Window Concepts:
An Introductory Guide for Visually Disabled Users

Sarah Morley


Different Formats of this Guide, and Accompanying 
Tactile Diagrams

This Guide can be obtained in print, large print, 
audio, IBM and Apple disk, and braille formats, 
and the accompanying set of tactile diagrams 
showing the screen at various times, to illustrate 
the concepts described in this Guide are useful, 
but not essential.  These diagrams can be 
purchased from:

Sensory Disabilities Research Unit
Psychology Division
University of Hertfordshire
Hatfield
Hertfordshire  AL10 9AB
UK

Tel  +44 1707 284629
Fax  +44 1707 285059


Contents

A  Introduction

B  Introducing Windows 
B 1  The Desktop Metaphor 
B 2  Standards and Similarity Between Applications 
B 3  Graphical User Interface and Direct 
Manipulation 
B 4  Multiple Applications 
B 4a  Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) 

C  What are Icons
C 1  Icon Identification 
C 2  Selecting vs Activating an Icon 
C 3  Types of Icon  
C 4  Minimising a Window to an Icon  

D  What are Windows?  
D 1  The Frame  
D 2  Accessing Information Beyond the Frame  
D 2a  Maximising and Resizing the Window  
D 2b  Moving the Window  
D 2c  Scrolling the Window  
D 3  The Title Bar  
D 4  The Menu Bar  
D 5  The Control Menu  
D 6  The Three Types of Window  
D 6a  Application Windows  
D 6b  Document Windows  
D 6c  Dialogue Boxes and Message Windows  
D 7  Active and Inactive Windows  
D 8  Moving Window to Window  
D 8a  Document Window Listing  
D 8b  Task Listing and Switch-To Function  

E  Menus in More Detail  
E 1  Menu Bar (main menu)  
E 2  Short-Cut Keys  
E 3  Accessing the Menu Bar  
E 4  Pull-Down Menus  
E 5  Cascading Menus  
E 6  Cancelling Menu Activation  
E 7  Disabled Menu Items  

F  Program Manager  
F 1  Program-Item Icons  
F 1a  Program-Item Properties  
F 2  Program Manager Windows - Program Groups  
F 3  Common Program Groups  
F 3a  Main Group  
F 3b  Accessories, Games and Applications Program 
Groups  
F 4  System Focus in Program Manager  
F 5  Looking at Icons Within One Program Group 
Window  
F 6  Moving the System Focus to Another Program 
Group Window  
F 7  Changing the Size and Shape of Program Group 
Windows  
F 8  Saving Changes in Program Manager  

G  What are Dialogue Boxes?  
G 1  Message Boxes  
G 2  Navigating inside Dialogue Boxes  
G 2a  Tab to Move Element to Element  
G 2b  Short-Cut Keys  
G 3  Pushbuttons  
G 4  Checkboxes  
G 5  Radiobuttons  
G 6  Editfields  
G 7  Listboxes 
G 8  Comboboxes  

H  Glossary  


A  Introduction

This Guide was written in an attempt to relieve 
some of the concern about accessing Graphical User 
Interfaces (GUIs, pronounced gooeys), in 
particular Microsoft (MS) Windows, by describing 
the fundamental concepts behind Windows especially 
for visually disabled users, and providing enough 
keyboard commands that the new user, already 
familiar with computers, could comfortably start 
to work in this novel environment. 


What is the problem caused by GUIs?

In the past, accessing DOS applications has been 
possible because all the information on the screen 
is text-based: every item on the screen has a 
coded value - an ASCII character value and a 
colour value.  There is a standard array of 
character positions arranged in 25 rows and 80 
columns.  Even when the applications became more 
graphical, using menu bars, pop-up messages and 
pull-down menus, standard screen-readers (software 
which interprets what is on the screen and passes 
it to a speech synthesiser or to a braille 
display) were able to follow these developments.  
This was because the more pictorial information 
was still based on ASCII characters and was 
displayed in highly restricted positions on the 
screen. 

The problem for screen-readers posed by GUIs is 
that now they can no longer read exactly what is 
on the screen.  This comes from the new way in 
which the information is passed to the screen.  
Instead of displaying ASCII characters with coded 
values, the screen is made up of hundreds of tiny 
dots, called pixels, on a grid 480 by 640.  These 
dots simply have a colour, and depending on the 
grouping of these coloured dots, different objects 
are displayed.  This is what makes verbalisation 
of the information on the screen much more 
difficult.  Screen-readers must now be able to 
pick out elements that will make what is on the 
screen meaningful, so the user can respond 
appropriately. 

To do this, program writers must build an overlay 
model of objects and events in the GUI interface, 
which is called an "Off Screen Model", which is 
used to guide how the access software looks deeper 
into the program code, to make sense of that the 
dots really are, and to translate it into 
something useful in speech or braille.  In 
addition, Windows can display information anywhere 
on the screen, in any size, and screen-readers 
must be able to identify where to focus at any 
moment. DOS made this easy, as tracking the 
position of your cursor focuses on the place you 
are working.  But Windows has multiple cursors and 
many possible screen positions for these different 
cursors, which makes tracking events more 
difficult.

The place where the information about these 
graphically presented events and cursors can be 
grabbed by the access program - the step between 
the traditional ASCII bits and bytes and the 
exterior graphic, is known as a "hook".  The 
encouraging news is that manufacturers of 
commercial software are agreeing to demands that 
they leave these "hooks" available to developers 
of access systems.

There seems to be a general feeling that visually 
disabled people will never be able to work with 
Windows, but there is a lot of work in this field 
which should encourage prospective users.  Not 
only are there access technologies making it 
possible to use GUIs, commercial writers are 
leaving in hooks for these developers, and also 
training and support are being developed to 
facilitate effective use of the GUI by the 
visually disabled user.  Although the GUI may not 
be everyone’s favourite interface to their 
computer (even among sighted users), it is a fact 
of life that the GUI will probably replace most 
DOS applications in the next few years, and this 
will have a dramatic effect on all of us at work, 
and also in our homes.  

This Guide is designed to dispel some of this 
anti-GUI feeling, and to reassure prospective 
users that there is a good chance that they will 
be able to work as effectively with GUIs as 
sighted users.  The author believes that once 
users understand the simple concepts behind 
Windows and its applications, they will find it 
much easier to work in Windows with whatever 
access technology they have available to them.  
The training of visually disabled users in Windows 
requires a different strategy to training users in 
a single-command line system, since users cannot 
see the screen as a whole, and concepts are 
therefore not easily recognised.  This Guide is 
intended to help relieve this problem, and is 
based on the training which was part of the EU 
project “Graphical User Interfaces for Blind 
Persons, (GUIB) Project”.  During this training, 
tactile diagrams were used, to illustrate the 
screen at various times, which proved useful in 
making the descriptions clearer.

This document introduces visually disabled users 
to the concepts behind MS-Windows, and describes 
enough of the basic functionality to get you 
started in Windows.  The description of the 
fundamental elements of Windows and its 
applications, and what to do with them, should 
give you sufficient knowledge so that you can 
start to work in Windows applications on your own.  
However, it is certainly not the only 
documentation you will need to work effectively in 
Windows.  There are many books introducing new 
(sighted) users to Windows, which contain useful 
introductory sections on Windows basics, although 
the descriptions of interaction with objects on 
the screen are often along the lines of “clicking 
on the minimise button minimises the window to an 
application icon on the desktop”, with no further 
description.  This is obviously not of great use 
to the visually disabled new user.

However, as the importance of producing 
documentation for non-sighted users spreads to 
those in authority, appropriate documentation is 
being written, and Microsoft manuals are being 
made accessible, and institutions are producing 
useful books, for example, Recordings for the 
Blind have an Introductory tape/disk on Windows 
3.1, and a book “Windows from the Keyboard” by 
Nicholas Baran should be available in braille by 
now. Microsoft in Reading also have a free 
"Microsoft Access to Windows Software Pack", which 
includes details on keyboard mousing. 

I am not trying to sell you Windows, but there are 
some very good reasons why Windows has become so 
popular among sighted users.  It has made DOS more 
accessible for everyday use, and makes it easier 
for less experienced users to work with their 
computer’s disks, files and applications, by 
providing lots of prompts.  The graphical user 
interface allows for powerful and flexible 
presentation of lots of information at the same 
time.  Windows allows you to run more than one 
application at the same time.  There is no 
restriction on the amount of memory Windows can 
use: it’s applications can use as much memory as 
the computer can hold.  To make life even easier, 
Windows encourages a common look and feel for its 
applications.   Windows is not an operating system 
(yet).  It is an operating environment that sits 
on top of DOS, and DOS remains the underlying 
control program for the computer.  Windows 
provides many new functions that DOS alone does 
not.

This Guide specifically refers to MS-Windows 3.0 / 
3.1.  The next version, Windows ’95 (which has 
been delayed to ensure that it is compatible with 
existing hardware and software) will look 
different, but the basic concepts should still 
hold.  This version was designed to be a more user 
friendly Windows to replace the current one, and 
will have a special keyboard with three extra keys 
for new special functions it provides. 

Before the description of Windows concepts it is 
important to note the difference between the use 
of the term Windows with a capital w: the name of 
the operating environment, and of windows with a 
lower case w: the rectangular areas on the screen 
in which you work.  These will be described later 
on.


B  Introducing Windows

There are two main reasons for working in the 
Windows environment: firstly, to reduce memory 
load and make working easier, and secondly, to run 
multiple applications at the same time.  These 
aspects are discussed in the following sections.


B 1  The Desktop Metaphor

Windows is based on the "Desktop Metaphor" to make 
accessing your computer feel easier.  The 
principle is based on real-life: that you are 
sitting at your desk (your screen), which has a 
filing system in drawers (your hard disk).  You 
can arrange both your desktop and your hard disk 
however you choose.

On some areas on your desk you have a variety of 
things relating to report writing - a typewriter, 
a dictionary, other documents you are referencing. 
In another area on your desk there might be things 
to do with numerical analysis and storage - data 
sheets, a calculator, financial reports, a 
statistics manual. In another area on your desk, 
you might have your appointments diary, and an 
address book.  In a single work session, you might 
want access to all this information, and so you 
have spread it all out on your desk, some of it is 
overlapping, and you can see little bits of all of 
them, and all of some of them.  You might just 
leave some room by your hands, for your notetaker, 
for example.  Windows allows you to have all of 
these activities immediately available to you at 
the same time, without having to put one activity 
away before starting the next one. 

The entire surface of your desk is known as the 
“desktop” in the Windows environment, and each 
activity (typewriting, statistics, clock) has its 
own enclosed area on the desktop called 
application windows.  These are described in more 
detail in Section D 6.  Examples would be having a 
wordprocessor, a statistics package and a clock 
application each having their own application 
windows open on the desktop.  The desktop is the 
area on which all windows appear, and if there are 
no windows open, only the desktop would be 
visible. 

The desktop can be full of many open windows, 
overlapping, of different sizes and shapes, but it 
could be fairly neat and clear, and does not have 
to be completely filled by these application 
windows.  The desktop can be organised how you 
wish; it might be covered in various sheets of 
paper, or these papers might be orderly and 
stacked up in one corner, or they might all be 
filed neatly in your filing cabinet.  Windows 
allows you to arrange your desktop how you like at 
any time. 

It is used to remind you of applications which are 
still currently running, but which have no windows 
open.  For example, you have moved your typewriter 
to the edge of your desk, out of the way, and it 
has no paper in it.  It is still accessible for 
immediate use, you did not put it back in the 
cupboard - and to use it again, you simply put it 
within hand’s reach, and insert a piece of paper.  
This event is represented by pictures on the 
desktop, indicating your word processor 
application, for example.  This application icon 
sits on your desktop, still running, but without 
any open windows, and to use the application 
again, you must open a window in which to work.  
Application icons are described in more detail in 
Section C 3.  If you don't want to work with your 
typewriter any more, you simply put it back in the 
cupboard. 

There are a number of advantages to being able to 
run and to have lots of applications on the screen 
at the same time.  The main advantage is to be 
able to work quickly between applications. You can 
see the data in each application at the same time, 
and keyboard commands are minimised, since you 
don’t have to close one application, then start 
the other to work in another application.  Windows 
allows you to use data from one application in 
another, by copying, cutting and pasting to the 
clipboard.

