Amiga Collections: MegaDisc/MegaDisc 04 (1988)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)[WB].zip/MegaDisc 04 (1988)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)[WB].adf/Articles/wbintro

Text File | 2007-12-01 | 12KB | 244 lines

              RUNNING THE WORKBENCH - for NEW USERS

                              by Tim Strachan

    Since you're reading this, you're already running the computer
via the Workbench [WB]. All of the operations connected with using the
mouse, menus, and icons are handled by the WB, and for some users, no
more will ever be required. After mastering the techniques of the WB,
however, you may find it interesting to go further and explore the CLI
or Command Line Interface as well - you'll find all the information on
this and previous Megadiscs.

    A NOTE FOR THE CAUTIOUS: Don't be! Nothing you do, short of
    taking a tomahawk to the machine, will destroy it, it's tough.
    So experiment as much as possible, try out the techniques
    described here as soon as you read about them. The main advice
    to heed is to avoid ejecting disks while the red disk light is
    on - this might trash your disk. Otherwise go for your life,
    try everything, life is short!

    ICONS

    First and foremost, on the WB everything runs from ICONS, which
is the graphic representing a program (or TOOL in WB terms) or a
Directory (or DRAWER) or a DISK or a file (or PROJECT). An icon justs
gives you something to manipulate in some way: double-click on it to
"open" it; single-click to "select" it; "drag" it with the mouse to
move it to another place. The icon is directly associated with the
file it represents, in the sense that it contains instructions about
it - where it is on the disk, how big it is, whether it needs another
program to run it or show it (if it's a graphic, for example). It's
quite possible for a file not to have an associated icon, in which
case it exists all right, but you can't see it or manipulate it on the
WB - you have to enter the CLI to do anything with it. Or you can
attach an icon to it by using the ICON EDITOR.

    WORKBENCH TECHNIQUES

     A. Opening an icon: This is what you did to open the main window
    of MEGADISC4, ie, you "double-clicked" on the icon with the left
    mouse button. Similarly a DRAWER icon will open a window to
    display its contents; a PROJECT icon (like a Word-processing
    document) will call on the associated main (Word-Processor in
    this case) program to displayi itself; a TOOL icon will run
    the program associated with it (the NotePad, for example); and
    the TRASHCAN icon is just like a drawer except that you can
    drag icons over it, like any other drawer, and they will sit
    there until you give them the sentence of death by selecting
    "Empty Trash" from the DISK MENU.

     B. Selecting an icon: This is done by clicking once on an icon
    with the left mouse button, which will cause the icon to
    highlight or change colour. The point of this is to then go
    to the WB MENU bar, keep the right mouse button pressed down,
    move to one of the options (which will also be highlighted),
    and then release the button. This will perform the task you
    selected, such as RENAME or SNAPSHOT (see below).
    ** Note that sometimes some Menu items are "ghosted", rather
       than clearly outlined: this means that whatever you're
       doing at the moment doesn't need those operations.

     TRY IT - select the icon for this file that you're reading, go
          up to the menu bar, keep the right mouse button down,
          move to the WORKBENCH menu at the far left and move
          the pointer down to RENAME. Let go of the button, and
          you'll see a thin rectangle appear with the name of
          the file in it - remove this name by pressing RIGHT-
          AMIGA (the right-hand red A button) and X together, and
          now type in a new name, say INTRODUCTION. Press RETURN,
          and you'll see the new name appear under the icon.
          It's worth noting here that the RIGHT-AMIGA-X combination
          will always remove the contents of any such REQUESTOR,
          so that you don't have to Backspace or Delete.

    In the same way, instead of double-clicking on an icon to OPEN
    it, you could just as well SELECT it, then go to the WORKBENCH
    MENU item, and move to OPEN at the top of the list, and release
    the button. However, you'll probably find it easier to
    double-click.

     C. Dragging an icon: To move an icon, in order to tidy it up, or
    put it in another drawer or on another disk, simply position
    the pointer on it, hold down the left mouse button and then
    drag the mouse in the direction you want to go. When the icon
    is where you want it to be, let go the button and that's
    where it will stay. ** You don't have to have a DRAWER or DISK
    window open to accept a dragged icon - you can drag the icon
    on top of the icon for a DRAWER or DISK and it is the same as
    dragging it into an open window. (See EXTENDED SELECTION below).
    Note that if you dragged it to another disk, the original icon
    will still be there on your original disk, as well as a copy
    on the "Target" disk. If you dragged the icon from one place
    to another on the same disk, then it has been moved, not
    copied. If you just moved it within the drawer or window it
    was in, to straighten up its position for the sake of tidiness,
    you'll have to SNAPSHOT it if you want it to remain there the
    next time you open the drawer or window, as follows...

     D. Snapshotting icons: Select the icon, having dragged it into
    the position you want, go to the SPECIAL menu,and move down
    to SNAPSHOT. Release the button, the computer will whirr, and
    that's it. (See EXTENDED SELECTION below).

     E. Deleting an icon: There are two ways of doing this, by using
    the TRASHCAN, or by using DISCARD in the Workbench menu. To
    discard an icon, drag it over the icon for the TRASHCAN, and
    release the left mouse button. You can do this to as many
    icons as you like, and if you open the Trashcan icon you'll
    see them all sitting there waiting for your verdict. If you
    decide you definitely don't need them, select the EMPTY TRASH
    option in the SPECIAL menu, and all the contents of the
    Trashcan will be gone. If you're more decisive, simply select
    the icon you want to banish, go to the DISCARD option in
    the WORKBENCH menu, and release the button. A REQUESTOR will
    appear which seems to question your judgement - click on the
    "OK TO DISCARD" box and that's the end of that icon. (See
    EXTENDED SELECTION below).

