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Working with Menus
Tutorial Home >Hardware >Computer Basics >Computer Basics >How do I view menu selections in Windows?
Tutorial Home >Hardware >Computer Basics >Computer Basics >Using Windows >Working with Menus | |
| | Most application windows (including folder windows) sport menu bars just below their title bars. The menu bar generally looks like a set of words, such as File, Edit, View, and Help, laid out horizontally starting at the left edge of the screen. Double-click the My Computer icon on your desktop and note the words near the top of the My Computer window. | | | |
| | To select an option from a menu bar, you can click the option with your mouse. For example, to select File and thereby open the File menu, you simply click the word File in the menu bar. You can also hold down the Alt key and press the underlined letter in the option name. To select File, for instance, you would press Alt+F. To then select an option from the menu, just point to it and click. Note that if you start to select either a menu option or a button on the screen and then change your mind, move the mouse pointer to a blank area of the screen before you release the mouse button. | | | |
| | In some cases, selecting an option from one menu evokes another menu with a more specific set of options. (Menu options that lead to submenus typically have arrows to their right.) Whenever you point to a menu option that leads to a submenu, the menu automatically appears to the right of the current menu; if there is no room to the right, the submenu will appear to the left. | | | |
| | To select an option from that submenu, slide your mouse pointer directly to the right (or left if the submenu is to the left). Then, once your pointer is positioned on the submenu, move up or down as necessary to point to the desired option, and click the option to select it. You can also select options from pull-down or submenus by using the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key to highlight the option and then press Enter, or type the underlined letter in the option name. | | | |
| | To close a pull-down menu without making any selections, click anywhere outside the menu. If you prefer using the keyboard, you can either press Alt once or press Esc twice. To close a submenu, point to another option on the menu to its left or press Esc. | | | |
| | Many menus have key combinations displayed to the right of the menu options. You can use these keys, known as accelerator or shortcut keys, as an alternative to using the menu system. Pressing the accelerator key has exactly the same effect as selecting the associated menu option. Three of the most useful accelerator keys are Ctrl+C (opening the Edit menu and choosing the Copy option), Ctrl+X (choosing the Cut option from the Edit menu), and Ctrl+V (choosing the Paste option from the Edit menu). | | | |
| | Several other conventions are used in Windows menus to convey information about particular menu options. As mentioned, menu options that lead to submenus have arrows to their right. Check marks or black circles (typically to the left of the option name) indicate that the option is in effect. (These are often called toggle switches or buttons; choosing them once turns them on and choosing them again turns them off.) Options followed by ellipses (…) lead to dialog boxes, which you'll learn about next. Finally, in some Windows programs, when you point to an option on a pull-down menu or submenu, a short description of that option appears in the status bar at the bottom of the window. | | | |
| | Context menus (also called object or shortcut menus) appear when you right-click on an object. Each menu is a list of the operations you can perform. The content therefore varies from one type of object to the next. If you right-click a folder icon, you'll see a menu with options like Open, Copy, Delete, and Rename. If you right-click the icon for a floppy disk, you'll get a menu that includes Copy Disk and Format. If you right-click text in Word, you'll see a context menu for altering the selected text. | |
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