The clipboard is a useful facility that Windows 
provides for temporary storage of data.  A cut or 
copy command stores selected data in memory on the 
clipboard until either another cut or copy command 
is issued, or until you exit Windows.  The paste 
command will insert the contents of the clipboard 
where you request.  This could be to a new 
location in the same document, or in another 
document, or even in another application.  The 
application Clipboard Viewer can be used to view 
the current contents of the clipboard.


B 2  Standards and Similarity Between Applications

All windows applications have to survive in the 
Windows environment, which requires designers to 
build all applications to certain standards.  
Hence, different applications tend to behave in 
the same way, so unlike different DOS applications 
which each have their own set of possibly complex 
keyboard commands, most Windows applications can 
be driven using the same keyboard commands.  This 
general consistency means that it will be easier 
for users to understand new applications.

So, to initiate saving a file, Word for Windows 
uses the same keyboard commands as Excel.  
Although not all applications do use exactly the 
same commands or layout, once you learn the basics 
of operating Windows applications, you won't have 
to search through manuals for daily task commands 
every time you use a new application. 

One of these standards is that every application 
is driven from a single line of high-level 
options, a menu bar (or main menu) containing 
between 3 and 10 options depending on the 
complexity of the application, and is used in the 
same way in every application.  This is described 
in more detail in Section E 1.

Another standard Windows function is the method of 
data selection, in order to, for example, cut, 
copy, delete, move, a piece of text.  Holding the 
Shift key down while using the keyboard movement 
keys (eg cursors, Tab, PgUp etc)  puts a highlight 
on the data.  When you release the shift key, the 
highlighted text is 'selected'.  This applies in 
most word processors, spreadsheets, and so on. 


B 3  Graphical User Interface and Direct 
Manipulation 

The Graphical User Interface affords more visually 
aesthetic and often visually practical means of 
interaction than DOS applications usually do.  As 
outlined in the Introduction,  because the screen 
can be divided into an infinite number of 
sections, and objects are simply dots, called 
pixels, not text, many objects can be displayed on 
the screen at any time, in any position, in any 
order.  In many applications you can create and 
display graphics in text documents, you can use 
and display different styles and sizes of font, 
rather like a newspaper, with WYSIWYG presentation 
(What You See Is What You Get): formatting like 
bold and underlined are shown on the screen as 
they will appear when printed, and so on. 

Sighted users often have overlapping windows on 
their screen, (just like overlapping pieces of 
paper on your desk) to enable them to see some of 
the content of each application window, as memory 
joggers, or for browsing data in one while working 
in the other.  This arrangement may be useful in 
some situations for non-sighted users too, but you 
may prefer to arrange them in a more orderly 
manner.  Tiling the windows can be useful, so that 
they fill the screen like wall-tiles, with no 
spaces between them and no overlapping windows.  
Alternatively you could  cascade the windows, so 
that they look like a deck of cards spread towards 
you, so you can see the top edge of each card, and 
the whole of the front card.  Maximising the 
window to fill the whole screen can sometimes be 
the easiest way to avoid clutter on the screen.

Direct manipulation is the term used for executing 
tasks by handling objects themselves with a 
pointing device.  For example, to open an 
application from an icon, the mouse pointer is 
moved onto the icon, and the mouse button is 
double-clicked.  This launches the application.  
To move an icon representing a file from one 
directory to another, a drag-and-drop operation is 
performed by pointing at the file icon with the 
mouse, holding down the mouse button and moving 
the mouse pointer to the new directory, and then 
dropping the file icon into this directory by 
releasing the mouse button.

Almost all Windows direct manipulation 
capabilities can also be executed by keyboard 
commands.  Some of these keyboard commands can be 
tailored (more or less easily) by the user to 
their own preferences.  (The book “Windows from 
the Keyboard” by Baran might be a useful reference 
book).


B 4  Multiple Applications

Windows enables us to run several applications at 
the same time, and to have them all on the screen 
at once.  For example, if you were producing a 
report, you would have your word processor open, 
maybe also a spreadsheet to perform calculations, 
and to study data while you are working in the 
wordprocessor.  You might also have a database 
open, to examine which companies you should 
reference in your report, for example.  In 
addition, you might have a clock running, with its 
alarm set, and a Print Manager application 
running, to keep a check on your printing.  This 
is all based on the Desktop Metaphor (see Section 
B 1).

Another way in which Windows relieves memory load 
for users is to start an application called 
"Program Manager" as soon as Windows loads.  This 
presents icons for programs that you can start 
from Windows, organised into user-defined groups.  
This application is usually the first application 
users experience in Windows, and is therefore 
described in detail in Section F.


B 4a  Object Linking and Embedding (OLE)

Windows 3.1 allows documents to contain 
information created in different applications by a 
process known as OLE (Object Linking and 
Embedding).  Although it is not suitable to 
discuss OLE in detail here, it is mentioned 
briefly as it is a powerful feature of Windows.  
Even if your access technology cannot view 
graphics, if it can tell you that a document 
contains an embedded or linked object, it is 
important to know what these are, and how they 
work, or you could find yourself unexpectedly 
opening applications.

Put simply, Object Embedding inserts a copy of a 
source document, eg, an audio file or a graphic, 
into a destination document, eg, a word-processing 
document.  This is similar in concept to copying 
and pasting (using the clipboard area in memory) 
from the source into the destination. Thus, the 
embedded object is independent of the source 
object, so if you edit the embedded (copied) 
version, the source (original) document is not 
affected.

Object Linking is a similar process, however, the 
destination document does not contain an actual 
copy of the source document, but rather an 
interactive Link to the source document.  This 
means that any future changes made to the source 
document will be reflected in the destination 
document.

Windows also allow you to access, and to edit the 
embedded or linked document from within the 
destination document.  It does this by 
automatically launching the application required 
to edit this embedded or linked document.  Here, 
the difference between Embedding and Linking is 
particularly important.  Changes made to embedded 
files will only affect the copy stored in the 
destination document; whereas, changes made to 
linked documents will actually be made to the 
original source document.

It is important to note here that if you are 
working on a network, and you launch the 
application from the linked object, any changes 
you save to this object will be updated in all 
documents which have a link to this object - 
important if you are working with other people 
using the same source files!

Precise details of how to perform OLE operations 
(which may use the Object Packager program, as 
well as the usual copy and paste techniques) 
cannot be described here, as they are a relatively 
advanced feature of Windows.  Users are encouraged 
to re-read the menu bar when they are 
investigating an OLE object, since the menu 
options may change, depending on the object 
concerned. 


C  What are Icons?

An icon is a small picture that represents some 
task or operation, file or program.  Icons are 
designed to be manipulated with the mouse, but 
almost every operation can also be executed with 
keyboard commands.  Icons in some applications can 
be moved around the screen, and in some cases, 
this means that you are moving or copying a file 
or a directory from one place to another.  For 
example, dragging a file icon from one directory 
and dropping it in another in the application File 
Manager will move the file.  This would perform 
the same function as the DOS command: copy 
c:\olddir\text.doc c:\newdir\


C 1  Icon Identification

Many icons have names underneath them, which make 
them easy to identify, and for screen-readers to 
tell you what the icon is.  Other icons which 
appear on the visual toolbar in Word for Windows, 
are alternatives to using keyboard commands to 
execute a command.  For example, a little picture 
of a printer, instead of choosing Print from the 
menu bar.  It is unclear how screenreaders will 
cope with icons such as these, but since the 
information that this icon refers to the print 
menu is somewhere in the program code, presumably, 
this information can be made accessible to access 
software.  At the moment however, this is not a 
big problem, since the toolbar is usually an 
option, with keyboard and menu alternatives.


C 2  Selecting vs Activating an Icon

There is a subtle, but important difference 
between selecting an icon and activating it.  When 
you select an icon, (eg by using the arrow cursor 
keys), you move a highlight onto it, and it 
becomes ready to move or to activate, or to access 
its control menu (see Section D 5).  When you 
activate an icon on the other hand, you open the 
application, and the application window appears 
(see Section D 6).  See Section F on Program 
Manager for more details on these operations.


C 3  Types of Icon

There are 3 types of icon you can use from the 
keyboard in Windows, although the distinction may 
not be totally clear until you have also read the 
section on types of windows (Section D).

a)  Application Icons represent applications which 
are currently running, but which have no open 
windows and have been minimised.  They are 
usually displayed at the bottom of the 
screen, on the desktop, as minimised icons.  
These are not to be confused with program-
item icons.

b)  Program-Item Icons represent applications you 
can start from Windows from Program Manager.  
These icons appear in groups, and can be 
activated (started) with Return, after 
highlighting them with the arrow cursor keys. 

c)  Document Icons are document windows that are 
minimised, and may indicate an iconised 
document from a word processor for example.  
The labels that appear below the icons will 
indicate which type of icon it is, and which 
application created it.  The document icons 
appear in the application window they belong 
to. 

The fourth type of icon does not represent a 
window, or a program, but may represent a file, 
for example, in the application File Manager, 
which can be selected with the keyboard, and then 
the menu is used to execute tasks which otherwise 
might be done with the mouse.  Or it might 
represent a task, on a toolbar in an application, 
for example, a picture of a printer in Word for 
Windows represents the command to print.  These 
are the icons which you may not be able to access 
and directly operate with the keyboard from within 
Windows. 


C 4  Minimising a Window to an Icon

Minimising / iconising a window to an icon is done 
from the Control Menu of the window, (see Section 
D 5) (accessed with Alt+Spacebar for an 
application window, and Alt+Hyphen for a document 
window).  The minimise button is shown as a 
downwards pointing arrow-head on the right hand 
side of the window’s title bar. 


D  What are Windows?

Windows are rectangular bordered areas on the 
screen which represent a means of communication 
between you and a task.   Every application that 
you run has its own corresponding window on the 
desktop, and so multiple applications will result 
in multiple windows on the screen.  These can 
overlap, or be arranged neatly on the screen, as 
you wish.

Windows uses three types of window: Application, 
Document and window-like boxes called dialogue 
boxes and message boxes.  Application windows are 
the most important windows of all, so these will 
be described here, and a description of the 
differences between these, Document and Dialogue 
box windows will be given in Section D 6.

Windows uses the simple "parent and child" 
metaphor to organise windows into logical groups.  
A child window is contained within its parent 
window.  A parent window is usually an 
application, and only parent / application windows 
have menu bars.  Some applications can have more 
than one child window.  These child windows can be 
arranged in any way - but within the parent 
window.  For example, a word processor (with a 
menu bar) could have more than one document open 
at a time, and each document appears in its own 
window (without a menu bar), and these child / 
document windows can overlap, or cover each other 
entirely, or be neatly arranged, or be small icons 
representing the document, but they all appear 
inside the application window they belong to. 

An Application window consists of four main 
components: 

1. A frame, 

2. A title bar, 

3. A menu bar (also called main menu),

4. A control menu.  

These will be discussed in turn.


D 1  The Frame

The frame defines the edges of the window.  The 
frame restricts the amount of information you can 
see at any time, and this frame can usually be 
resized if you wish to see more or less 
information in the window.

For example, imagine you have a piece of A4 card, 
with a rectangular hole cut out of the middle, 
which is about 3 inches square.  If this card is 
placed on top of a braille page for example, you 
can only read 3 by 3 inches of braille, which is 
not always meaningful if the text is on a line 6 
inches long, but might be enough as a memory aid.  
To see more information on our braille page, we 
must cut out a bigger hole in our card, so that we 
can almost see all of the A4 braille page.  This 
is also true of windows.  To see more information 
in a window we must enlarge the frame.  This is 
described in the following sections. 


D 2  Accessing Information Beyond the Frame

To see more and more information in a window, or 
to reveal information in a window currently 
obscured, there are three things we can do.  One 
method of changing the size of a window is to 
change the size of the window frame, either by 
maximising or by changing one edge at a time, 
another is to move a window, and a third is to 
scroll through the information in the window.


D 2a  Maximising and Resizing the Window

To see as much as possible, we could make the 
frame as big as currently possible - known as 
maximising the window.  Maximising is done from 
the control menu of the window, (Alt+Spacebar, for 
an application window, or Alt+Hyphen for a 
document window, then X for maximise).  Maximise 
has its own button, shown on the very right hand 
side of the window’s title bar, as a box with an 
upwards pointing arrow-head in it, and clicking on 
this with the mouse will maximise the window.  You 
can maximise the size of any application or 
document window, but dialogue boxes cannot be 
resized. and therefore do not have a maximise 
button.  

