In this section:
Everything today is about apps, computer applications that have become very modular and customizable. The Windows 8 Start screen displays several pre-installed apps, such as Calendar, Music, Weather, Internet Explorer, and Xbox LIVE Games. In addition to the apps displayed on the Start screen by default, other pre-installed apps are available that you might be familiar with from previous versions of Windows, such as Paint, WordPad, and Sticky Notes. (These were referred to as Windows Accessories in previous versions.)
You can also install desktop applications such as Microsoft Excel or Quicken from Intuit. These more robust desktop applications have several features in common, which you’ll learn about in this section.
One application that comes with Windows 8, WordPad, has similarities to many desktop applications, such as Microsoft Word or Excel. It has a combination of menus and a ribbon toolbar, and you can enter, format, and edit text and objects. In this section, you’ll see how to use WordPad and some of the other common application features, including how to open apps, format text, insert objects, print, save files, close, and uninstall apps.
Apps on the Start screen can be relatively simple—for example, a calendar, the weather, or a music or video player. Apps that open on the desktop are the more traditional applications, such as those in the Microsoft Office suite. These can be pinned to the Start screen, but they open within the desktop environment. These desktop applications typically offer full-featured tools, such as menus, toolbars, and the ability to save and open documents.
Menus have been around in software for a long time. You click a menu, and a list of commands appears. Click a command, and a few things can happen. A dialog box might be displayed offering a group of settings. A submenu might be displayed offering additional commands. Finally, the software might take an action, such as opening a new, blank document.
Many apps and more robust desktop applications typically provide graphical tools that you can click to get things done. In some programs, these are arranged on a toolbar; in Microsoft programs such as WordPad, they are arranged on various tabs on a ribbon. The ribbon includes a File tab that displays commands for working with documents, such as Open, Save, and Print. In addition, there is usually a Home tab that offers the most commonly used editing tools to format text. WordPad also offers a View tab on which you can use tool buttons to zoom in and out, display a ruler, and more.
With WordPad open, click the File tab.
Click Save.
Type a name for the document.
Click Save.
Click the View tab.
Clear the Ruler check box to hide the Ruler.
Select the Ruler check box to display it again.
Click the Home tab.
Select a format.
Click OK.
Many apps and desktop style applications require that you enter text. For example, you can enter text in an email message in the Mail app, in a Microsoft Word or Excel document, or in a text field in Messaging. After you enter text, tools are often available to format the text with color or bold, italic, or underline effects. There are other tools with which you can adjust spacing between lines of text or to align text across the page relative to the left and right margins.
With WordPad open, enter a few words of text.
Click to the left of the text, and drag to the right or down to select some or all words.
Click Bold, Italic, or Underline buttons to apply those styles to the selected text.
Click the Font Color button and choose a color for your text from the drop-down palette.
Click to display the Font list and then click a different font to apply it to selected text.
Click to display the Font Size list.
Tip
If you apply a font other than the default font style to text, be aware that if you or somebody else opens the document on a different computer or a computer with a different operating system, or as a document on the web, not all fonts will be available. Other programs try to substitute available fonts, and the results might or might not appeal to you. Sticking to more common fonts such as Verdana, Times New Roman, and Arial might be your safest bet.
To help you place a copy or to move a piece of text or an object such as a picture to another location, Windows provides a feature called the Clipboard. This is a holding area for text and objects that you cut (remove) or copy from a document. An item stays on the Clipboard for a time until you find a new location in the document or in another document where you want to paste it. If you cut or copy several items, the oldest item will eventually be permanently deleted.
Note
Try This!
To copy an object such as a picture, select it by clicking on it; handles appear around its edges. Follow the same procedure for cutting or copying text outlined here to move or copy the item. After you place the item in a document, you can make it larger or smaller by dragging the handles on its edges, and in some programs, you can edit a picture in other ways, such as cropping to a smaller area.
In many applications, you can insert a copy of an object, such as a graphic element like a photo or clip art (a collection of illustrations, photos, and animations that come with some applications such as Microsoft Word) into a document without having to use the copy and paste method.
With WordPad open, click the Home tab.
Click Picture.
Double-click a folder to open it and display images. (The Pictures folder opens by default, and any pictures you’ve saved or downloaded are likely to be in that folder.)
Click a picture.
Click Open.
With many applications and apps you can print your documents or webpages. For example, you can print a memo from WordPad, an email from Mail, or a webpage displayed in a browser such as Internet Explorer. From desktop style applications such as WordPad, you use settings in a Print dialog box to print an open document. Make sure that you have a printer connected to your computer first!
Tip
Apps such as Mail and Internet Explorer offer a Print command or button; however, the print options are usually more limited than they are with desktop applications. Whatever program you print from, if you’ve set up a default printer (see Chapter 19, for more about this), that printer will be used automatically when you print.
After you have entered some content in a document, it’s a good idea to save the file on a regular basis so that you don’t lose your work. You can save a document file to your computer hard disk or to external storage such as a USB flash drive or DVD. When saving for the first time, you can give the file a name and choose a format to save it to; the application’s native format is the default. You can also save a copy of the file with a different name or in another location to create a backup copy in case the original is damaged.
With a new WordPad document open, click File.
Click Save.
Click to select a library or folder to which to save the document.
Enter a document name.
Select a different document format, if necessary.
Click Save.
Tip
If you want to save a copy of a file you’ve previously saved, in step 2 you would click Save As, choose a location to save the file to, give it a new name if you like, and save it. You can’t save two files with the same name in the same location; you have to either overwrite the original file or rename one of the files.
On the Start screen, you will find a Games tile. This takes you to xBox Games, which includes some spotlighted games and access to the xBox 360 Games Store and the Windows Games Store. You can play standalone games or play with others online. In Games, you can set up a game avatar and profile to use with game apps, as well as view your achievements and gaming friends. In this task, you set up your Avatar and Profile in the Games app. Once that’s done, download a game and try your hand at it.
On the Start screen, click the Games tile.
Scroll to the left to display the Avatar settings.
Click Create Avatar.
Click to select an avatar to use.
Click to adjust the shape of the avatar.
Click Save; note you can customize the avatar at any time by clicking Customize Avatar and changing settings for clothing, jewelry, shoes, and so on.
Click Edit Profile.
Enter your name, motto, location, and bio.
Click Save.
Tip
When creating your profile, to protect your privacy, don’t share too much information. Don’t make your location too specific (for example, by giving your address); just give a state or region. Don’t reveal many personal details in your bio.
The way by which you close apps changes with Windows 8. In some cases, you don’t close an app, you just return to the Start screen by pressing the Windows logo key on your keyboard or by clicking the Start screen charm. In others, especially with more traditional desktop applications, you click the standard Close button. Finally, with apps such as Weather and Maps, you can drag (or swipe if you have a touchscreen) downward to close an app.
Although computers today give you lots of memory to fill up with apps, images, and documents, if you no longer need an app, it’s still a good idea to uninstall it. After you uninstall an app, you have to reinstall it to use it again, which requires either that you have a disc or discs to install it from or that you re-download it to your computer. If you’ve decided that you don’t need to use an app again, follow these simple steps to uninstall it.
On the Start screen, right-click an app.
Click Uninstall.
Click Uninstall.
