symbol with your fingertip; instead, some kind of pointing device is needed to

tell the computer precisely what you are pointing at. There are two

alternatives:

-- Firstly, you may use the cursor keys located at the top right of the main

keyboard. If you press and hold one of them down you will see the small

arrow-shaped cursor on the screen move in the appropriate direction.

Furthermore, if you keep the key pressed, the cursor will begin to accelerate,

shortening the time it takes to cross the screen.

-- Secondly, if you own a joystick or mouse with a suitable connector you can

use this to move the cursor around the screen. Logically, pushing the joystick or

rolling the mouse to the right will move the cursor towards the right of the

screen, and so on. You may wish to consult Appendix 11 for information on

attaching these devices to your computer.

Whichever method you use, once you have pointed to the appropriate place, you

need to indicate to the computer that you wish it to do something. This is

known as selecting, and it is achieved from the keyboard by means of the

key. If you are using a joystick or mouse, a special button will have the same

effect, usually the 'fire' button.

Nearly every function of the Icon software can be controlled by this

'point-and-press' action, which is commonly referred to as clicking. Try it out by

moving the cursor up towards the top of the screen and onto the item marked

'Applications'. You will discover that when you move the cursor onto the name

and click, a short list of phrases appears below it. This is known as a menu, and

the row of items it 'hangs' from is the menu-bar. Run the cursor along the

menu-bar and notice the various menus that appear underneath each entry. If

you move the cursor down any of the menus, each item under the cursor will be

highlighted.

For the moment we shall ignore most of the menu items which you can see on

the screen and instead concentrate on the Icon desktop. Move the cursor to the

Applications menu again, click and then move down to the item marked

DeskTop; now select it (by clicking) and the screen will be change to show the

menu-bar for the DeskTop.

Move the cursor along to the Card Index entry on the menu-bar, click, and

move down to the first menu entry. If you select it a box will appear on the

screen marked 'Card Index' containing a number of words and symbols. This is

the Card Index window and it contains icons for all the functions associated

with the Card Index program. You can move the window around the screen by

putting the cursor on the 'Card Index' title box, clicking, and then moving the

cursor to the desired location and clicking again. You may also remove the

window from the screen entirely by selecting it and then pressing the

key.

B 2