A window can only be maximised to fill its parent 
window - so if the parent is maximised to fill the 
whole screen, then the document window can also be 
maximised to fill the whole screen.  If a document 
window is maximised, the title bar of the parent 
window changes to include the title of the 
document window.  

To simply change the size of the window slightly, 
you can move one edge of the frame at a time, 
using the Control menu, choosing Size, and then 
selecting and moving one of the window's frames 
with the direction cursor keys on the keyboard.  
You cannot resize a dialogue box at all.


D 2b  Moving the Window

You might want to move a window around on the 
screen, for example, to be able to see two 
documents at the same time, arranged side-by-side.  
To move a window, you must access its control 
menu, and select Move (Alt+Spacebar for an 
application window, Alt+Hyphen for a document 
window or dialogue box, then, M for Move).  Then 
use the direction cursor keys to move the window 
around the screen to its new  position, and press 
Return to drop it.


D 2c  Scrolling the Window

The other way to see more information in a window 
is to scroll around the information, without 
moving the position of your text insertion cursor, 
like scrolling through text in a DOS editor, for 
example.  Often a window has room to display only 
a small portion of its total contents.  So, in a 
word processor document, maybe the address and 
first line of a letter might be visible on the 
screen, but to see another part of the document, 
you must scroll through the document. 

Any window that contains information which cannot 
all be displayed with the window that size, 
displays scroll bars vertically and horizontally 
around the window (much like the EDIT program 
supplied with MS-DOS from V5).  These scroll bars 
have an arrow-head at each end, and clicking on 
these with the mouse changes the position of the 
view to a new portion of the information.  (Like 
moving the cut-out portion of our card to a new 
position on the braille page).  The insertion 
point is not moved in this way (see Section G 6 on 
Editfields for how to move the insertion point) - 
only the view changes.  If your access technology 
permits you may be able to do this. 

If not, then scrolling through the text from the 
keyboard is different -  in that you move your 
text insertion cursor around in the window 
instead, so changing the view of the information.  
The direction cursor keys and other combinations 
like PgUp / Dn, Ctrl+PgUp / Dn, and Ctrl+Home / 
End, move the insertion cursor through the text in 
discrete larger jumps.

D 3  The Title Bar

The title bar is at the very top of every window 
and it displays the window's title.  Active and 
inactive windows are usually differentiated by 
different colours (for more on active / inactive 
windows, see Section D 7).  By default, Windows 
uses blue for active windows, and white for 
inactive ones.  Note, these colours can be changed 
by the user.  This Guide refers to blue and white 
title bars throughout.

If the window has the system focus, and is 
therefore active, the title bar is blue on the 
screen.  If it does not have the system focus, and 
is therefore inactive, the title bar is white.  
This also applies to dialogue box title bars, and 
document window title bars.  If you have opened a 
document, the title bar of the document window 
will contain the name of the open file.  If you 
have maximised the document window to fill its 
parent window, the title bar of the parent window 
will display both its application name, and the 
name of the document window.

The title bar houses a button for the control menu 
of all windows, shown on the very left hand side, 
as a box with a hyphen in it.  For windows which 
are sizeable, the title bar also displays maximise 
and minimise buttons on the right hand side, as 
boxes with upwards, and downwards pointing arrow 
heads respectively.  If the window is already 
maximised, the maximise symbol is replaced by a 
double headed arrow, which restores the window to 
its previous size.


D 4  The Menu Bar

The menu bar provides a horizontal list of options 
for controlling the application and is accessed 
with the Alt key, or individual options with their 
short-cut keys.  The menu bar is described in more 
detail in Section E 1.  Menu bars are only found 
in application windows.


D 5  The Control Menu

The control menu (also called a system menu) 
provides a pull-down menu list of options for 
manipulating a window.  This is typically used to 
perform tasks such as changing the size of a 
window, moving and closing it without the use of 
the mouse.  It is accessed by the short-cut 
command Alt+Spacebar, but can also be accessed 
from the menu bar, by pressing Alt, then the left 
direction cursor key, (because it is a button on 
the left hand side of the title bar, shown as a 
box with a hyphen in it).  All applications, 
document windows, dialogue boxes, and application 
and document icons have control menus.  The 
control menus of applications have their own 
short-cut key Alt+Spacebar (a possible memory aid: 
“a” for application, spacebar has an “a” in it), 
but the control menus of document windows, like a 
word-processing file, document icons, and dialogue 
boxes are accessed by Alt+Hyphen.


D 6  The Three Types of Window

Windows uses 3 types of window: Application, 
Document, and window-like boxes called dialogue 
boxes (for interactive tasks) and message boxes 
(for messages and warnings).  Application windows 
and the parent / child concept were described in 
detail earlier in this section, and the following 
description outlines the main differences between 
the other types of windows.  An example of 
document windows is given in Section F 2, where 
group windows in Program Manager are described as 
an example, and Dialogue boxes are described in 
the Dialogue box Section G.


D 6a  Application Windows

Application windows contain any task or program 
that is running.  The name of the application, 
(together with the name and directory path of any 
maximised document window it has open) appears on 
the window's title bar.  The control menu of an 
application window is accessed by Alt+Spacebar 
(“a” for application, spacebar has an “a” in it), 
or from the menu bar by pressing Alt followed by 
the left direction cursor key.

Application windows contain anything associated 
with the application, for example multiple 
document windows, or document windows that have 
been minimised / iconised are all found within the 
application window. 


D 6b  Document Windows

A document window appears only with an application 
that can open more than one document at a time.  
It looks similar to an application window, but 
does not have a menu bar, only a control menu.  
For example, a word processor may have more than 
one document open, and each document is in its own 
window, within the boundaries of its application 
window.  Another example of document windows are 
the group windows found in Program Manager, 
described in Section F.  The control menu of each 
document window is accessed by Alt+Hyphen.  A 
document window can be maximised to fill its 
parent window, so if the parent window is 
maximised to fill the whole screen, the maximising 
the document window will also mean filling the 
whole screen.


D 6c  Dialogue Boxes and Message Windows

Smaller window-like boxes are also used, called 
dialogue boxes, and message boxes.  Message and 
warning boxes simply display a message that you 
can read and acknowledge by pressing Return, and 
require no other dialogue.  Usually, when a 
message box is displayed on the screen, Windows 
will not respond to any input until you 
acknowledge the message.  Dialogue boxes require 
more interaction, and will be described in more 
detail in Section G.  Message and Dialogue boxes 
cannot be resized, only moved or closed.  These 
options are found in the control menu of the 
dialogue box using Alt+Hyphen.


D 7  Active and Inactive Windows

Although there might be multiple windows on your 
screen, in general, only one can accept keyboard 
input at a time.  This window is in front of, or 
on top of, all the other windows, (for example, 
remember the example of papers on top of each 
other), and this front window is known as the 
active window, indicated by the blue title bar 
(described in Section D 3).  Inactive windows may 
continue to run as "background tasks", for 
example, the Print Manager application might 
monitor your printing while minimised, without any 
windows open.  Inactive windows may not 
necessarily stop all processing, they merely do 
not accept input while inactive.


D 8  Moving Window to Window

If you want to work in another window, you must 
tell Windows to look at it, by moving the focus of 
the system to the desired window.  Since 
everything on the screen is a window, and inside 
these are other windows, each with different 
properties, you need different commands depending 
on the nature of the window.  Instead of using the 
mouse, Windows provides you with both a Window 
listing from the menu bar for all windows open 
within an application (including minimised / 
iconised windows), and a Task listing for all the 
currently running applications.  In addition, 
there are short-cut commands for each type of 
window.  See Sections D 8a, and D 8b.


D 8a  Document Window Listing

To change to a new document window, (windows 
within one particular application) you need to 
access the (document) Window listing.  Choose the 
option “Window” from the menu bar of the relevant 
application.  Choosing a new window from the pull-
down menu makes this the new active window, 
accepting keyboard input.  Alternatively, use the 
short-cut command Ctrl+Tab to move from document 
window to document window, or to go backwards, use 
Shift+Ctrl+Tab.


D 8b  Task Listing and Switch-To Function

To work in another (currently running) 
application, you can access the Task Listing, 
using the short-cut keys Ctrl+Esc.  Then select 
the desired application from the list.  
Alternatively, you can use the control menu of the 
active application (Alt+Spacebar) and choose 
"Switch To".  Then choose the application you wish 
to switch to from the resultant list.  Another 
method is to use the short-cut command Alt+Tab, 
which moves you application window to application 
window. 

Once you move into a new window, the original 
window moves into the background, and becomes 
inactive, (although it is still open) and the 
title bar becomes white.  Some applications can 
multi-task within Windows, others cannot.  Print 
Manager and Clock are examples of those which can 
run in the background, while their windows are 
inactive (see Section D 7).


E  Menus in More Detail

Most Windows applications have not only a menu 
bar, a control menu, and pull-down menus, but may 
also have further menus called cascading menus.  
These are all described in detail in the following 
sections.


E 1  Menu Bar (main menu)

All Windows applications are driven from a menu 
bar, which is accessed in a standard way.  The 
menu bar (or main menu) is a line of high level 
command options in a row across the top of the 
application window, from which all operations are 
initiated (eg File, Edit, View, Format, Help).  As 
Windows applications are written to guidelines, 
most menu bars will look fairly similar in terms 
of the sorts of options on it, and their order, 
but the options will obviously be highly specific 
to the application. 


E 2  Short-Cut Keys

Many options in menus have short-cut keys, which 
allow you to choose an item quickly from a menu 
with a single key press, for example, Alt+H for 
Help.  These short-cut keys are indicated by 
underlined characters, so H on the item Help would 
be underlined, and would open the pull-down menu 
from the Help option.  In addition, some commands 
can be accessed with single key-presses - for 
example Alt+F4 will close the active application 
directly, bypassing the File menu (by choosing 
File, then Exit).  In pull-down menus, options 
usually have an underlined character, but these 
are used without the Alt key.  In dialogue boxes, 
each element has an underlined character but 
requires the Alt key to be pressed at the same 
time.


E 3  Accessing the Menu Bar

Windows applications are written to the same 
guidelines, so, (in principle) most applications 
should behave like others in terms of executing 
commands.  Therefore, the menu bar itself is 
always activated with the Alt key, which puts a 
highlight on the first menu item, and then the 
direction cursor keys, can be used to move the 
highlight along the menu bar options (including 
the control menu of the application and of any 
document windows it has open). 

But each option also has its own short-cut key, 
which not only accesses the menu bar item, but 
also opens its pull-down menu.  For example, File 
is usually Alt+F, and Help is usually Alt+H.  If 
the Alt key was pressed alone, putting a highlight 
on the first menu bar item, at this point you can 
then access the file menu simply with F, which 
opens the pull-down menu from File. 


E 4  Pull-Down Menus

Most options on the menu bar of applications have 
pull-down menus, which give a list of further 
choices specific to the menu bar option chosen.  
Pull-down menus quite literally are pulled down 
from the menu bar option, so appear on the screen 
directly under the menu bar option you selected.  
(For example, File on the menu bar usually leads 
to a pull-down menu containing at least: Open, 
Save, Print, Exit).

By default, when the pull-down menu is opened, the 
first item on it is highlighted.  Items are chosen 
from pull-down menus by using the up and down 
direction cursor keys to move the highlight up and 
down the list of options, and then pressing 
Return.  But they also have short-cut keys, and 
these are also underlined: however, in contrast to 
the menu bar, in pull-down menus, you do not need 
to press the Alt key, just press the underlined 
letter.  In fact, pressing the Alt key when in 
pull-down menus cancels all menu activation, so 
take care!

Sometimes, an item on a pull-down menu can simply 
be on or off, and this will be indicated by a tick 
to the left of the item on the menu.  It's short-
cut key can be used to turn this tick on and off.  
(For example, in Program Manager you have an item 
under "Options" called "Save Settings On Exit" and 
if this is ticked, it will save the layout of the 
application, and if not, it defaults back to the 
original layout next time you start Windows).

