Working with menus

Getting Started

Working with menus

Menus provide a way for you to send commands to the computer (tell the computer what you want the computer to do). When you open a window, menu options are listed from left to right just below the title bar on the menu bar. When you Click a menu item, a drop-down menu appears. Select the command you want to execute from the drop-down menu. An ellipse after a drop-down menu item signifies that there are additional options; if you select that option, a dialog box will appear. A menu is a list of commands or instructions that tell your computer to perform an action (such as opening a program or saving a document). The main menu associated with Windows 98 is the Start menu.

Most software programs will have their own menus that you will become familiar with as you use the program. You will usually find these menus at the top of the program window in an area called the menu bar. In Windows 98 you will use menus, cascading menus, submenus, and shortcut menus. The following illustrations show some of the kinds of menus and their parts.

The following are descriptions of the commands on the default Start menu:

• Run

opens the Run dialog box. You can type in the name of a program, folder, document, or Internet resource and Windows 98 will open it for you. There is also a Browse button to help you find what you want to open.

• Settings

opens a cascading menu with commands to open the Control Panel folder, Printers folder, Taskbar Properties dialog box, Folder Options dialog box, and Active Desktop commands.

• Document

quick access to the last 15 files that you have opened, as well as a shortcut to the My Documents folder.

• Favorites

opens a cascading menu, which helps you quickly access your Web page subscriptions, Active Channel subscriptions, and My Documents folder.

• Programs

opens the Programs menu which contains shortcuts to the software programs on your computer or that are available on your computer network including Windows Explorer and the Windows 98 Accessories.

There are some other symbols, called indicators, that you will sometimes find on menus. The following is an illustration of the View menu in Microsoft Word 97 showing the kinds of indicators you will find on program menus.

In Windows 98 and software programs that run on the Windows operating system, there are also shortcut menus which you open by right-clicking an object or area on the desktop or in a program window. The commands available on a shortcut menu depend on the location of the pointer when it is clicked. For example, the Windows 98 desktop shortcut menu allows you to create shortcuts and arrange shortcut icons as well as customize yourActive Desktop.