     F. Duplicating an icon: You may want to have two copies of a file
    on the same disk, in different drawers, or you may want to
    create another DRAWER for purposes of disk re-organisation. So
    select the icon you want to duplicate, and select the WORKBENCH
    DUPLICATE option, and soon you'll see the same icon with
    "Copy of ..." as its name. You might want to RENAME this to
    the same original name, or if you duplicated the EMPTY drawer
    you might want to rename it to "MyDocuments" or whatever.

     TRY IT - Go to the window of your WorkBench disk, select the
          EMPTY drawer, and select DUPLICATE from the Menu bar.
          If you don't need it right now, select it again, and go
          to the DISCARD menu option.

     ABOUT GADGETS
          ** If you can't see the window you need on screen,
         because it's behind other windows, just click on the
         BACK/FRONT GADGETS in the top right of whatever
         window happens to be in front. The inner of the two
         will cause the current window to move to the back
         of the stack, while the outer one will bring it to
         the front. The other way of moving things round the
         screen, is to use the RESIZE gadget at the bottom
         right of any window - place the pointer on it, keep
         the left mouse button down and drag the window to
         the size you want it. Then just release the button.
         The third main window gadget is the CLOSE gadget in
         the top left corner of most windows or programs -
         click once on it, and presto! no more window.
         (The exception to this is the window you're using to
         read this article - you need to click twice on its
         close gadget to get rid of it.)

     G. Copying a disk: Like most operations on the Amiga, this is
    a tedious process if you don't have an extra disk drive.
    However, in either case simply select the DISK icon which you
    want to copy, then select the DUPLICATE option in the menu
    bar. A requestor will appear telling you what to do next, and
    in the case of one drive you'll be presented with other
    requestors asking you to swap disks (SOURCE and DESTINATION
    disks) several times as the Amiga loads sections of the SOURCE
    into memory then dumps it to the DESTINATION disk.
    The other method is to load your blank disk so that the icon
    appears on screen (saying  DF1:BAD, or DF0:BAD for one drive),
    then drag the DISK icon of the disk you want to copy on top of
    the icon for the DESTINATION or TARGET or blank disk. Once
    again, requestors will tell you what to do. Try it now - make
    a copy of this disk, a good habit to get into, since
    you never know when a disk will give up the ghost for no good
    reason, and you may be left with a trashed disk and no
    programs to run.

     H. INITIALISING OR FORMATTING A DISK
    This is the process of turning a brand new blank disk into
    a disk that is recognised by the Amiga. The procedure is
    similar to doing a DiskCopy - select the icon of the new
    disk, go to the menu bar and select INITIALISE from the DISK
    menu, and the machine will go through its paces. Once it's
    finished you may want to rename it for your own purposed.
    As an INITIALISED disk it is ready to take data, so you might
    use it as a disk to hold all your Word Processing icons, or
    to store your Deluxe Paint graphics on, or whatever. Just
    drag them across from wherever they are, and you might also
    drag an EMPTY drawer across from your Workbench, so that you
    can duplicate it on the new disk and create a series of your
    own drawers.

     ABOUT EXTENDED SELECTION

    Sometimes you may want to copy a number of icons from one
    place to another together, rather than one after another; or
    you may want to discard several at once; or snapshot a whole
    drawer-full once you've arranged it as you like it. In such
    cases, there is a simple way to do it. With the SHIFT KEY
    pressed down, click once on each of the icons you want to
    copy, discard or snapshot. When you've done that, they'll all
    be highlighted. Now take your finger off the SHIFT key, and
    go to the appropriate selection in the Menu Bar as usual and
    select it (this is for DISCARD and SNAPSHOT, not COPY). The
    computer will whirr, and it'll be done. In the case of COPYING
    several at once, select them all with the SHIFT key down,
    then drag the pointer to the drawer or window you want them
    to be copied to. You'll see them all move together. Release
    the mouse button when they're where you want them to be.
    This is a technique which saves a bit of time, especially in
    the case of SNAPSHOTTING. Just be a little careful with the
    DISCARD...

     THE REMAINING MENU ITEMS

     I. SPECIAL-VERSION
    Simply tells you the versions of Kickstart and Workbench that
    you're using. Of more use to owners of the A1000, who have
    been known to use various versions of the system software to
    run the odd program which won't work with certain versions.

     J. SPECIAL-CLEAN UP
    You can use this for tidying up your windows instead of
    SNAPSHOT. If a drawer is open and the icon you selected to
    open it is selected (highlighted), choose CLEANUP and you'll
    find all your icons nicely tidied up.

     K. SPECIAL-LAST ERROR
    Occasionally you'll get an ERROR message in the title bar, as
    a result of doing something that's vaguely illegal, like
    trying to open a project icon without having an actual project
        attached, or asking your computer to take out the garbage.
        If you want to check which error it was, select this option,
        then look it up in your AmigaDOS book (which you should get).

     L. SPECIAL-REDRAW
    Sometimes a tool/program will affect the screen in some strange
    way - to restore the proper appearance just choose this one.

     M. WORKBENCH-INFO
    For detailed explanations of how to use this Option to the
    best advantage, see the articles on previous Megadiscs.



                           END OF WORKBENCH INTRO