Logging In and Starting the OpenStep Desktop

If your system is running the OpenWindows environment, the OpenStep desktop starts automatically when you log in unless you or your system administrator has configured it for manual startup (see the Solaris OpenStep Installation Guide). If you have chosen to start the OpenStep desktop manually, you use the openstep command to start the OpenStep desktop after OpenWindows is started (see the openstep man page).

If your system is running the CDE environment, the OpenStep desktop starts automatically when you select "OpenStep" from the CDE login menu. You can use the openstep command to start the OpenStep desktop with the application dock not visible (see the openstep man page).

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Note - You can change your password using the Preferences application. See "Setting a Password" on page 15-6.

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Your Workspace

The workspace is where you do all your work on your system. It is where you both create and organize your creations. When you first enter the workspace, it contains the elements shown in Figure 1-1 on page 1-4.

Most icons in the application dock represent applications such as Edit--a text processor for creating formatted documents--or the electronic Mail application. The dock makes it easy to start up applications you use frequently.

Applications present information in windows, which open and close in your workspace. File Viewer gives you access to your files, including all your applications. The File Viewer has a menu, titled Workspace, that lists commands you can choose to make the application do something.

The shape of the pointer changes depending on what you are doing. Common shapes are shown in Table 1-1.

Table 1-1

Shape Used For
The arrow, for pointing to objects. The I-beam, for editing text. The question mark, for pointing to something you want to find out about. The copy pointer, used to indicate that a file or folder is being copied The move pointer, used to indicate that a file or folder is being moved. The link pointer, used to indicate that a file or folder is being linked.

Figure 1-1

Screen Saver

If, when you are in the workspace, you leave the system on but you do not use the mouse or keyboard for a while, the screen saver starts up. The screen saver normally starts up if you do not press a key or move the mouse for 30 minutes. You can change this delay or even turn off the screen saver completely with the Preferences application. See "Setting the Screen Saver" on page 16-1.

Adjusting Volume

If your system can play sounds, you can adjust the volume with the Preferences application. See "Adjusting Sound Volume" on page 16-5.

Using the Mouse

Except for typing text, you do almost everything on the computer with the mouse (or whatever pointing device you are using). The mouse controls movement of the pointer.

A Sun^(TM) optical mouse uses optical sensing to measure how far you slide it, and it must be used on a Sun mouse pad. The mouse pad must be aligned correctly; its long sides must be horizontal, like the computer screen.

1. Move the pointer by sliding the mouse over the supplied mouse pad or over a smooth, flat surface.

2. Position the pointer on an object such as a button, slider, or icon.

3. Use a mouse button to click, press, drag, or double-click.

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Note - The Sun mouse has three buttons, and an x86 mouse can have two or three buttons. Normally, the left button performs the operations described here--clicking, double-clicking, dragging, and so on (see Figure 1-2), but some users, especially left-handed ones, prefer to switch these operations to the right button. (You can do so with the Preferences application; see "Hiding Menus" on page 15-4.) In this manual, "clicking a mouse button" and "clicking on an object" mean pressing whichever button you are using for these operations.

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Figure 1-2

If you reach the edge of the mouse pad while sliding the mouse, you can lift it and put it back down somewhere else without moving the pointer. No matter how far you move the mouse, the pointer stays on the screen.

Basic Mouse Actions

Once the pointer is pointing to something--it is over an icon or word, for example--you use a mouse button to perform one of these actions:

Click Without moving the mouse, press and release a mouse button.

Press Without moving the mouse, press a mouse button and hold it down. Pressing usually has the same effect as repeated clicking.

Drag Press a mouse button and hold it down. Then move the pointer by sliding the mouse. Finally, release the mouse button.

Double-click Click twice in quick succession. This often extends the action caused by a single click. In text editing, for example, clicking once selects a location between characters and clicking twice selects a word. An application may even use triple-clicking, for example, to select a paragraph.

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Note - You can use the Preferences application to reverse the mouse buttons, to adjust the responsiveness of the computer to multiple-clicking, and to adjust the responsiveness of the pointer to mouse movement. See "Hiding Menus" on page 15-4 and "Changing the Responsiveness of the Mouse" on page 16-8.

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Buttons, Text Fields, and Sliders

Buttons You often use the mouse to operate buttons in windows to make something happen in an application. Buttons come in all shapes and sizes. They are labeled with text or graphics to indicate what they do. You click on or press a button with the mouse, and the button responds visually--it is usually highlighted in white until its function is completed, as shown in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3

If you decide that you do not want to click on a button after all, you can move the cursor away from the button before releasing the mouse button.

Clicking on a button might change a setting. To change it again, you may need to click on the button again. A visual clue tells you what the setting is, as shown in Figure 1-4.

Figure 1-4

Clicking on a check box button places or removes a check mark in the box (see Figure 1-5).

Figure 1-5

Pressing a button with a on it displays a pop-up list of options from which

you can choose (see Figure 1-6). For example, when printing, you can use such a button to specify the units of measurement for the dimensions of custom paper in your printer.

Figure 1-6

Pressing a button with a on it displays a pull-down list of commands that

cause actions to occur. You drag the pointer through the list to the option you want and then release the mouse button, with the results shown in Figure 1-7.

Figure 1-7

When buttons are grouped together, as shown in Figure 1-8, clicking on one to select it might deselect another. Often you can drag through the group and operate one of the buttons by releasing the mouse button when the pointer is over it. You can do this in the Preferences application, for example, when selecting one of four rates at which character keys on the keyboard repeat when you hold them down.

