Windows 8 Tips # 6 – Selecting an Item and Finding Greater Context

     In Windows 8, you can select individual items on the screen to show more details and in many cases, reveal additional commands via App bars and Context Menus.

     Touch – You can select an item to see more details by either performing a “Swipe-Select” in the Modern UI or a “Long-Press” in the Desktop.

     To perform a Swipe-Select, quickly swipe up or down on the item and a tick will appear on the top right corner of the item.

     To perform a Long-Press, tap & hold your finger on the screen until a square appears underneath it, then release your finger from the screen.

     Key/Mouse – Right-click on an item to select it and see more details.

Windows 8 Tips # 5 – App bars

     To keep the look of the Modern UI in Windows 8 crisp & clean, many app commands have been hidden from view in menu bars that, depending on the app you’re using, can be called into view from the top and/or bottom of the screen. To show these app command bars:

     Touch – Perform a small swipe inwards from the bottom or top edge of the screen.

     Key/Mouse – Right-click in open space to see the app command bars. Or use the shortcut: ( W Button ) + Z

Windows 8 Tips # 4 – Show Recent Apps

     To show a list of your recently used apps:

     Touch – Swipe in and back out from the left edge of the screen.

     Key/Mouse – Move the mouse pointer to the upper or lower left corners of the screen, then move the mouse along the left-hand edge of the screen towards the center. You can also use the keyboard shortcut: ( W Button ) + Tab. Hold down the ( W Button )  key and keep tapping the Tab key to cycle through the list.

Windows 8 Tips # 4 – Show Recent Apps

Windows 8 Tips # 3 – Quick Cycle

     To quickly cycle between open apps:

     Touch – Swipe inwards from the left edge of the screen.

     Key/Mouse – Move the mouse pointer into the upper left-hand corner and click to cycle through each app. You can also cycle through open apps with the keyboard shortcut: Alt + Tab

Windows 8 Tips # 3 – Quick Cycle

Windows 8 Tips # 2 – Quick Launch

     Have you been wondering why Microsoft removed the traditional Start button or how to find your apps, settings and files in Windows 8? The answers can be found in the evolution of desktop searching. The speed and functionality of Search Tools have improved so much in recent years that one of the quickest ways to find and launch a file or app, is to search for it. So instead of searching for the Start button, you should start with the Search charm.

     Touch – Swipe inwards from the right edge of the screen to bring up the Charms menu. Then tap on the Search charm. You can filter your results by tapping Apps, Settings or Files and even choose to search for items within certain Windows 8 apps, like an email message in the Mail app.

Windows 8 Tips

     Key/Mouse – Go to the Start Screen and just start typing to bring up the Search charm. You can filter your results by clicking Apps, Settings or Files and even choose to search for items within certain Windows 8 apps, like an email message in the Mail app.

     Note: You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts to jump directly to your desired search filter. To search for Apps use: ( W Button )  + Q. To search for Settings use: ( W Button ) + W. To search for Files use:  ( W Button ) + F.

Windows 8 Tips # 1 – Window Charms

     A menu bar of commonly used system commands, called “charms”, can be accessed from the right side of your screen. These charms include a handy shortcut back to the Start Screen as well as Search, Share, Devices and Settings. You can access the Charms menu in the following ways:

     Touch – Swipe inwards from the right edge of the screen.

     Key/Mouse – Move the mouse pointer to the upper or lower right corners of the screen, then move the mouse along the right-hand edge of the screen towards the charms as they appear.  

     Note: Many of the keyboard shortcuts used in Windows 8 involve a special key on your keyboard called the Windows Logo Key. On an existing keyboard it should look like this ( W Button )  or on a new keyboard like this ( W Button )  and is located in the bottom left-hand corner between the Ctrl and Alt keys. Throughout this guide I will use the new Windows 8 logo ( W Button )  to refer to this key. For example, the Charms menu can also be accessed via a keyboard shortcut, by pressing the Windows Logo Key and the letter “C” key at the same time. This shortcut can be showed as: (W Button) + C  

W Button

Terminal / microcomputer to mainframe computer layouts

     Today, many businesses still employ a terminal-to-mainframe layout, although the number of these systems in use is not what it used to be. During the 1960s and 1970s, the terminal-to-mainframe layout was in virtually every office, manufacturing, and academic environment. These types of systems are still being
used for inquiry/response applications, interactive applications, and data-entry applications, such as you might find when applying for a new driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicles

Using a terminal (or thin client workstation) to perform a text-based input transaction

      The terminal-to-mainframe layouts of the 1960s and 1970s used “dumb” terminals because the end user was doing relatively simple data-entry and retrieval operations, and a workstation with a lot of computing power and storage was not necessary. A computer terminal was a device that was essentially a keyboard and screen with no long-term storage capabilities and little, if any, processing power. Computer terminals were used for entering data into a system, such as a mainframe computer, and then displaying results from the mainframe. Because the terminal did not possess a lot of computing power, the mainframe computer controlled the sending and receiving of data to and from each terminal. This required special types of protocols (sets of rules used by communication devices), and the data was usually transmitted at relatively slow speeds, such as 9600 or 19,200 bits per second (bps).

     During this period, many of the same end users who had terminals on their desks also now found a microcomputer there (and thus had very little room for anything else). In time, terminal-emulation cards were developed, which allowed a microcomputer to imitate the abilities of a computer terminal. As terminal
emulation cards were added to microcomputers, terminals were removed from end users’ desks, and microcomputers began to serve both functions. Now, if users wished, they could download information from the mainframe computer to their microcomputers, perform operations on the data, and then upload the
information to the mainframe. Today, one rarely sees dumb computer terminals. Instead, most users use microcomputers and access the mainframe using either a terminal emulation card, a Web browser and Web interface, Telnet software (more on this in Chapter Ten), or a thin client. A thin client workstation is
similar to a microcomputer but has no hard drive storage.