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4. Opening programs
Start Menu
On the Desktop
Inside Folders
Traditionally, you would open all programs through the Start menu located in the bottom left of the screen. However, our student computers are set up a little differently. Here is how to open the various programs we use here:
Start Menu
Left-click once on the start menu, find the program on the pop-up menu, and left-click once on it.
On the Desktop
The desktop is the background behind all of your windows. You'll have to get all your windows out of the way so you can see the desktop. For programs visible right on the desktop, double-click on a program icon.
Exercise
- Open the program called Mozilla Firefox from the desktop. Firefox is a Web browser.
- Close Firefox by clicking on the File menu and then clicking on Exit at the bottom of the list.
Inside Folders
To open Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, double-click the folder called "Adobe Design Standard CS3" which is on the desktop.
A "folder" in Windows XP can be thought of like a real folder holding a bunch of sheets of paper which are your files. One big difference is that a computer folder can contain many other folders along with files, and each of those folders can also contain many folders and files. And so on. Folders help organize great quantities of files.
When you double-click on the folder called "Adobe Design Standard CS3", a window will pop up which shows all the Adobe programs. Double-click on the icon for the program you want, for example the blue icon for "Photoshop CS3".
Exercise
- Open the program called Photoshop CS3. Photoshop is an image editor.
- Close Photoshop by clicking on the File menu and then clicking on Exit at the bottom of the list.
- Close the Adobe Design Standard CS3 window by clicking on the red X box at the top right corner.