Windows XP [Electronic resources] : Visual Quickstart Guide, Second Edition نسخه متنی

Toolbars

A

toolbar is a row, column, or block of buttons with icons that you click to perform some action, choose a tool, or change a setting (Figure 1.24 ). Toolbar buttons often duplicate menu functions, but they're more convenient because they're always visiblegenerally at one edge of the work area. Programs typically have several toolbars, each responsible for a group of tasks. In a word processor, for example, there's a toolbar for formatting text and paragraphs, and another for performing file operations.

Tips

Many programs display

tool tips short descriptions of toolbar buttons and icons that appear temporarily when the mouse pointer pauses on them (Figure 1.25 ).

A toolbar button with a small triangular arrow pointing to the right or down will reveal its own small, self-contained menu when clicked (Figure 1.26 ).

Often you can customize toolbars, create new ones, and move them around onscreen to suit your preferences. Experiment. Right-click a toolbar to see whether a shortcut menu appears. Click an empty area of a toolbar (usually its left side), and try dragging to dock it at an edge of the window or just let it float in the middle.

Some toolbars have

toggle buttons that push in (turn on) with one click and pop out (turn off) with the next. They can set global options or conditions that apply to only the current selection (Figure 1.27 ).

Toolbars can appear and disappear automatically, depending on what you're doing in the program.