Selection of an option from a pull-down menu 
option usually leads to one of three things: 1. 
execution of the selected function, (eg Exit), 2. 
a dialogue box requesting more information or 
confirmation, or 3. another sub-menu.

If you are in a pull-down menu, and you press the 
left or right direction cursor keys, you will move 
into the next pull-down menu from the menu bar.  
The only occasion when this action will take you 
into another pull-down menu is if the item has 3 
dots after it indicating that there are more 
options leading from this.  These are cascading 
menus, see Section E 5.


E 5  Cascading Menus

Sub-menus that are invoked from pull-down menus 
are known as cascading menus.  Options on pull-
down menus which lead to cascading menus are 
indicated by 3 dots after the option name.  For 
example: "Save...." Pressing return at this point, 
or pressing the right arrow key, to follow this 
link opens a cascading menu which appears to the 
right of the selection option, offering a vertical 
list of further options. 

A simple word processor like Notepad might only 
have a menu bar, one level of pull-down menus, and 
then an execution level or a dialogue box, but a  
complex application like Word for Windows may have 
several levels of menus and a dialogue box, before 
reaching the execution level.


E 6  Canceling Menu Activation

To cancel activation of the current level of menu, 
press the Esc key.  This action returns you to the 
previous level of menu, or will cancel the menu 
bar activation, if no other menus are currently 
displayed.  Pressing Alt at any level of menu 
activation closes all menu activation. 


E 7  Disabled Menu Items

Sometimes, some items in pull-down menus are not 
available at the current time.  These items are 
termed "disabled", and are in grey type, rather 
than in black.  This is to prevent us from trying 
to perform inappropriate operations on our data.


F  Program Manager

The application Program Manager is the heart of 
the Windows environment.  It always starts after 
you start Windows, (by default, but users can 
change their windows initialisation files to go 
straight into a particular Windows application, 
and bypass Program Manager).  Program Manager 
remains in control until you exit the program.  
Program Manager does just what its name implies - 
it allows you to manage your programs.

It allows you to group various programs into 
logical groups on the screen, so that for example, 
you could have a group called Word Processors, 
which could contain icons for a simple editor, eg 
Notepad, and perhaps a more complex one, eg Write, 
and a much more powerful one, eg Word for Windows. 


F 1  Program-Item Icons

Each program is given an icon, which can be double 
clicked with the mouse to launch it (or press 
Return when it is highlighted / selected).  These 
icons usually look like the program they represent 
- so the icon for the simple word processor Write, 
which is shipped with Windows, looks like a 
fountain pen.  These icons are called program-item 
icons, because they each represent a program you 
can start from Windows.  Each icon is labeled 
underneath for easy identification.

These program-item icons can be grouped together 
in any order, that is, groups are not fixed and 
can be based on your own subjective preferences 
for software layout.  Groups need not, therefore, 
only contain programs, and may, for example 
comprise of programs and dedicated programs with 
particular documents associated with them.  You 
can even put the same program in more than one 
program group for convenience!

To put a new program-item into a group, make sure 
the system focus is in the group you want to put 
it, then from the menu bar of Program Manager 
choose File, then New.  You will get a dialogue 
box asking you whether you want a new program 
item, or a new program group.  Choose program-item 
and OK, and you will then get a dialogue box 
asking you what you wish to call the icon, the 
path of the executable file, the working directory 
of the program, and you can also make a short-cut 
key, and give it an icon if you wish. 


F 1a  Program-Item Properties

These groupings of programs are irrespective of 
the organisation of your hard disk.  Each program-
item icon in the group has its own Properties 
(such as pathname of the executable file, and 
working directory) which you have immediate access 
to.  To find out these properties, make sure the 
icon you are interested in is selected 
(highlighted) see Section F 5, then choose File 
from the menu bar, then Properties, and you will 
get a dialogue box telling you all these details 
for that program-item icon.

If you move the program-item icon into another 
group, its properties do not change, it just 
belongs to a different group.  However, if you 
change the organisation of your hard disk, so that 
programs are now stored in other places, you will 
also need to change the Properties of their 
program-item icons to reflect this reorganisation, 
to enable Windows to find them.  If you forget to 
do this, when you try to open a program from 
Program Manager you will get an error box telling 
you that Windows cannot find parts of the Program 
you have chosen to run, and asking you to check 
its pathnames etc.


F 2  Program Manager Windows - Program Groups

These groups of programs are displayed in separate 
windows, within the Program Manager application 
window.  These smaller windows within an 
application window are known as document windows, 
(an application can have more than two document 
windows open at the same time see Section D 6).  
This is perhaps misleading in this case, since 
each group window does not contain a document, 
only icons representing applications that you can 
start from Windows, the program-item icons.  It 
might be more appropriate to refer to them as 
Group Windows, which most Windows users will 
understand more readily than calling them document 
windows!

Inside each program group window, the program-item 
icons are, by default, laid out in rows and 
columns, for a neat appearance.  Users are free to 
move these icons into any position within the 
group window. 

The application Program Manager, like all 
applications, has a menu bar, with items File, 
Options, Window, Help, and a control menu.  The 
application has a large window, and the smaller 
group windows are spread out inside the 
application window.   These program group windows 
do not have menu bars, but they do have control 
menus, accessed with Alt+Hyphen, which allow you 
to move, resize, and close them (exactly like all 
document windows).  These program group windows 
contain the program-item icons.  Group windows can 
be minimised / iconised to take up less space in 
the application window.  The group then appears as 
an icon representing the group at the bottom of 
the application window, and the name of the group 
which was displayed on its title bar is now shown 
underneath the icon.  (Imagine taking an open book 
on your desk, and simply closing it, so that you 
can still see the title, but not any detail, and 
it takes much less room on your desk.  Removing 
the program group altogether would be like putting 
the book back on the shelf.)

It is important to remember that layout of the 
groups and programs in Program Manager is totally 
configurable by the user, and users can reduce or 
increase the number of groups, rename them, add or 
remove program-item icons from the groups, or move 
them to new groups.

To make a new program group, choose from the menu 
bar File, then New, and a dialogue box will ask 
whether you want a new program item, or a new 
program group.  Choose program group and OK, and 
another dialogue box will ask you what you wish to 
call the group. 


F 3  Common Program Groups

There are a few groups that are set up in Windows 
by default, specified in the Windows 
initialisation file, and these groups are likely 
to still exist on most systems, even after 
individual tailoring.  These will be described 
below.


F 3a  Main Group

The group Main contains important Windows programs 
which allow you great control over your computer.  
File Manager allows you to browse, sort, 
rearrange, create and delete, files, directories, 
drives and allows you to see multiple drives, 
and/or directories at the same time.  Print 
Manager allows you control over your printing from 
any application, and will monitor printing while 
running minimised in the background.  The Control 
Panel provides you with a way of changing the 
configuration of your system while you are working 
in  Windows.  The PIF editor is used to customise 
the way DOS programs are run while you are in 
Windows.  There is an MS-DOS Shell prompt in this 
group too, which swaps you to DOS with a single 
keystroke.  Once in the DOS shell, you can toggle 
between using it full screen, (just like working 
in normal DOS), and working in DOS in its own 
window within Windows, with Alt+Enter.  To swap 
between the DOS shell and Windows, or other 
applications, use Alt+Tab.  To leave the DOS shell 
and return to Windows, type exit at the DOS 
prompt.  There are other applications in here 
which you will find useful at some time or 
another.

You cannot exit from Windows until all programs 
have been closed, so if you did not exit from the 
DOS-Shell, merely left it minimised, you will be 
asked to close it before Windows can close itself. 


F 3b  Accessories, Games and Applications Program 
Groups

Other groups which Windows creates in Program 
Manager (according to the Windows initialisation 
file) include the group Accessories, containing 
such things as a Notepad, a Recorder, a Media 
Player, a Calculator and Calendar, and others.  A 
group called Games is usually found fairly quickly 
by most Windows users, and a group called Work 
Applications, for example, could be set up to 
include a users' favourite word processor, 
spreadsheet, and database.


F 4  System Focus in Program Manager

The focus of the system is in the program group 
Main by default on opening Windows, (according to 
the Windows initialisation file), and as always, 
only one window can be active at a time.  This 
means that only one of the group windows can be 
active at a time, shown on the screen by the blue 
title bar, and the others are white.  In addition, 
once inside the group, only one program-item icon 
can be in focus (selected) at one time, shown with 
a highlight, and this may not always be the first 
icon in the group.  The first program-item icon in 
the group Main might be the icon for the File 
Manager application. 


F 5  Looking at Icons Within One Program Group 
Window

To move the focus between icons within one 
particular Program group, you can use the 
direction cursor keys, or use the initial letter 
of the icon.  Once the icon you require is 
highlighted (selected), you can start the program 
by pressing the return key.


F 6  Moving the System Focus to Another Program 
Group Window

To change groups, for example, to look at icons in 
another group, you need to move the system focus 
from one group to another, thus making each one 
active in turn.  You do this by pressing Ctrl+Tab, 
which moves the focus progressively through all 
the groups, both open and minimised.  To go 
backwards, use Shift+Ctrl+Tab.  Alternatively, use 
the Window item on the Program Manager menu bar to 
get a window listing, of all groups, open and 
minimised, and then select the group you want to 
go to from the pull-down menu.  (You can specify 
the order you move through the groups using 
Ctrl+Tab in the Windows initialisation file.)


F 7  Changing the Size and Shape of Program Group 
Windows

Particular groups might be open on your screen all 
the time, so that you can see program-item icons 
in these groups.  But should you want to keep the 
group on the screen, but not have it taking up so 
much space, you can iconise the group window - 
also called minimising.  Imagine taking an open 
book on your desk, and simply closing it, so that 
you can still see the title, but not any detail, 
and it takes much less room on your desk.  
(Removing the group altogether would be like 
putting the book back on the shelf.)

To minimise / iconise a group window, you must 
choose Minimise from the group's control menu 
(Alt+Hyphen, then N for minimise).  The group 
window then becomes an icon near the bottom of the 
Program Manager window, with the name of the 
group, (previously shown on the title bar of the 
group) now underneath the icon.  This iconised 
group can be restored or maximised using the 
control menu again.

In addition you can enlarge or reduce the size of 
the group window using the control menu.  Choose 
Size (Alt+Hyphen, then S for size), then use one 
of the direction cursor keys first to select one 
edge of the frame, and then the direction cursor 
keys to move that edge to a new location.  Press 
Return to drop the edge, and the group window will 
have changed shape.

If you wanted to enlarge the size of the program 
group window, to fill the whole Program Manager 
application window, (which may or may not already 
fill the whole screen), choose Maximise from the 
control menu of that group (Alt+Hyphen, then X for 
maximise).


F 8  Saving Changes in Program Manager

If you make changes to the layout and/or 
organisation of Program Manager during a Windows 
session, you have the choice of saving them on 
exit, or using the last saved organisation the 
next time you start Windows.  On the menu bar, 
under Options, the item from the pull-down menu 
"Save Settings On Exit" can be selected, by moving 
the highlight to this item, and then pressing 
Return.  This will save the layout of Program 
Manager when you exit Windows.  If you have chosen 
this item, a tick will appear in front of the text 
"Save Settings On Exit" on the pull-down menu.  If 
you turn off this function, by choosing it again, 
the tick will disappear, and any changes you make 
to Program Manager will not be saved, and the 
organisation (from the last time you Saved 
Settings on Exit) will be presented when you next 
start Windows.

Alternatively, the Windows initialisation file 
specifies what groups are open when Windows 
starts, and in which order they can be accessed, 
and this file is configurable by the user. 


G  What are Dialogue Boxes?

A dialogue box is a window that appears 
temporarily on top of your application window to 
request a variety of information in one place, 
specific to your pull-down menu command.  Many 
dialogue boxes have options you must choose before 
Windows can carry out a command. 

Dialogue boxes are designed to reduce memory load, 
and make executing a task more user friendly, 
since all information specific to your current 
task is presented to you in one place.  Compare 
this with DOS applications  where, for example, if 
you want to print some specific pages in your 
document, the options of where to print to, which 
pages to print, how many copies, and what quality, 
may all be in different places, and you have to 
exit from one list of options to choose from 
another.  Dialogue boxes are useful since with a 
single keyboard command (Tab) you can move through 
the options in the box. 

