The Very Basics

You'll find very little jargon or nerd terminology in this book. You will, however, encounter a few terms and concepts that you'll come across frequently in your computing life:

  • Clicking. This book gives you three kinds of instructions that require you to use your computer's mouse or trackpad. To click means to point the arrow cursor at something on the screen and then—without moving the cursor at all—to press and release the clicker button on the left side of the mouse (or laptop trackpad). To right-click means to point the cursor and click the button on the right side of the mouse (or trackpad). And to drag means to move the cursor while pressing the button continuously.

  • Menus. The menus are the words at the top of your browser: File, Edit, and so on. Click one to make a list of commands appear as though they're written on a window shade you've just pulled down.

Some people click and release the mouse button to open a menu and then, after reading the menu command choices, click again on the one they want. Other people like to hold down the mouse button continuously after the initial click on the menu title, drag down the list to the desired command, and only then release the mouse button. Either method works fine.

About → These → Arrows

Throughout this book, and throughout the Missing Manual series, you'll find sentences like this one: "Select View → Show/Hide → Personal Toolbar." That's shorthand for a much longer instruction that directs you to open three nested commands in sequence, like this: "In your browser, you'll find a menu item called View. Select that. On the View menu is an option called Show/Hide; click it to open it. On that menu is yet another option called Personal Toolbar. Click it to open that, too."

Similarly, this kind of arrow shorthand helps to simplify the business of choosing commands in menus, as shown in Figure I-2.

In this book, arrow notations help to simplify folder and menu instructions. For example, "Sales Actions → Leave Feedback. 'Great transaction, come back anytime!'" is a more compact way of saying, "From the Sales Actions menu, select Leave Feedback; from the submenu that appears, choose 'Great transaction, come back anytime!'" as shown here.

Figure I-2. In this book, arrow notations help to simplify folder and menu instructions. For example, "Sales Actions → Leave Feedback. 'Great transaction, come back anytime!'" is a more compact way of saying, "From the Sales Actions menu, select Leave Feedback; from the submenu that appears, choose 'Great transaction, come back anytime!'" as shown here.

About MissingManuals.com

At www.missingmanuals.com, you'll find articles, tips, and updates to the book. In fact, you're invited and encouraged to submit such corrections and updates yourself. In an effort to keep the book as up to date and accurate as possible, each time we print more copies of this book, we'll make any confirmed corrections you've suggested. We'll also note such changes on the Web site, so that you can mark important corrections into your own copy of the book, if you like. (Click the book's name, and then click the Errata link, to see the changes.)

In the meantime, we'd love to hear your own suggestions for new books in the Missing Manual line. There's a place for that on the Web site, too, as well as a place to sign up for free email notification of new titles in the series.

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