Graphical User Interfaces

1

User interface Allows a user to interact with a computer.

GUI Graphical user interface allows the user to use a mouse to interact with the computer.Microsoft Windows is a common GUI used on PCs.

Desktop The main Windows background screen.

Icons Small images that represent programmes, files and folders on the desktop.

Cursor A pointer.

Hovering Holding a pointer over an icon.

Active window The window with the focus.

2

Common commands

Find Searches for a word, filename or folder name.

Undo Reverses the last action of the user.

Cut Deletes the selected text, file or folder and copies it to a special area of memory called the clipboard.

Paste Inserts the text, file or folder stored in the clipboard, at the location of the cursor.

3

Taskbar Displayed along the bottom of the desktop shows what programmes, files and folders are currently open.

System tray Shows what resident programmes are continuously running in the background, e. g. system clock.

Start button

Start menu

Shut down

Touch Allows the user to select icons and commands by touching the display screen with a finger instead of using a mouse.

4

Common icons Microsoft Outlook A messaging programme.

My briefcase A programme that allows the user to exchange files with a portable computer and to synchronise the files on each computer.

Network Neighbourhood or My Network Places

A feature that displays the names of other computers networked with the user’s.

My Computer A feature that lets the user see the resources on your computer.

Internet Explorer A browser programme that allows the user to view webpages on the Internet.

Recycle Bin A feature that stores deleted files and allows the user to restore them to their original location i.e. the equivalent to the trashcan on an Apple Mac system.

Some keyboard keys and combination of

keys

Shift key Allows the user to type in upper case (capital letters).

Mouse keys features Enables the user to use the numeric keypad to move the mouse pointer.

ALT + TAB Allows the user to switch between open programmes.

PRINT SCREEN key Lets the user copy an image of the whole screen to the Clipboard.

ALT + PRINT SCREEN Lets the user copy an image of the active window to the Clipboard.

5

The taskbar in Windows 7

- Text descriptions on the buttons are gone, in favour of big icons.

- The icons can be rearranged; no longer will restarting an application put all taskbar icons in the wrong order.

- The navigation between windows is now two-level.

- Mousing over an icon shows a set of window thumbnails (small pictures of an image or page on a computer screen), & clicking the thumbnail switches windows.

6

• Right clicking the icons shows a new UI device that Microsoft calls jump lists (they provide quick access to application features).

• They are also found on the Start Menu:

7

Other improvements

• The taskbar's system tray has been improved:

• a common complaint about the tray is that it fills with useless icons and annoying notifications.

• With 7, the tray is now owned entirely by the user.

• By default, new tray icons are hidden and invisible; the icons are only displayed if explicitly enabled.

• The icons themselves have also been streamlined (improved) to make common tasks (such as switching wireless networks) easier and faster.

8

• Explorer

• Windows 7 introduces a new concept named Libraries.

• Libraries provide a view onto arbitrary parts of the file system with organisation optimised for different kinds of files.

9