Figure 1-8

A dimmed button--shown in gray rather than in black--is currently unavailable for use. The button in Figure 1-9, for example, is used on a number of panels to restore the original settings. It is dimmed when you open one of these panels and remains dimmed until you actually change one of the settings.

Figure 1-9

The return symbol on a button, as shown in Figure 1-10 on page 1-9, means you can operate the button (when it is not dimmed) by pressing the Return key on the keyboard.

Figure 1-10

Text fields Sometimes telling an application what to do involves typing in a white area called a text field, as shown in Figure 1-11. A label indicates the text field's function.

Figure 1-11

When you work in a window that contains text fields, an insertion point often appears in the first field, indicating that you can insert text there.

To move the insertion point to another text field, click in the other field. You can also press the Tab key to move to the next field in a window. Or hold down the Shift key and press Tab to go to the previous field.

If you type more than can fit in a text field, text you have already typed moves to the left, out of view, so you can see what you are typing, as shown in Figure 1-12.

Figure 1-12

Sliders You sometimes use a slider to specify a setting in a range. Simply move a knob back and forth in a bar by dragging it. Or click on the bar to make the knob jump to the position under the pointer.

Figure 1-13

If a text field next to the slider shows a value representing the current setting, you can type in the field to change the setting.

Choosing Commands From Menus

To tell an application what to do, you often use commands. Commands are displayed in menus. Each application has a main menu that is displayed when you are working in the application (see Figure 1-14 on page 1-11).

1. To choose a command, click on it, type its keyboard alternative, or drag to it.

2. To keep a submenu open, drag it by its title bar.

3. To close a detached submenu, click on its close button.

Some commands perform an action on something you have selected, such as text, an icon, or a window. Other commands open a panel--a small window that may ask for more instructions--or another menu called a submenu (see Figure 1-15 on page 1-11).

A dimmed command is shown in gray rather than in black, and is currently unavailable.

Figure 1-14

If you prefer to use the keyboard, you can type a command's keyboard alternative. Hold down the Command key and type the character shown next to the command. For an uppercase character, hold down the Shift key too.

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Note - Your keyboard's Command key is the key to the left of the space bar. It is usually labeled · and referred to as the Meta key. The submenu stays open until the next time you choose a command from the first menu.

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Figure 1-15

If the command opens a submenu, the submenu is displayed next to the main menu, as shown in Figure 1-16.

Figure 1-16

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Note - The button that you do not use for clicking (which is normally the right button) opens the menu at the pointer location. For more information, see "Hiding Menus" in Chapter 20.

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You can also choose a command while dragging through a menu. Start with the pointer pointing to any command, drag to the one you want, and release the mouse button. As you drag through a menu, each command is highlighted in turn. If a command opens a submenu, the submenu appears until you move to another command (see Figure 1-17 on page 1-13).

Figure 1-17

A submenu normally closes when you choose another command from the menu that opens it. If you do not want the submenu to close, you can detach it, as shown in Figure 1-18. The submenu is then displayed until you close it yourself.

Figure 1-18

If you press on the command that opened a detached submenu, another copy of the submenu is displayed next to the main menu. You can drag into this copy to choose a command, but when you release the mouse button it will close.

Clicking for Help

In some applications, you can find out about an item by selecting it with the question mark pointer, as shown in Figure 1-19. You get this pointer by holding down the Help key.

* Hold down the Help key and click on any command, window, or panel.

Figure 1-19

Clicking with the question mark pointer usually provides help on a command, window, or panel. In some cases, you can also find out about a specific button or icon in a window by using the question mark pointer to click on it.

Getting Help by Topic

You can find out how to do something in an application by selecting a topic from the table of contents in the Help panel, as shown in Figure 1-20.

1. Choose Info from the application's main menu.

2. Choose Help from the Info menu.

3. Click a topic in the Help panel.

Figure 1-20

You can also click on a button to see a related topic.

Buttons in the Help Panel

The three buttons at the top of the Help panel provide other ways to find a topic.

Index Click on this button to view an index of topics in the application. The index appears in the topic area. Then select the index entry you want to find out about.

Backtrack You can click on this button to see the topic you viewed last.

Find You can type a keyword in the text field at the top of the Help panel. Then click on Find to view the next topic that contains the keyword. Help is organized like a stack of topics. The Find button searches through the stack starting from the current topic. You can click on Find again and again until you find the topic you want.

Ending Your Work Session

At the end of a work session, you can log out of the OpenStep desktop to put all your work away. Before doing this, make sure to save any work you have done in any application.

* To log out, choose Log Out from the Workspace menu and click on the Log Out button.

You log out with the Log Out command in the Workspace menu, as shown in Figure 1-21 on page 1-17. If this menu is not visible, you can make it appear by clicking in the File Viewer, or by double-clicking on the Sun icon at the top of the dock.

When you choose Log Out, the panel shown in Figure 1-21 on page 1-17 opens. If you click on Log Out by accident, click on Cancel in the panel to make it close so you can keep working.

Figure 1-21

The Log Out command shuts down all running OpenStep applications. If you have unsaved work, another panel asks if you want to save.

The Log Out command also shuts down the X server unless the TerminateWindowManager user default has been set to NO (see the Solaris OpenStep Installation Guide).

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Note - For information on how to save work before logging out, see Chapter 5, "Creating and Saving Files."

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