Terminology and Conventions

If you are new to the computer or Windows, some of the nomenclature can be confusing. Here is a description of some of the terminology that is used throughout this documentation:

1. Click, Click-On or Clicking-On. In many situations, you will be expected to move the mouse cursor to a specific location on the screen and then press the left or right mouse button. This is often referred to as “click-on.” So if you read that you should “click the left mouse button on” something, it means that you should move the mouse to that location and press the mouse button. If a particular mouse button is not specified, you can generally assume that it means the left mouse button.

2. Dragging and Dropping. Dragging is usually accomplished by moving the mouse cursor to a specific location on the screen, pressing the left mouse button down, and while the button remains pressed, moving the mouse cursor to a new location. This process is usually used to move something from one place to another and it gives the sensation of actually “dragging” the object around. Once the object reaches its destination, you “drop” the object by releasing the mouse button.

3. Menu Terminology. Most Windows programs have something called a “Menu Bar” at the top of the screen. The Menu Bar has a series of words like “File, Edit, View, etc.,” along its length. If you click-on a menu item, a menu box will drop down. Each menu box can contain additional menus so that you may have a series of menus, one inside the other. In this documentation, a series of menu items like this are specified by the words separated by a arrow "->." For example, "Action->Zoom->Zoom In" tells you to select “Action” from the main menu bar and then “Zoom” and then “Zoom In” from its submenus.