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Complete Idiot's Guide to Linux
(Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing)
Author(s): Manuel Ricart
ISBN: 078971826x
Publication Date: 12/22/98

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The Desktop

The desktop is the colored area between the taskbar and the panel. Individual program windows float above it. Under KDE you have several desktops. You control which desktop you are in by clicking on the buttons in the panel labeled “One,” “Two,” “Three,” and “Four.”

Another way to switch among desktops is to middle-click an empty area on the desktop. Doing so will display a menu that allows you to switch among desktops and applications.

The desktop can be used as a temporary location to place files and other things you are currently working on.

Applications

Applications are programs that present information in a window that you can open or close from your desktop. KEdit, the application pictured in the following figure, is a simple text editor you can use for editing files. To launch KEdit, you just click its icon on the panel.


KEdit: a simple text editor that is easy to use.

KEdit, like most applications, has menus. Menus are located directly below the application’s title bar. (KEdit’s menus include File, Edit, Options, and Help.) Menus list commands that you can choose to make the application do something.

Using the Mouse

The cursor is usually a small black arrow that moves when you move the mouse. You use the cursor to point at objects. The appearance of the cursor will change depending on what you are pointing at.

Other variations of the cursor include:

  I-beam for editing text
  X when your cursor is over the desktop

Other inhabitants of your desktop are icons. Icons are a graphic representation of files, applications, or other things that live in your computer.

You can do almost everything on your computer using your mouse, with the exception of typing text. The mouse controls the location of the cursor. You slide the mouse to point at an object on the screen. If you run out of room while sliding the mouse, you can just pick it up and put it back down somewhere else on the mouse pad; the cursor won’t move while the mouse is in the air. No matter how far you move the mouse, the cursor will stay on the screen.

Basic Mouse Actions

When you get the mouse to point at something, an icon or a word, you use the mouse button to perform one of these actions:

  Click: Without moving the mouse, press and release the left mouse button.
  Right-click: Without moving the mouse, press and release the right mouse button.
  Middle-click: Without moving the mouse, press and release the middle mouse button. If your mouse has only two buttons, press them both at the same time to simulate the middle button click. (This feels better with a three button mouse, though.)
  Press: Without moving the mouse, press the left mouse button and hold it down.
  Drag: Hold down the mouse button, move the cursor (you’re still holding the button, right?), and then release the mouse button. The secret to a successful drag is to resist the temptation to let go until the object you’re dragging is exactly where you want it.
  Double-click: Click twice in quick succession. If you click over text, the I-beam cursor is placed between characters. If you double-click, you select the word you are working on. Some applications might use triple-clicking to select a paragraph or perform some other application defined function.

Buttons, Menus, and Text Fields

The basic controls of a modern UI can be grouped into three categories:

  Buttons
  Lists and menus
  Text fields

Buttons

Buttons often are in application windows to give you easy access to certain commands. Buttons come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They are usually labeled with text and graphics indicating what they do. To activate a button, you click on it. If the button is just an image, when you move the cursor over it, the button might draw a border around itself to let you know that it is indeed a button and that you can click it. If you hover over a button for a while, the button might display a “tool tip” telling you what the button does.

Dimmed buttons are not active and cannot be clicked. (Well, you could click them, but nothing will happen.) Buttons appear dimmed either because their functionality is unavailable or their function is not applicable at the moment.


Buttons often look like this; note the change in color on an activated button.


These icons are buttons too!


Most applications have a toolbar with buttons. Move the cursor over an icon, and a border will appear around the button along with a tool tip, or text that tells you what the button does.

If after you start clicking a button, you decide you don’t want to click it after all, just move the cursor off the button before releasing the mouse.

Some buttons, called check boxes, allow you to enable multiple options available to your application. Check boxes under X Windows are rendered as squares.


You can select multiple check boxes in a group.

Other buttons, known as radio buttons, allow you to enable only a single option in the group. Clicking on a different option disables the previously selected option as it enables the new one. Radio buttons under X Windows are rendered as diamonds.


Check This Out:  
Radio buttons are called so because they’re like the radio buttons in your car stereo: They can only be set to one thing at a time.


You can only pick one radio button in a group.

Tabs are another kind of button. They allow an application to group and display information and controls in a limited amount of space. By clicking on a tab, you reveal a different set of controls and information.


The Options tab stores some controls…


…while the Desktops tab in the same panel stores an entirely different set of controls.

Sliders are used to set a value that is in a range. To use the slider, drag its knob to the desired value or position.


Sliders allow you to set a value in a constrained range, like choosing a volume level on your stereo.


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