Once you have opened a dialogue box, you are 
presented with a number of choices you could make, 
and some you must make.  To express different 
types of information, these choices are presented 
in different formats (elements), and are operated 
in different ways.  Once you know how to operate 
each element, and how to navigate inside a 
dialogue box, you can use any dialogue box in any 
Windows application, as they (should) follow the 
same convention.  There are six of these elements: 
pushbuttons, checkboxes, radiobuttons, editfields, 
listboxes, and comboboxes, which are described in 
detail in Sections G 3 to G 8.  Not all dialogue 
boxes will contain all six elements, and some 
might contain more than one of the same element, 
but relating to different information. 

Dialogue box windows behave slightly differently 
from application windows, and you cannot ignore a 
dialogue box once it is open.  You can only go 
back to your application window and continue 
working by closing the dialogue box, (choosing OK 
with Return) to execute your choices, or Cancel 
with Esc).  Therefore to execute a printing task, 
you would open a dialogue box about printing, 
check the details, and specify other information, 
and then once you are happy with the selections, 
choose OK to print.

The other main difference between dialogue boxes 
and other windows, is that dialogue boxes are a 
fixed size, and cannot be resized.  They can 
however, be moved around the screen (if you wanted 
to check your document while completing the 
dialogue box for example).  This is done with the 
control menu, (Alt+Hyphen), and choosing M for 
Move, then using the direction cursor keys to move 
it around the screen to the desired position, and 
pressing Return to drop it.


G 1  Message Boxes

Message boxes will be mentioned here briefly, 
since they are a form of dialogue box, but do not 
require much dialogue!  These appear containing 
messages or warnings in them, which usually need 
to be acknowledged by pressing OK (Return), or to 
Cancel (Esc) a particular command you tried to 
execute, or to resolve a particular problem before 
you can continue working - "disk not inserted", 
for example.  Others could appear if you have a 
printing problem, where the message might be 
simply "there is no paper in the printer", and you 
can only choose OK after loading paper, or choose 
Cancel. to cancel the Print command.  Or, if you 
have asked to save a file with a name that is 
already used by another document, you might be 
asked if you wanted to Cancel the save command, or 
to Replace the file. 


G 2  Navigating inside Dialogue Boxes

As with all windows, only one window at a time can 
have the system focus.  This means that when a 
dialogue box is open, it is the active window, and 
has a blue title bar.  As soon as the dialogue box 
opens, the focus inside the dialogue box generally 
goes to the first item in the box.  The internal 
focus is indicated visually by a dotted line 
around the element.

Important: Any changes or selections you make from 
individual elements within one dialogue box remain 
until you choose OK or Cancel. 


G 2a  Tab to Move Element to Element

One way to work inside a dialogue box is to move 
the system focus, from one element to another, and 
then to operate the element directly.  Use the Tab 
key to move the focus from element to element, and 
Shift+Tab to go backwards.  Although it would be 
convenient if the system focus moved through the 
elements in the dialogue box in a systematic top-
left to bottom-right order, in some dialogue boxes 
this may not be the case, so be careful - it can 
be easy to miss the last items if they are after 
OK and Cancel, which usually do not appear as the 
bottom right elements in the box.

Once the system focus is on the element you 
require having moved it with the Tab key, then you 
can then operate it.  These operations are 
described in Sections G 3 to G 8.


G 2b  Short-Cut Keys

Each item in a dialogue box has short-cut keys 
similar to those used in the menu bar, and can 
therefore be selected with Alt and the underlined 
letter.  (Take care to remember that the short-cut 
keys in menu bars and dialogue boxes use the Alt 
key, but pull-down menus do not.)

Some elements are actually operated with these 
short-cut keys (an option may be turned on or off, 
for example), but others require additional stages 
of operation once the short-cut keys have taken 
the system focus to that element (for example, 
going to a list of files, and then having to move 
through the items in the list). 


G 3  Pushbuttons

(Also called Command Buttons).  These are visually 
the size and shape of the Tab key on the keyboard, 
and they look like you should push them!  They are 
used to initiate an immediate action, such as 
carrying out or cancelling a command.  In every 
dialogue box there is usually an OK button, which 
closes the box, and carries out the commands you 
chose in the dialogue box.  This button can be 
pushed with the Return key for OK.  In addition, 
you have the option to cancel any commands in the 
box with the Cancel button.  To do this, use the 
Esc key.  Sometimes there is also a Help 
pushbutton, which starts the Help program, and 
this is usually Alt+H.

Pushbuttons can be activated directly with the 
short-cut keys as described above, or with the 
Return key once they have the system focus.  To 
move the system focus, use the Tab key, and when 
on the desired pushbutton, pressing Return pushes 
the button.  In general, the OK button is what is 
called the Default Pushbutton in dialogue boxes, 
and will be pushed immediately if you press the 
Return key if you are anywhere in the dialogue 
box.  But this only works if the system focus is 
NOT on any other pushbutton at the time, as 
pressing Return will push that button, not OK.  
Return will also NOT choose OK if the focus is in 
a listbox for changing directory, and one 
directory in the list is selected (highlighted).  
(Pressing Return here changes the directory 
level).  So to choose Cancel, move the focus to 
the Cancel button with the Tab key, and then press 
Return.

On some occasions, the OK button might be 
disabled, (shown in grey type), indicating that 
you must make some selection in order to execute 
the command.  For example, if you ask to open a 
file, but you have not selected a file to open, 
you obviously cannot open anything.  The OK button 
will remain disabled until there is a file 
selected (or you cancel the dialogue box). 


G 4  Checkboxes

These are related, but independent options which 
are available to you at any particular time.  You 
do not have to choose any of them, but you can 
choose one or many of them at the same time, and 
they do not affect each other.

Checkboxes toggle on and off (checked or 
unchecked), and visually a checkbox is a little 
square, which is empty if unchecked, or has a 
cross in it when it is checked.  They can be 
checked and unchecked using their short-cut keys, 
or, by moving the system focus to the desired 
checkbox, and then pressing the spacebar.  
Sometimes checkboxes can be disabled (in grey 
type), at a particular time, so are in-operable.  
Making one change or insertion in the dialog box 
might re-enable the checkbox, so it is worth 
having a look to see if it has changed status if 
the checkbox was especially important to you for 
that task. 

Examples of checkboxes are: 

1. To select a style for text: bold, underlined, 
italics.  

2. To make refinements in a Find task: match case, 
match whole word.


G 5  Radiobuttons

(Also called Option Buttons).  These are a 
mutually exclusive group of options, referring to 
one parameter, and visually grouped under this 
particular heading, from which one and only one 
must always be chosen.  Visually, they are little 
black circles, with a black dot inside if it has 
the selection, and empty if not. 

A little aside: There is a theory that this term 
came from the old-style radios with buttons for 
channels - to listen to the radio, one channel had 
to be selected, and you couldn't ever tune into 
more than one, and as you pushed the button in for 
one channel, the other button popped out. 

There are two ways of selecting radiobuttons in 
dialogue boxes.  Using their short-cut keys, you 
move the selection immediately from the current 
radiobutton to the new one.  The second way is to 
move the system focus to the group with Tab, and 
then changing the selected radiobutton from one to 
the other with the direction cursor keys.

Examples of radiobuttons are:  

1. In a Find task: search the document (a) up, or 
(b) down from the cursor position or (c) the 
whole document from the start.  

2. When printing, you can print (a) the whole 
document, or (b) a selection of pages. In 
both cases, one of the options must be 
selected for the Find, or Print task to be 
completed, and you cannot perform the 
operation if more than one option is 
selected.


G 6  Editfields

(Also called Text Boxes) - these refer to any 
field in which you can enter text.  This could 
mean your entire word processing page, but in a 
dialogue box, it is usually a restricted character 
text entry field, with, for example a 2 or a 50 
character limit.  When the system focus is on an 
editfield, your insertion point (the place at 
which any input from the keyboard appears in the 
text) is at the start of the line in the 
editfield.  This is shown on the screen as a 
single vertical bar, or in some applications as a 
little black rectangle.  To move the insertion 
point, there are standard Windows wordprocessing 
keyboard commands which move it through the text 
(direction cursor keys, Ctrl+direction cursor 
keys, Home, End etc).

Something to be aware of in editfields: when the 
system focus is moved to the editfield, (with Tab 
or the short-cut key) an automatic highlight is 
put on the text in the editfield.  This selected 
text is fragile, and any keypress will overwrite 
this selection, unless it is a command like Copy, 
Cut etc.  So pressing the delete key will delete 
the entire selection, and pressing any letter will 
overwrite the highlighted selection.

To edit the selected text, without deleting or 
overwriting it, you must first remove the 
highlighting.  One press of a direction cursor key 
will move the insertion point, and turn off the 
highlight, thus unselecting the text.  Then you 
can move the insertion point as described above.  
To select (highlight) text, hold the Shift key 
down while using the direction cursor keys to move 
the insertion point and pull the highlight over 
the text.  Release the Shift key when you have 
finished selecting.

Just for interest, when the mouse is over an 
editfield, it changes shape from its usual 
arrowhead to what is known as an I-beam, which 
looks like an elongated capital letter I.  Using 
this I-beam you can move the position of the 
insertion point to a new location very quickly, 
and some access technologies will allow you to 
take advantage of this direct manipulation 
capability. 

Examples of editfields in dialogue boxes are:  1. 
A place to type in the name of a file to save or 
to open.  2. The name of the character string to 
find.


G 7  Listboxes

These are a list of related items grouped under a 
particular heading, surrounded by a thin 
rectangular border.  They can be used for 
browsing, (for example, to remind you of what 
files you have in a particular directory when you 
ask to save a file), and for selection purposes, 
(for example, to select one from the list of files 
in the directory when you ask to open a file, or 
to select a colour for your text from a list).  
The listbox can be accessed with the short-cut key 
for the listbox (eg Alt+F for File listbox), or by 
moving the system focus there with the Tab key.  
Once the focus is on the listbox, you make 
selections by moving a highlight up and down the 
items with the arrow keys, or by putting a 
highlight on one by pressing its initial letter.  
Once the desired item is chosen from the listbox, 
it will remain selected and you are free to 
continue working in the dialogue box.

There is one occasion when pressing Return will 
not press the OK button.  If the system focus is 
in a directory listbox, and a new directory is 
selected (highlighted) in the list, pressing 
Return will change to that directory - not press 
OK.  To press OK with Return, you must first move 
the system focus out of the directory listbox, 
with Tab for example.

Sometimes, in small or overcrowded dialogue boxes, 
full listboxes are condensed into "drop-down 
listboxes", which simply show you the current 
selection in a small rectangular box, and using 
the direction cursor keys, or the initial letter 
of items, you can change the selection in the box.  
There is often a downwards pointing arrow-head to 
the right of the box showing the current 
selection, and clicking on this will pull down the 
full list.  From the keyboard, the list can be 
pulled down with Alt+direction cursor keys, and 
closed again with the same command.

Examples of listboxes are:  

1.  File listing in a particular directory.  

2.  Directory listing.  

3.  Font, size, or colour listing for text 
formatting.


G 8  Comboboxes

These are a combination of an editfield and a 
listbox (or listboxes), hence the name!  The 
listbox and editfield are highly related, and the 
two elements may have separate short-cut keys, and 
can be accessed in turn with the Tab key, but any 
changes or selections you make in one will 
immediately affect the other.

For example, you could browse the list, and select 
(highlight) an item in it, with the direction 
cursor keys, and by doing this, the editfield will 
update to contain the item you highlighted in the 
listbox.  This could be when opening a file for 
example.  An alternative action would be to browse 
the items in the list, and decide you want to do 
something which is not shown on the list, so you 
go back and type something directly into the 
editfield.  This could happen when you realise 
that the listbox is showing a *.doc file listing, 
and you want to see text files, with the *.txt 
extension.  By typing *.txt into the editfield, 
and pressing Return, the listbox updates to show 
you txt files.  Or, you could simply ignore what's 
showing in the list, and if you wanted to open a 
file, and you knew where it was, just type the 
whole pathname into the editfield and choose OK to 
open it.

Examples of comboboxes are: mainly in File Open 
dialogue boxes.

THAT’S IT!! You now know all the basics of 
Windows, and could start to work in most standard 
applications, following the standard keyboard 
commands described in this Guide.  Although 
different applications will obviously have very 
different functionality, which could not be 
described here, you know how to work all the 
fundamental parts of Windows applications, so just 
experiment! GOOD LUCK!!


