Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual

Appendix B. Windows XP, Menu by Menu

A menu bar tops every Windows desktop window and almost every application window. Along this menu bar, of course, are the names of the menus that, when clicked, produce lists of the commands available to you.

Most menu bars have a menu named File on the extreme left side, and Help is always the last menu on the right. What comes between depends on the program you’re using. This appendix covers the menu commands in the Windows XP desktop windows.

Tip

You can choose almost any Windows XP menu command entirely from the keyboard; the necessary keystrokes are described in this appendix. (If you open a submenu that doesn’t bear the telltale keystroke-hint underlines, press the arrow keys to highlight the command you want, and then Enter to trigger it.)

If you open a menu and then change your mind, press the Esc key to close the menu.

File Menu

Most of these commands operate on a selection—that is, you’re supposed to highlight an icon, or several icons, before using the menu. It’s worth noting, too, that the File menu changes depending on what you’ve highlighted; for example, you see one set of commands when you’ve highlighted an icon, and a longer set when nothing is selected.

Note

Certain software installations may add other commands to your File menu.

Open, Open With…, Preview

Opens a highlighted document, program, folder, or disk into a window, exactly as though you had double-clicked its icon. (If Windows doesn’t know what program it’s supposed to use for ...