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Just Beyond the Basics
Point-and-click, OK.  What's next?

Note: the following article will have screen shots added soon to enhance the content.  A Yahoo! Group Mail note will be sent out to members when this happens, and a note will be posted to the Articles page.

Windows is not only an operating system, it's an environment.  Contrast this with MS-DOS; when a user runs programs under DOS, each individual program must maintain its own drivers, user interface, memory usage, and other "housekeeping" functions--but Windows (or any other modern graphical user interface, or GUI) provides an integrated set of functions available not just to any individual program, but to all programs which run under that GUI.  For example, install a printer in Windows and all Windows programs are able to print to it with all features available.

This article will discuss aspects of Windows that can make usage substantially easier.  Some of these user-helpers include the Windows Clipboard, the right-click menu, and keyboard shortcuts.

Since all modern operating systems can multi-task (run multiple programs simultaneously), there must be an organized way to transfer data from one program to another.  Some of this is handled in the background by Windows itself, other functions are left to the user.  The Windows Clipboard is the main user interface.

Another useful function is the menu that is accessed by means of the right mouse-button, the right-click menu.  Because Windows "knows where you are" in the interface, it can show you a menu based on that information.  this is known as context sensitivity, meaning that the right-click menu the user sees is based on what they are able to do with the item to which they are pointing.

Yet another example is context-sensitive help--the [F1] key is usually reserved for the Help function and will give different results based on which program is running in the foreground, sometimes even based on where you are within that particular program.

Keyboard mouse-helpers and shortcuts are also useful.  By combining keypresses with mouse actions a lot of time and effort can be saved.

Copy/Cut/Paste and the Clipboard
The Clipboard is one aspect of Windows that seems to confuse some users.  When we talk of copy-and-paste or cut-and-paste, this is the part of Windows that makes it possible.  Think of it as a scrapbook where you put newspaper clippings that you can paste to another page later.  One problem with this analogy is that when you cut up a newspaper, you leave holes--but the copy-and-paste function is more akin to cutting up an exact copy and leaving the original intact.  There are distinct uses for both cut and copy, such as rearranging paragraphs in an article versus taking content from a web page.

Have you ever received an email that had been forwarded about a million times?  The result is a one-paragraph joke (for example) that is preceded with a page or more of email addresses (not to mention all those > symbols).  Even if the joke is funny, it can be really annoying to wade through all those addresses.  If you want to send it along, copy-and paste only the text you want to a new message and save others from the same hassle.  Another example is a web page full of graphics and text with a recipe.  Print out the page and you might wind up with two pages of useless stuff just to get a copy of the recipe--but copy-and-paste that recipe to a text-file in Notepad, WordPad, or Word and you save paper, ink, and disk space when you save it and print it out.

Let's go over the process of copy-and-paste step-by-step.  A web page is a good example to start with; since its content is fixed, a cut won't work but a copy is possible--the source is safe from damage.   We will then paste the copied text into WordPad; though any text editor or word processor will do, WordPad is part of the standard Windows install by default and has features that make it useful here.  Launch WordPad now.

This is where the left mouse-button comes into play.  Start at the beginning of the block that you want to copy--perhaps just a word or two to start.  Note that the mouse-pointer turns into a text cursor that looks like a capital letter I when it is over text.  Press and hold the left mouse-button.  Then, while continuing to hold the mouse-button down, drag the mouse across the text to highlight it; not surprisingly, this is referred to as click-and-drag.  When you are done, release the mouse-button--the selected text is now highlighted.  This is important; in order for any action to have an effect, you must have an active element, in this case the highlighted text.  Move the mouse-pointer up to the menu bar at the top of the browser window.  Go to the Edit menu; when it drops down, select Copy.

Bring the WordPad program to the top and  make it active by clicking in the text area.  Move the mouse-pointer up to the menu bar at the top of the program window.  Go to the Edit menu; when it drops down, select Paste.  Voila!  The text that you originally selected in the browser window has now been copied to a file.

Since WordPad is a true (though limited) word processor, you are now also able to change the font (character appearance and size) as you see fit.  Once the text has been cleaned up, it can then be copied-and-pasted once more--into an email, for example--or saved to disk.

Most of the time copy-and-paste is the way to go, but there are distinct uses for cut-and-paste.  One application is changing the paragraph order in an article or paper.  The way that I write an article, for example, is to write down what I intend to convey to my audience in whatever order the information occurs to me, then rearrange it for flow and expand the content as needed.