H  Glossary

Active Window: the window on the screen which 
currently has the system focus, the window 
which accepts keyboard input at that moment.  
Has a blue title bar by default.

Application Icon:  icon representing an 
application which is currently running but 
has no open windows and has been minimised, 
and is therefore still quickly accessible.  
Sits on the desktop.

Application Window:  window containing any task or 
program that is running.  Has a menu bar and 
a control menu.

Button:  object on a window’s title bar used with 
the mouse, or other pointing device, to 
initiate an immediate action.  The same 
actions can be achieved with the keyboard, 
from the window’s Control menu.

Cascaded Windows:  arrangement of the open windows 
on the screen like a deck of cards spread 
towards you.  You can see the top portion of 
each card / window, and the whole of the very 
front card / window.

Cascading Menu:  a further submenu opened from an 
item on a  pull-down menu.

Checkbox:  related, but independent options 
available to the user, found in dialogue 
boxes.  They toggle on and off: checked and 
unchecked.  They look like squares, and have 
an X in them when checked, and are empty when 
not checked.  (Spacebar or short-cut keys.) 

Clipboard:  a storage place in memory for one 
piece of data at a time, (eg: one character 
or a whole document, or graphic) used to 
transfer data around in a document, or 
between documents, or between applications, 
using cut, copy and paste.  The data remains 
on the clipboard until other data is saved to 
it, or you exit from Windows.  Use the 
application Clipboard Viewer to view the 
current selection on the clipboard.  (The 
clipboard memory area is also used when 
embedding an object into a file.)

Combobox:  a related editfield and listbox (or 
listboxes) found in dialogue boxes. 
(Direction cursor keys, Return, Spacebar.) 

Control Menu:  menu containing commands used to 
manipulate a window.  Also called a system 
menu.  Accessed with Alt+Spacebar for an 
application window, or Alt+Hyphen for a 
document window or dialogue box, or from the 
menu bar of an application window, by going 
left from the first menu bar item.

Cursor:  particular focal point for the system.  
Several exist and may look different on the 
screen, and can be moved independently of 
each other if required.   (Eg mouse cursor 
and insertion point cursor. There are even 
different shapes for the mouse cursor 
depending on current tasks - for example, 
over an editfield the mouse cursor becomes an 
I-beam, if the system is asking you to wait, 
the mouse cursor looks like an hourglass.)

Desktop Metaphor:  the idea on which Windows is 
based: the screen is the user’s desk, and is 
as configurable as a real desktop.  There are 
areas on the desk which hold different pieces 
of work, and things can overlap, and are 
still accessible.  You can have more than one 
activity going on at once, and each activity 
may have more than one sub-activity, without 
having to put one task away to make room for 
another. 

Dialogue Box:  window appearing temporarily on top 
of an application window to request 
information specific to a pull-down menu or 
cascading menu command.   No menu bar, only a 
limited control menu.  Cannot be re-sized, 
only moved and closed.

Direct Manipulation:  the use of a pointing device 
to handle objects themselves on the screen by 
clicking and double clicking with the 
pointing device.  For example to open a file, 
double click on the file icon.

Disabled Menu Item, or Button:  an item on a menu, 
or in a dialogue box, which is not available 
to the user at that given moment.  Indicated 
by grey type instead of the usual black type.

Document Icon:  icon representing a document 
window which is still accessible, but has 
been minimised.  Sits in the application 
window it belongs to.

Document Window:  window belonging to an 
application.  Some applications can have more 
than one document window open at a time.  Do 
not have a menu bar, only a control menu.

Drag and Drop:  the use of a pointing device to 
directly execute tasks, for example, by 
moving a file icon into the Print Manager 
icon, to print the file.

Editfield:  any field in which text can be 
entered.  Could be the whole document or 
restricted to a certain number of characters 
in a dialogue box.  Also called text boxes.  
(Move the insertion point with keyboard 
movement keys.)

Embedded Object:  a copy of a source document in 
another document, possibly created in a 
different application.  The embedded object 
is independent of the source object, so 
changes to the embedded object are not 
reflected in the source object, and changes 
to the source are not reflected in the 
destination document, unless you re-embed it.

Frame:  the border around a window, defining its 
edges.  Can be used to change the size of 
application and document windows.

GUI:  Graphical User Interface.

Highlight:  a coloured band over data which can 
indicate selected icons, menu item, or a 
block of selected text or other data.  
Highlighted items have a system focus.  

I-Beam:  the shape of the mouse cursor when it is 
over an editfield (as opposed to the usual 
upwards arrow-head of the mouse cursor when 
selecting from menus for example).

Icon:  a small picture that represents some task, 
operation, file or program.

Iconise:  to shrink a window to an icon 
representing that window.  It keeps the 
window accessible, but not open (also called 
minimising).  Only application and document 
windows can be iconised, dialogue boxes 
cannot.

Inactive Window:  the window(s) on the screen 
which currently do not have the system focus, 
and do not accept keyboard input.  Inactive 
windows have white title bars by default.  

Insertion Point:  cursor in an editfield where any 
text input is inserted.  Appears as a 
flashing vertical bar, or a little black 
rectangle (moved with cursor movement keys).

Linked Object:  a source object which has been 
given an interactive link in a destination 
document.  Any changes to the linked object 
in the destination document are made to the 
source, and any changes to the source are 
automatically updated in the destination 
document.  On a network server, this can be 
particularly important to remember, as all 
documents containing a link to the source 
will be affected by any changes. 

Listbox:  a list of related items grouped under a 
particular heading, surrounded by a thin 
border, found in dialogue boxes (selections 
made with arrow cursor keys, or initial 
letters, or spacebar).

Maximise:  to enlarge an application window to 
fill the entire screen, or to enlarge a 
document window to fill the entire 
application window it belongs to.  Maximise 
button appears as an upwards pointing arrow-
head on the right hand side of the window’s 
title bar, and in the Control menu.  Dialog 
boxes cannot be resized, and therefore do not 
show this button, and Maximize cannot be 
found in its Control menu.

Menu:  a list of available commands in an 
application window.  From the real-life 
metaphor of a restaurant menu. 

Menu Bar:  horizontal list of options for 
controlling an application.  Found just below 
the title bar of an application window.  Also 
called main menu.  Accessed with Alt then 
arrow cursor keys, or Alt+short-cut key.  
Only application windows have menu bars.

Message Box:  a window appearing temporarily on 
top of an application window to give the user 
information.  Cannot be ignored, and is 
usually closed by choosing OK or Cancel, 
depending on the message.

Minimise:  keeps the window accessible, but not 
open.  Not the same as closing the window.  
Shrinks an application window to an icon on 
the desktop, or a document window to an icon 
in the application window it belongs to.  
Also called iconising.  Minimise button 
appears as an downwards pointing arrow-head 
on the right hand side of the window’s title 
bar, and in the Control menu. Dialog boxes 
cannot be resized, and therefore do not show 
this button, and Minimise cannot be found in 
its Control menu.

MS-DOS Prompt / Shell:  an application you can run 
from Windows, from Program Manager, to take 
the user into a DOS Shell without actually 
exiting from Windows.  Swapping back from DOS 
to Windows, without exiting from DOS, 
requires a single key command (Alt+Tab).  
Typing Exit and pressing Return in the DOS 
Shell will exit from DOS, and return the user 
to Windows.  Pressing Alt+Enter will swap the 
DOS shell between a full screen and a window 
over Program Manager. 

OLE:  Object Linking and Embedding: process of 
allowing documents to contain information 
created in the same or different application.  
Could be an audio file, a graphic, textual or 
numerical data.

Pixel:  the smallest graphical unit in a graphical 
user interface.  A coloured dot on the 
screen.  There are 480 by 640 pixels on a 
standard VGA screen.

Program-Item Icon:  icon representing an 
application you can start from Windows in 
Program Manager.  Found in group windows.  
Activated by selecting the icon, and then 
pressing Return.

Pull-Down Menu:  vertical list of options related 
to, and pulled down from, the menu bar option 
chosen.  Items selected with arrow cursor 
keys, or the shortcut key.  (The Alt key is 
not used in pull-down menus.)

Push-Button:  buttons in a dialogue box to 
initiate an immediate action.  Also called 
command buttons.  (Operated with the 
spacebar, Return or short-cut key).

Radiobutton:  items in a mutually exclusive group 
of options, grouped under a particular 
heading in dialogue boxes, from which one and 
only one must always be selected. Based on 
the old-style radios with pop-out buttons.  
Appear as circles, which are empty if they 
are not selected, or have a black dot inside 
if they are selected. Also called option 
buttons.  (Operated with the arrow cursor 
keys, short-cut keys.)

Restore:  displays the window in its previous size 
after the user has made any changes to its 
size.  Restore button appears as a double-
headed arrow-head on the right hand side of 
the window’s title bar, replacing the 
maximise button when the window is maximised, 
and can be found in the window’s Control 
menu.

Screen-Reader:  software which interprets what is 
on the screen and passes it to a speech 
synthesiser and / or a braille display, (or 
other output medium), and allows the user to 
interact with an application.

Short-Cut Keys:  Special keyboard commands for 
quickly accessing menu items, or for 
operating elements in dialogue boxes.  
Indicated by an underlined character.  Also 
refers to other key combinations for 
immediate commands, for example to close an 
application immediately bypassing the menus. 

System Focus:  the location of the system’s 
attention on the screen at any given time.  
The place which currently is affected by 
keyboard input.  Several levels of system 
focus exist.  (For example, application 
window, document window, element in a 
document window, or in a dialogue box.)

Task Listing:  a list of all currently running 
applications, from which the user can swap to 
another application.  Accessed using 
Ctrl+Tab, or from the Control menu and 
choosing Switch To. 

Tiled Windows:  arrangement of the open windows 
neatly on the screen like wall tiles; regular 
sizes with no gaps between them, to fill the 
screen.

Title Bar:  the bar at the very top of every 
window displaying the name of the window: the 
application name if an application window, 
and the name of the open file if a document 
window.  By default, active windows have a 
blue title bar, and inactive windows have a 
white title bar.

Warning Box:  a window appearing temporarily on 
top of an application window to give the user 
a warning about a particular event.  Cannot 
be ignored, and is usually closed by choosing 
OK or Cancel, depending on the message.

Window:  rectangular area on the screen which 
represent a means of communication between 
the user and a task.  There can be many 
windows open at once. 

Window Listing:  a list of all accessible windows 
(both open and minimised) within one 
application.  Found under the item Window on 
the menu bar.

WYSIWYG:  What You See Is What You Get: the method 
of displaying things on a graphical user 
interface as they will appear when printed, 
for example.


Author’s Note

I am a psychology graduate who has used Windows 
for several years, and I have spent the last year 
working with visually disabled users and Windows.  
This is the first version of the Guide, which is 
based on the training I have given to visually 
impaired novice Windows users.  I hope you have 
found it useful.  As this is the first version of 
this Guide, and I am not a Microsoft guru, I 
cannot promise that every detail is correct, nor 
that I have included everything important, nor 
that you won’t run into trouble even if you use 
the commands described here. 

If you have any comments about the Guide, please 
contact me.  I will be pleased to send copies to 
other interested people, in print, large print, 
audio, disk or braille.  The accompanying set of 
tactile diagrams (which is useful, but not 
essential) can be purchased by contacting me.


Sarah Morley
Sensory Disabilities Research Unit
Psychology Division
University of Hertfordshire
Hatfield
Hertfordshire AL10 9AB
UK


Tel:  +44 1707 284629

Fax:  +44 1707 285059

Email:  s.morley@herts.ac.uk


Acknowledgments

I would like to express my appreciation to all the 
volunteers who have participated in the training 
and evaluations for the Graphical User Interfaces 
for Blind Persons project, and to those who 
participated in the first Windows Concepts Course, 
who all made a contribution (intentionally or not) 
to the development of the software, and to the 
training courses.  Many thanks also go to our 
partners on the project, who have contributed a 
great deal to the development of the training for 
new users, and personally, for their patience with 
me as a non-computer person!  Thanks also to Fuzzy 
Felt, for contributing to the many tactile 
diagrams which were used in the training courses.  
My personal thanks go to Helen Petrie, for her 
guidance, support, and friendship.

