase or decrease the number in the box.
• List box A box that contains a list of options, one of which is selected. If the list is too long to fit in the box, a scroll bar appears along the right side of the box. To select an option from the list, click it. When a list box is selected, you can use the UP-ARROW or DOWN-ARROW keys to select an option. In many list boxes, typing a letter jumps down to the first item on the list that begins with that letter--a useful maneuver for long lists. Some list boxes include a text box just above them so you can type an entry in the text box or click an entry from the list box--your choice.
• Check box A box that can either be blank or contain a check mark (or X). If the check box is blank, the setting is not selected. To select or deselect a check box, click it. When a check box is selected, you can press SPACEBAR to select or deselect it.
• Radio button A group of round buttons that can either be blank or contain a dot. If the button contains a dot, it is selected. Only one of the buttons can be selected at a time. To select one button in a group of radio buttons, click it. When a button in a group of radio buttons is selected, you can press cursor-motion (arrow) keys on the keyboard to select the button you want.
• Pull-down menu A box with a downward-pointing triangle button at its right end (also called a drop-down menu). The box displays the currently selected setting. To choose a setting, click in the box or on the triangle button to display a menu and click an option from the menu. When you select a pull-down menu, pressing the DOWN-ARROW key usually displays the menu of options; if it does display the menu, press DOWN-ARROW repeatedly until the option you want is highlighted and press ENTER.
• Menu bar A row of commands, such as the menu bar at the top of a program window.
• Toolbar A row of buttons that give commands, similar to the toolbar at the top of a program window.
• Command button A box you can click to perform a command. Most dialog boxes include an OK or Close button and a Cancel button. If the label on the command button ends with an ellipsis (three dots), the button displays another dialog box. One command button on each dialog box is the default command button and has a darker border. Pressing ENTER has the same effect as clicking this button. When a command button is selected, you can press SPACEBAR to perform its command.

Figure 2-4: A dialog box with tabs is like a dialog box with multiple pages.

Moving Around a Dialog Box

One setting in the dialog box is selected, which means it's currently active. The selected setting is affected if you press a key on the keyboard. The selected setting is highlighted or outlined, depending on the type of setting.

Here are ways to select a setting in a dialog box:

• Click the setting you want to select.
• Press the TAB key to select another setting, usually below or to the right of the current setting. Press SHIFT-TAB to select the previous setting.
• If the setting you want to select has an underlined letter in its label, hold down the ALT key while you type that letter. For example, to select a setting labeled Save In, press ALT-I.
• If the dialog box has tabs along the top, you can see the settings associated with another tab by clicking that tab or pressing CTRL-TAB or CTRL-SHIFT-TAB. To select a tab along the top of the dialog box, click the tab or press the ALT key and type the underlined letter in the label on the tab. Once you select a tab, you can use the LEFT-ARROW and RIGHT-ARROW keys to display the settings for each tab. The UP-ARROW and DOWN-ARROW keys move from setting to setting, too--though their action varies from dialog box to dialog box.

Open, Save As, and Browse Dialog Boxes

The Open, Save As, and Browse dialog boxes in most programs have some special settings. All three dialog boxes provide you with a way of specifying a disk drive, a folder, and a file to work with. The standard versions of these dialog boxes have a column of icons down the left side and a special toolbar, as shown in Figure 2-5.

Figure 2-5: The WordPad Save As dialog box

• Places bar Vertical bar down the left side of the dialog box with icons that usually include My Recent Documents (for files you've used recently, regardless of their location), Desktop (for the top-level view of the items in your computer), My Documents (for your My Documents folder), My Computer (for a list of the available disk drives and partitions), and (if your computer is on a network) My Network Places (for a list of network drives). Click one of these buttons to change the view in the folder tree to the right.
• Look In or Save In pull-down menu The Open and Browse dialog boxes contain a Look In pull-down menu that enables you to specify the folder that contains the file you want to open. The Save As dialog box contains a similar Save In pull-down menu that enables you to specify the folder into which you want to save a file.
• Folder tree This large list box displays the current contents of the folder you have selected. Press F5 to update the display if you think that the folder contents have changed.
• Go To Last Folder Visited button Clicking this button goes back to the last folder you viewed.
• Up One Level button Clicking this button changes which folder is named in the Look In or Save In box by moving up one level in the folder tree (to the folder's parent folder). The folder tree listing is updated, too. You can also press BACKSPACE to move up the folder tree one level.
• Create New Folder button Clicking this button creates a new folder within the current folder.
• View Menu button Clicking this button displays a list of the views you can choose: Large Icons, Small Icons, List, Details, and Thumbnails.
• Files Of Type box Clicking in this box displays the types of files currently displayed in the folder tree. For example, in Microsoft Word, the Files Of Type box is usually set to display only Word documents, but you can choose to see all filenames.