Before you start to use PipeDream, you should be familiar with the RISC OS desktop.
You should know how to:
You should also understand terms such as dialogue box, directory and directory display.
If you are not familiar with any of the terms or techniques above, please refer to your RISC OS User Guide.
The three mouse buttons are referred to as follows:
Pressing and releasing a mouse button is described as clicking. Mouse buttons are usually referred to by name. For example, click Select means that you should press and release the Select button. Click Menu means that you should press and release the Menu button. Click Adjust means that you should press and release the Adjust button. Click without any button name is shorthand for click Select.
Pressing and releasing a mouse button twice in quick succession is described as double-clicking. Again, the mouse button is usually specified. For example, double-click Adjust means that you should press and release the Adjust button twice in quick succession without moving the mouse. Double-click without any button name is shorthand for double-click Select.
Pressing and holding down a mouse button while you move the mouse is described as dragging. Once again, the mouse button is usually specified. Drag Select means that you should press and hold down the Select button while moving the mouse.
It is very important that you understand clearly the distinction between these two items:
Generally, the pointer has no effect until you click a mouse button. To position the caret, you use the mouse to move the pointer to the required position and click the Select button.
When you are asked to press a single key on the keyboard, it will be expressed as follows:
Press A.
This means that you should press and release the key which has the letter ‘A’ on it.
Some keys can appear to be ambiguous. For example:
O
is the letter ‘oh’,
whereas 0
is the figure zero.
On some keyboards, zero may be shown as 0 with a slash through it.
l
is the lower-case letter ‘el’,
whereas 1
is the figure one.
x
is the lower-case letter ‘ex’,
whereas *
is what you use to express multiplication.
|
is used to represent the character which appears as a
solid vertical bar on the screen and on the keyboard
(it may appear as a broken vertical bar on some PC-style keyboards).
When you are asked to press one of the keys on the keyboard which has a word written on it, this will be expressed as follows:
Press Delete.
This means that you should press and release the key which has ‘Delete’ written on it.
Note the following:
← ↑ → ↓ are the arrow keys which you can use to move the caret about the document as an alternative to using the mouse.
↵ refers to the key on the right-hand side of the main keyboard which is usually used to complete an operation. You may know this key as Return — it is written as Return↵ in the rest of the PipeDream documentation. Note that this key may have ‘Enter’ printed on it on some keyboards.
Pressing the Backspace ↤ key deletes anything to the left of the caret. You can also use the Delete key.
The Escape key can usually be used to abandon an operation. It is sometimes known as the ‘Esc’ key.
Note that the End key may also have ‘Copy’ printed on it on older Archimedes-style keyboards. In PipeDream, this key is generally used to move to the bottom of a column.
Ctrl and Shift are held down simultaneously with other keys to modify their effect.
Press Ctrl-T means:
Note that the Ctrl key is also represented by ^ and is shown as such on menu short cuts.
Press ^X means:
Similarly, the Shift key is also represented by a broad up-arrow.
The Alt key is found on the left-hand and right-hand sides of the keyboard, and may be used to generate characters which do not appear on the keyboard, such as é.
Words that you type are usually shown in a computer typeface.
Type lesson ↵ means that you should type the word ‘lesson’ and then press the Return↵ key.
Longer sections to be typed may be given in this typeface so that the text does not appear too ugly.
Words shown in italics are not to be typed in literally, but indicate that you should substitute what the word represents.
filename
would represent the name of your file.