The GUIB consortium consists of:  

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto 
Ricerca Onde Elettromagnetiche, Via 
Panciatichi 64, 50127 Firenze, Italy.

F H Papenmeier Gmbh & Co KG, Talweg 2, Postfach 
1620, D-58211 Schwerte, Germany.

Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Informatik, 
Breitwiesenstrasse 20-22, D-70565 Stuttgart, 
Germany.

Institute of Computer Science, Foundation of 
Research and Technology, Scientific and 
Technological Park, Voutes, PO Box 1385, GR-
71110 Heraklion, Crete, Greece.

Royal National Institute for the Blind, 224 Great 
Portland Street, London W1N 6AA, England.

University of Hertfordshire, Sensory Disabilities 
Research Unit, Psychology Division, Hatfield, 
Hertfordshire AL10 9AB, England.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 101, B-
1090 Brussels, Belgium.

Institute of Communication Engineering, Faculty 3, 
Technical University of Cottbus, Karl Marx 
Str 12, D-03044 Cottbus, Germany.

Technical University of Berlin, Sekr H51, Institut 
für Kommunikationswissenschaft, Straße d 17 
Juni 135, D-10622 Berlin 12, Germany.

Universität Magdeburg, Institut für Simulation und 
Graphik, Universitätsplatz 2, D-39106 
Magdeburg, Germany.

Technical Research Centre of Finland, Medical 
Engineering Laboratory, PO Box 316, 
Kanslerinkatu 8, SF-33101 Tampere, Finland.


The GUIB project has been funded by TIDE 
(Technology Initiative for Disabled and Elderly 
People) of the Commission of the European Union.


This Guide will help to relieve some of the 
problems visually disabled people are currently 
facing with the increased popularity of Microsoft 
Windows.  The Guide describes the fundamental 
concepts behind Windows, and provides sufficient 
keyboard commands so that current computer users 
could start to work comfortably in Windows with 
any access technology.

Trainers, and others working with Windows and 
users with special needs might also find this 
Guide useful in teaching, or simply to learn more 
about what Windows is really about.

It is based on a year of training visually 
disabled users in Windows as part of the Graphical 
User Interfaces for Blind Persons (GUIB) Project 
which was funded by the Commission of the European 
Union. The Guide can also be obtained in print, 
large print, audio, IBM and Apple disk, and 
braille formats. 


Published by Royal National Institute for the 
Blind on behalf of the GUIB Consortium.

February 1995

----------
Diagrams and notes to accompany the Window Concepts Guide
By Sarah Morley 1995. Contact details are at the end of this file.

These notes explain the tactile diagrams which accompany the
Window Concepts Guide, and assume that you have read most of the 
Guide, or at least the sections to which the figures refer. These 
sections are indicated at the start of each description.

The diagrams illustrate the main concepts described in the Guide. 
Some show what the screen looks like at different stages of an 
interaction, others illustrate particular types of windows, and 
others illustrate the different components of windows.

There are five important things to note about the figures:
1: All text is in Grade 1, English Braille
2: All text is in 8 dot Braille
3: Capitals are shown with a dot 7
4: Dots 7&8 are used to show underlining, for example to
indicate short-cut keys.
5: Each figure is numbered at the top left corner of the page.

Contents

To save space on the tactile diagrams, some of the titles of
the figures have been shortened from those in this text. The titles 
in this text also indicate the title on the tactile diagram if they 
differ.

Figure 1: Overlapping Windows
Figure 2: Tiled Windows
Figure 3: Cascaded Windows
Figure 4: Example of an application window
Figure 5: Example of an application window with two document
(child) windows
Figure 6: Example of a document window - a word processing
file
Figure 7: Example of a message window: Printing Problem
Figure 8: Example of a dialogue box in an application: Find
Figure 9: The menu bar of an application window, and
activating the menu bar
Figure 10: Moving along the menu bar of an application
window, and opening a pull-down menu
Figure 11: Program Manager - a typical desktop layout
Figure 12: Pushbuttons (found in dialogue boxes)
Figure 13: Checkboxes (found in dialogue boxes)
Figure 14: Radiobuttons (found in dialogue boxes)
Figure 15: An editfield (found in dialogue boxes)
Figure 16: A listbox (found in dialogue boxes)
Figure 17: A combobox (found in dialogue boxes)
Figure 18: Example of a dialogue box: Print

Figure 1: Overlapping Windows

Refer to sections:
B 1 - The Desktop Metaphor
B 3 - The Graphical User Interface and Direct Manipulation
B 4 - Multiple Applications
C 3 - Types of Icon
C 4 - Minimising a Window to an Icon
D 6a - Application Windows
D 7 - Active and Inactive Windows

This is what a typical sighted user's screen might look like, with 
several applications each running in its own window. Each window 
is highly simplified, and the missing details (namely, buttons 
for the control menu , maximise and minimise, and menu bars)
are explained and illustrated later.

This figure is bounded by the edges of the screen, containing
the desktop area, with three overlapping simplified application 
windows and an application icon near the bottom. Each window has 
a simplified title bar: two are inactive windows, labelled as
such, and the third is labelled as the active window, and has
a highlighted title bar (filled-in) and is in front of the other 
windows. The window to the right of the diagram is the window which 
is behind the other two, the one on the left is on top of this, and
the active window is on top of both these two windows. You are
able to see different areas of each window, depending on what 
is overlapping it.

The icon near the bottom edge of the desktop is an application
icon, labelled "Icon: Word Processor" and is a minimised word 
processing application. It is an application which is still 
loaded into memory, but does not have any windows open.


Figure 2: Tiled Windows

Refer to sections:
B 1 - The Desktop Metaphor
B 3 - The Graphical User Interface and Direct Manipulation
B 4 - Multiple Applications
C 3 - Types of Icon
C 4 - Minimising a Window to an Icon
D 6a - Application Windows
D 7 - Active and Inactive Windows

This shows what a more ordered screen layout might look like:
with the same three simplified windows neatly arranged like wall 
tiles completely covering the desktop area, and therefore also 
completely filling the screen.

(The windows are still simplified, so do not show the buttons
for the control menu, maximise, or minimise, or the menu bars). 
In this figure, none of the windows are overlapping and the one 
at the top of the screen is the active window (shown by the
filled-in title bar). When windows are tiled on the desktop,
you cannot see any minimised applications (application icons) 
sitting on the desktop - these are behind the tiled windows, 
although they can be accessed using the keyboard. Similarly, when
document windows are tiled inside their application window,
you are not able to see any minimised document windows that might 
be sitting on the application window, although these too are 
accessible using the keyboard.


Figure 3: Cascaded Windows

Refer to sections:
B 1 - The Desktop Metaphor
B 3 - The Graphical User Interface and Direct Manipulation
B 4 - Multiple Applications
C 3 - Types of Icon
C 4 - Minimising a Window to an Icon
D 6a - Application Windows
D 7 - Active and Inactive Windows

Here the three windows have been arranged on the desktop as a
cascade on top of each other, like a spread deck of cards. This 
allows you more space to work, and you can still see the desktop 
area, and you are still able to see some of each of the windows.

This figure shows the edges of the screen, and the desktop, 
with the three simplified application windows cascaded on the 
desktop. (The windows are still simplified, so do not show the 
buttons for the control menu, maximise, or minimise, or show 
the menu bars). The one at the bottom of the cascade, at the 
front of the deck, (near the bottom of the screen) is the active 
window, shown by the filled-in title bar. Here you can see a
small area in each of the windows behind the front one, and
all of the front window.

The application icon representing a minimised game application
is labelled "Icon: Game", and is shown near the bottom edge of the 
desktop. This game application is still loaded into memory, but 
does not have any windows open.


Figure 4: Example of an application window: Word Processor
On diagram: Figure 4: Eg of application window

Refer to sections:
D - What are Windows
E - Menus in more detail
G 6 - Editfields (for related information on text entry
fields)

Here is an example of an application window. Many people will
be familiar with word processors, so an example of a word 
processor application window is shown in this figure.

All application windows have a title bar, which contains the
name of the window, in this case, the name of the application 
(very imaginatively called "word processor"!), a control menu 
button (the horizontal bar which looks like a hyphen on the 
left-hand side), and on the right-hand side, the maximise (up 
arrow) and minimise (down arrow) buttons.

Immediately below the title bar of an application window comes
the menu bar, which here consists of the items File, Edit, 
Format and Help. One of the letters in each item is
underlined with dots 7&8, and these are the short-cut keys for
each menu item. So to access the Edit pull-down menu, press 
Alt+E (see Figure 10 for what this would look like). Note that 
to avoid conflict, File and Format have different short-cut keys.

Below the menu bar comes the text-entry part of the window,
which starts with a vertical bar, just larger than the text size 
- this is the insertion point, moved with the arrow cursor keys, 
(and other cursor movement keys) on the keyboard. The mouse
cursor changes shape from its usual upwards-pointing arrow
head to become an I-beam when it is over a text-entry field, 
and this is shown at the end of the third line of
text in this file.

Although the rest of the file is not visible, for long
documents, which cannot be displayed in one small window, scroll 
bars are used to move through the file quickly, both up/down, 
and left/right. These scroll bars are shown on the right-hand 
and bottom edges of the window. The arrow heads in the boxes at 
the top/bottom, and left/right ends of the scroll bars are used 
to move the view one screen at a time through the
document. The square block at the top of the right-hand scroll
bar, and at the left of the bottom scroll bar, can be dragged 
along the bar to move through the document in larger jumps.


Figure 5: Example of application window with two document
(child) windows
On diagram: Figure 5: App and Doc windows

Refer to sections:
D 6 - The Three Types of Window
D 6a - Application Windows
D 6b - Document Windows

This is a simplified application window (does not display the
buttons for the control menu, maximise or minimise, or the menu 
bar), which in reality might look like Figure 4. This application 
window has two child windows, called document windows, (even
when the window does not contain a word processing file, the
child windows are still called document windows). These document 
windows are also simplified by not showing the buttons for the 
control menu, maximise or minimise. (Document windows never have 
menu bars anyway.)

The application window is labelled "Application Window", and
its child windows, document windows, are labelled "Doc Window 1" 
and "Doc Window 2". Document windows are restricted to appearing 
within the boundaries of their parent's window, so can always be 
found within their application window. They can be overlapping, 
tiled or cascaded as shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, but will always 
be arranged within the boundaries of their application window.

The application is active all the time you are working in a
particular document window, so has a filled-in title bar. When 
there are multiple document windows open,(here there are two), 
only one of these can be active at a time, and this active
document window will appear in front of the others, with a
filled-in title bar.


Figure 6: Example of a document window - a word processing
file
On diagram: Figure 6: Eg of Document window

Refer to sections:
D 6 - The Three Types of Window
D 6b - Document windows

Here is an example of a document window, taking as an example,
a word-processing file. Document windows could also be a 
spreadsheet file in a spreadsheet application, or a group window 
containing program-item icons in Program Manager. Every
document window has a control menu button on the left-hand
side of its title bar, and a maximise and minimise button on the 
right-hand side. Document windows never have menu bars, since the 
application controls them, so immediately below the title bar is
the text-entry field. The text is a very short letter, and fits 
easily into one small window.


Figure 7: Example of a message window: Printing Problem
On diagram: Figure 7: Eg of message window

Refer to sections:
D 6c - Dialogue Boxes and Message Windows
G 1 - Message Boxes
G 3 - Pushbuttons

This shows a typical message or warning box. It provides you
with information, and specifies that if you wish to continue 
with the task you requested (to print the file), you must take 
action, (to insert paper and choose OK), otherwise you should 
cancel the print command, by choosing the Cancel button. Note 
that the title bar of the message box only shows the title and 
the control menu button - message boxes cannot be resized, so 
there are never maximise or minimise buttons.


Figure 8: Example of a dialogue box in an application: Find
On diagram: Figure 8: Eg of a dialogue box

Refer to sections:
D 6a - Application Windows
D 6c - Dialogue Boxes and Message Windows
G - What are Dialogue Boxes?
G 3 - Pushbuttons
G 4 - Checkboxes
G 6 - Editfields

Here is what the screen would look like if you were working in
a word processor which only has one document window open. The 
title bar of the application window shows the name of the 
application, and also the name of the open file. If there was
more than one document window open, each file would be in a
separate document window, each with its own title bar, and buttons 
for the control menu, maximise, and minimise. The area which 
would display the text in your file has been randomly dotted,
and does not actually display text.