Even in this case, copy-and-paste has its uses.  Past the thoughts-on-paper stage, I create a second file and copy-and-paste the original text to the new file.  This leaves the original intact in case I want to revert to it--or parts of it.

Once the bulk of the article is written in plain text, I copy-and paste the text to a word processor or an HTML editor such as the free Nvu, so that I can add hyperlinks and formatting for posting to a web site, as in the case of this article.

Although outside the scope of this article, it should also be mentioned that the Clipboard can hold graphics images, as well.  This function is used with programs like WinGIMP, MS Paint, and others.

Alternate methods
Right-Click Menus
It's not always necessary to go all the way to the top of the screen for the menu you need.  Because the right-click menu is context-sensitive, it's useful here.  When text has been highlighted, most of the menu entries will be edit-related.  As a means of getting used to the way things work, try right-clicking the mouse once in a while while using your computer to see what pops up (literally).

Keyboard Shortcuts
This is a good place to point out that most of the actions that I have described above have keyboard shortcuts.  The same Edit drop-down menu that provides the copy/cut/paste functionality also displays the shortcuts right alongside the menu items.  We will list the most-used of them here, along with some mnemonics to help you remember them:
Shortcuts often reduce the need to take your hands off the keyboard for some commonly-used commands, or make easy what might otherwise require multiple mouse-clicks.  Here's a few more that as user might find useful:
There are three keys that have been added to standard PC keyboards since the advent of Windows 95.  They reside in the bottom row, alongside the spacebar, [Alt], and [Ctrl] keys.  Two of them are the Windows keys; they bear the Microsoft Windows window-flag logo.  The third one is a highlight key-- not all programs use it.  The main use of the logo keys is to invoke the start menu, but they have other useful applications as well.  More on the keyboard and the special keys are here and here.  The second linked page, besides having a comprehensive list of shortcuts also has a good link for mouse tips, as well.

Another use for the Windows key is the [Win]+[Pause/Break] key combination.  This opens the System Properties window.

Keyboard/mouse combinations
There are keys that can enhance the function of the mouse.  The combination that is most pertinent to this discussion is Shift-click:,
which is an alternative to the click-and-drag method of highlighting text which is useful in some cases:
  1. Move the mouse-pointer to the beginning of the text block you wish to highlight.
  2. Click the left mouse-button.  This marks the start of the text block.
  3. Move the mouse-pointer to the end of the text block you wish to highlight.
  4. Hold down the [Shift] key and click the left mouse-button.  Known as shift-click, this marks the end of the text block.
Everything between the click and the shift-click is now highlighted.

Instead of the click-and-drag technique we discussed earlier, this shortcut is especially useful when highlighting long blocks of text.  This technique also works with most lists, as well.

Another useful mouse-keyboard combination (though not used as much in this context) is Ctrl-click.  I mention it here mostly for completeness; the combination of the [Ctrl] key and the left mouse-button can be used to highlight or un-highlight individual entries in a list; try it sometime.  Shift-click and Ctrl-click can be combined by selecting a list with Shift-click and deselecting individual items with Ctrl-click.
 
Related utilities
There are software programs available that enhance the Windows Clipboard.  At the very least, they add the ability to store multiple clips and choose between them.  As someone who manipulates a great deal of text, I can state that this is a very handy and useful addition.  There are several free utilities for this function, and several that are for sale.  Some of the free ones include Clipboard Buddy, Clipboard Magic, and Clipomatic.  They all work well; choosing one is primarily a matter of taste.  Here's a tool to remove the extra formatting characters from a forwarded email: Email Stripper.  It's a stand-alone executable, so it doesn't need to be installed.

A keyboard utility that I find indispensable is WinKey.  it can be used to disable the menu pop-up when the [Win] key is pressed and also to add other useful key combinations.

Last revised: 30-January-2005.  Copyright © 2004-2005 Michael Rudas.  All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the other members of the Oak Park Computer Club. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This article was created using the EditPad Classic text editor and Mozilla Composer HTML editor, both free. Permission is hereby granted to publish this article in an unmodified form, except for formatting (contact me for changes or updated versions). Technical questions and help requests can be directed to my tech-support mailbox, the link to which can be found on this site or the OPCC site.