Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

The Very Basics

To use this book, and indeed to use a computer, you need to know a few basics. This book assumes that you’re familiar with a few terms and concepts:

• 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 mouse (or laptop trackpad). To double-click, of course, means to click twice in rapid succession, again without moving the cursor at all. And to drag means to move the cursor while pressing the button.

  When you’re told to Ctrl+click something you click while pressing the Ctrl key (which is near the Space bar).

• Menus. The menus are the words at the top of your screen or window: 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.

• Keyboard shortcuts. If you’re typing along in a burst of creative energy, it’s sometimes disruptive to have to take your hand off the keyboard, grab the mouse, and then use a menu (for example, to use the Save command). That’s why many experienced computer mavens prefer to trigger menu commands by pressing certain combinations on the keyboard. For example, in most programs, you can press Ctrl+S to save the file you’re currently working on. When you read an instruction like “press Ctrl+S,” start by pressing the Ctrl key; while it’s down, type ...