To perform a Find task, you have chosen the Edit option from
the menu bar, and then chosen Find from the pull-down menu 
(see Figures 9 and 10). Then the menus close, and the Find 
dialogue box opens on top of your application
window, on top of your file, and may appear anywhere in the 
application window. So, you are still able to see some of your 
file, which might be useful for making decisions in the dialogue 
box.

The application window is still active, so still has a filled-
in title bar, but now, the dialogue box is active, and currently 
accepting keyboard input, so this also has a filled-in title bar. 
The dialogue box has a control menu button on the title bar, but 
as it cannot be resized, there are no minimise or maximise buttons.
The dialogue box contains an editfield, where you are asked to 
enter the string to search for, and also a checkbox where you 
can specify whether to match case or not, and the standard OK
and Cancel pushbuttons.  Each option has a short-cut key
indicated by the underlined letter. Any changes you make in the 
dialogue box will be implemented if you choose OK, or will be 
ignored and reset if you choose Cancel.


Figure 9: The menu bar of an application window, and
activating the menu bar
On diagram: Figure 9: Menu bar and activation

Refer to section:
E - Menus in More Detail

The upper half of this figure shows the top half of an
application window, in this case, of a word processor. The title 
bar has the buttons for the control menu, maximise and
minimise, and the name of the application. Below this is the
menu bar itself, and the short-cut key for each item is underlined, 
with dots 7&8. Pressing this short-cut key will immediately open 
the Edit pull-down menu (shown on the lower half of Figure 10).

The lower half of the figure shows what the screen looks like
when you activate the menu bar by pressing the Alt key. The 
first item on the menu bar is highlighted, shown by the filled-in 
area around the item File.


Figure 10: Moving along the menu bar of an application window,
and opening a pull-down menu
On diagram: Figure 10: Menu bar, pull-down menu

Refer to section:
E - Menus in More Detail

The upper half of the figure follows on from the last figure -
(the user had pressed the Alt key to start the menu activation,) 
and in this figure, while the menu was active, the
user has pressed the right arrow cursor key, which moves the
highlight to the next item on the menu bar, Edit, shown by the 
filled-in area around the item Edit.

The lower half of the figure shows what happens when the user
then presses either the down cursor key, or the Enter key, 
while the highlight is on the menu item Edit. The Edit pull-down 
menu opens, literally pulling down the sub-menu from the menu bar
item, so appears directly below it, as the list of Edit-
related items. Each item on the pull-down menu has a short-cut 
key underlined (used on its own, without Alt), shown with 
dots 7&8.

By default, the first item on the pull-down menu is
highlighted (shown as the filled-in area around Find), and this 
highlight can be moved up and down the menu with the up
and down arrow cursor keys. Choosing this item Find would then
lead to the menus closing, and the dialogue box Find opening 
(see Figure 8). This pull-down menu opens on top of your file - 
so it obscures whatever is underneath it (nothing is shown in 
the file here anyway).

This pull-down menu stage can also be achieved very quickly
bypassing all of the above stages, by pressing the short-cut 
key for Edit, which is Alt+E, which opens the Edit pull-down 
menu immediately.


Figure 11: Program Manager - a typical desktop layout
On diagram: Figure 11: Eg of Program Manager screen

Refer to sections:
B - Introducing Windows
C 3 - Types of Icon
D - What are Windows?
E - Menus in More Detail
F - Program Manager

Although there is a lot on this screen, it is actually quite
straightforward. The very outside border represent the edges 
of the screen, which bounds the desktop area (indicated with 
the dot pattern, like a "wallpaper" that sighted users often 
decorate their desktops with). The application window of Program
Manager is about three-quarters the size of the full screen, 
and has a filled-in title bar, as it is the active
application. The title bar of the application has the buttons
for the control menu, maximise and minimise. Below the title bar 
is the application's menu bar, with the short-cut keys underlined 
with dots 7&8.

This application can have multiple child (document) windows
open (like a word processor with more than one file open), and 
in the Program Manager application, these child or document 
windows display icons representing programs, called
program-item icons, (rather than wordprocessing files in a
word processing application). On this diagram there are three 
of these document windows open, called "main", "games", and 
"applications". Each document window has a title bar, which
shows the buttons for the control menu, maximise and minimise.
(Document windows never have menu bars). In any active application, 
only one of its document windows can be active at any time, and 
here, the active window is the group "main", shown with
the filled-in title bar.

Each of these document windows (or we could call them group
windows) contains a number of icons representing programs we can 
start from Windows, these are called Program-Item Icons. These 
icons do not have to be neatly arranged within a group
window, and for example, the four icons in this group are not
arranged in a straight line, the one on the right is a bit lower 
than the others.

Each icon has a label, which informs the user what the icon 
represents, and these names can be changed by the user.
In the group "main", only one of these icons is labelled
fully: "file manager", which is an application used to manage 
your files. By default, once one group window has the
system focus, one of the program-item icons in the group
window would be highlighted, and for example, this might be the 
icon for "file manager" - although space did not permit the 
highlighting to be shown here.

Because of space restrictions, all the other icons are
labelled with a single alphabetic letter, but these are usually 
real names of programs, such as "Calculator" or "Word for
Windows".

The group on the right called "games" is a different shape and
size to the group "main", and contains four program-item icons, 
each labelled, and these are neatly arranged in a row. The group 
below these two, called "applications" contains five
icons, which are also neatly arranged in a row, and labelled.

There is an icon near the bottom of the application Program
Manager window - labelled "word processors", which is an 
iconised/minimised group window. A group window called "word 
processors" might have just been open on the screen, looking
like the other open group windows here containing program-item
icons, and the user decided it was taking up too much space, so 
they minimised the window, which shrunk it to this icon, sitting 
at the bottom of the application window. Choosing "Restore"
from the icon's control menu would restore it to an open
window again in its previous size.

Outside the Program Manager application window, sitting on the
desktop, is an icon containing a capital W, and is labelled as 
"Word for Windows". This represents the application Word for 
Windows which has been minimised to an icon on the desktop. It
is still loaded in memory, but has no windows open. Choosing
Restore or Maximise from it's control menu would enlarge it 
to an open window again.

If we maximised the Program Manager window, it would be
enlarged to fill the whole screen - that is, to completely 
cover the desktop, and we would not be able to see the
Word for Windows icon any more, which would be behind the
Program Manager window. It would, however, still be accessible 
using the keyboard.


Figure 12: Pushbuttons (found in dialogue boxes)
On diagram: Figure 12: Pushbuttons

Refer to sections:
G - What are Dialogue Boxes?
G 3 - Pushbuttons

Dialogue boxes usually contain at least two pushbuttons: OK
and Cancel, and sometimes more, which might include a Help 
pushbutton. Each element in the dialogue box has a short-cut key, 
indicated with an underlined character (dots 7&8), which are
selected using the Alt key and the underlined character, so
Help would be Alt+H. There are two exceptions: OK and Cancel 
do not have underlined characters, since Enter will choose OK, 
and Escape will choose Cancel. (Please note the exception to
this rule when the system focus is in the Directory listbox
outlined in section G 3.)

One element at a time has the system focus in a dialogue box,
and this is shown by a fine rectangle around the item in focus, 
and here it is the OK button, which has a thicker border than 
the other pushbuttons. The system focus is moved by the Tab key,
and if the focus is on any pushbutton, this can be pressed
with the Enter key. But take care, the Enter key is the default 
short-cut for the OK button, unless the system focus is on any 
other pushbutton, when Enter will press that button instead.


Figure 13: Checkboxes (found in dialogue boxes)
On diagram: Figure 13: Checkboxes

Refer to sections:
G - What are Dialogue Boxes?
G 4 - Checkboxes

Checkboxes allow you to make "on or off" choices for particular 
things, and if they are checked (on), there is a cross in the box, 
and if they are unchecked (off) there is no cross in the box. 
So from this group of checkboxes, all related to the style of 
character, the style chosen is italics, underlined and superscript. 
The option "underlined" also has the system focus, shown by the 
rectangle around the item. The system focus is moved by the Tab key, 
and then you use the spacebar to toggle an option on and off. Each
item has a short-cut key, shown by dots 7&8, which checks or
un-checks the item immediately as well as taking the focus there.


Figure 14: Radiobuttons (found in dialogue boxes)
On diagram: Figure 14: Radiobuttons

Refer to sections:
G - What are Dialogue Boxes?
G 5 - Radiobuttons

Radiobuttons force a choice from a grouped number of options,
where one and only one must always be selected. The selected 
radiobutton (standard) has a black dot within the circle. This 
radiobutton also has the system focus, shown by the rectangle
around this item. Once the system focus is at the group of
radiobuttons, the arrow cursor keys are used to move the 
selection from one radiobutton to the other.
Alternatively, each item has a short-cut key, shown by dots
7&8, to immediately change to that option.


Figure 15: An editfield (found in dialogue boxes)
On diagram: Figure 15: Editfield

Refer to sections:
G - What are Dialogue Boxes?
G 6 - Editfields

Editfields are limited text entry fields in dialogue boxes,
and once the system focus is on the editfield, (using Tab or 
the short-cut key for the name of the editfield), an
insertion point will appear inside the editfield, shown at the
end of the text here, as a vertical bar. The text in this 
editfield is not selected - is not highlighted. Therefore, any
keypress will simply insert that letter at the position of the
insertion point. However, if the editfield contained text which 
was highlighted, then any keypress will overwrite the
selected text, unless you move the insertion point once, with
the arrow cursor keys. This removes the highlight, and the text 
is no longer so fragile.


Figure 16: A listbox (found in dialogue boxes)
On diagram: Figure 16: Listbox

Refer to sections:
G - What are Dialogue Boxes?
G 7 - Listboxes

Listboxes present a list of items, which might be lists of
filenames, directories, colours, fonts, sizes etc. Once the 
listbox has the system focus, (Tab, or the short-cut key for
the name of the listbox) a highlight starts in the list which
can be moved up and down using the arrow cursor keys, or the 
initial letter of the item. Here, the item School.doc is highlighted. 
If this was in a "File Open" dialogue box, by highlighting this 
item, and pressing OK, this file would be opened.


Figure 17: A combobox (found in dialogue boxes)
On diagram: Figure 17: Combobox

Refer to sections:
G - What are Dialogue Boxes?
G 8 - Comboboxes

Here is an example of the related editfield and listbox,
called comboboxes, used especially when making choices about 
opening files from particular directories. Each element works 
as described in their sections earlier, but the diagram shows 
what the screen would look like when the editfield was used to 
refine the display in the listbox to only files with TXT 
extensions. Each element is separate, and they have their own
short-cut key, but they work very closely together, and a
change in one affects the other. For example, if now, from the 
listbox, we highlighted Diary.txt, the editfield would update to 
contain "Diary.txt" instead of "*.txt". In contrast, if the 
editfield entry was changed to read "*.*", the listbox would 
display all the files available, not just those with TXT 
extensions.


Figure 18: Example of a typical dialogue box: Print
On diagram: Figure 18: Eg of Print dialogue box

Refer to sections:
D 6c - Dialogue Boxes and Message Windows
G - What are dialogue boxes
G 3 - Pushbuttons
G 5 - Radiobuttons
G 6 - Editfields

This diagram shows how these elements can be combined in a
single dialogue box, all relating to one task: Printing. 
The dialogue box has a title bar, showing the name of the
box, and a control menu button on the left-hand side. Note
that there are no maximise or minimise buttons as you cannot 
resize a dialogue box.

This typical Print dialogue box prompts you for the number of
copies you wish to print, which you type into the editfield, 
and there is a default of 1 copy already displayed. You must 
specify from the radiobuttons whether you wish to print all the
pages, or a selection. If you have specified to print a
selection you must complete the editfields for the start and 
end pages. The standard OK and Cancel pushbuttons are on
the right side.

Any changes you make inside a dialogue box will be implemented
if you choose OK, or ignored and reset if you choose Cancel.

Copyright Sarah Morley, February 1995.
Sensory Disabilities Research Unit,
Psychology Division,
University of Hertfordshire,
Hatfield,
Herts AL10 9AB.
UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 1707 284 62