Hints
This file contains some hints that you may find useful.
How to run an Application from Windows
It helps a great deal if you know where the application is.
- Press the Start button
- Carefully slide the pointer up until it covers the word Programs
- Carefully slide the pointer to the right, and then up or down
until it hits the application or the folder with the application
- When the pointer is over the application you wish to run,
click the left button.
Clicking the left button is often called
Left Clicking
To start the Task Manager on Windows
- Hold down the three keys Ctrl Alt Delete
at the same time. This is often called "The three fingered salute"
In earlier versions of DOS, this would reboot (restart) the system.
You can still use this reboot the system.
- Hit the Task Manager button
To kill a running Windows application
Start the Task Manager, select the run-away application and kill it.
- Start the Task Manager. (See the hint above)
- Select the tab Applications
- Select the application you wish to stop
If this application is running wild, it may say
Not Responding
- Hit the End Task button
To find JavaScript Errors using JavaScript Console
- Open the FireFox Broswer
- Open the webpage you wish to debug
- Select FireFox/Tools/JavaScript Console
- Look for your bugs.
Editors
To create Web pages, you will be using an editor that knows how to save
plain text.
Most word processors include embedded formatting commands,
so you will not be able to use Word, Final Word, or Word Perfect.
- On an IBM-compatible PC, you may use the Textpad editor.
- You can download a copy of vim, which includes keyboard commands
to edit files. Vim is an aquired taste, but well worth learning.
Viewing file attributes
- The standard view of a directory shows icons representing
the application that Windows expects to run the file.
This association is made by using the file extension,
the letters after the period in the file name.
Thus if you have a file named project.doc, the extension is
.doc and Windows will try
to open it with MicroSoft Word.
The Icon representing the file in a visual view is meant to
indicate this.
If you have a file named
project.xls, the extension .xls is assigned to
Microsoft Excel, so the icon looks like a spreadsheet, and
Windows will try to open it with Excel.
- There are multiple possible views for the files in a directory.
In the top of the window, there is an icon that looks like
a Bingo card. This is a drop-down menu with different
ways to view the files: try each in turn.
- Thumbnails gives you a view of what is in each file, using
the file extensions to guess how to interpret each file.
- Using the Details view shows file sizes, full names, and
modification dates. The titles in this view are clickable: you
can sort the files by name, size, type, or modification date.
This is very useful
The folder is probably sorted by name.
Sort by modification date by
clicking on the Modified button at the top of the window
on the right.
Note that the most recently modified files are at the top.
Click the button again.
Note that the most recently modified files at at the bottom.
This is a useful way to see what you have been working on recently.