http://www.be.com/documentation/BeOSUsersGuide/2_BeOSBasics/beosbasi.htm (Amiga Plus Extra No. 5/97, 05/1997)
This chapter shows you the basics of working with the BeOS: Starting it up and shutting it down, working with the mouse and keyboard, and mastering the fundamentals of the user interface. The next chapter picks up where this one leaves off, showing you the basic techniques you use with Be applications. Subsequent chapters show you how to use the applications that come with the BeOS.
Once you've set up your computer and installed the BeOS, you can start using it.
Note: As soon as you're comfortable with the BeOS and Be application basics, it's a good idea to use the Time preferences application to set the computer's internal clock to the correct time, as described in "Time".
When you start up the BeOS, it tries to find system software on removable disks first. Then it looks for system software on a hard disk. For more information, see "Selecting a Boot Disk".
The BeBox On/Off switch is a toggle-style switch on the top of the back panel. Pushing the toggle up turns on the BeBox; pushing it down turns it off.
If you're running the BeOS on a Power Macintosh, see it's owner's guide if you're not sure how to turn it on.
The BeOS Launcher application is in the BeOS Tools folder on the Macintosh hard disk, which you copied from the BeOS CD-ROM as described in Installing the BeOS.
When you start the BeOS, the Be logo appears for a moment. Then the computer loads the BeOS system software from the startup disk (this is often called "booting"). As the BeOS boots, it performs some housekeeping tasks, which it may inform you about. Then the BeOS starts the Browser application.
The Browser is where you manage the work you do in the BeOS: Arranging and opening files, starting applications, and so on (the Browser is described in detail in "Working with the Browser").
When a BeBox is on, two columns of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) become active on its front. The green LEDs at the bottoms of the columns act as power indicators: They glow whenever the BeBox is turned on. The upper LEDs show the relative load on the BeBox's two PowerPC processors: The more LEDs are lit, the harder the PowerPCs are working. (The Pulse application provides a similar display, as described in "Pulse".) The amber LED at the bottom of the right column is a disk activity light: Whenever the BeOS uses an IDE or SCSI disk, the amber LED glows.
When you boot the BeOS, it looks in a fixed order for a disk to start up (or "boot") from. First, it looks for system software on a floppy disk. If it doesn't find a floppy disk with system software, it then looks for any other kind of removable disk, such as a CD-ROM. If it doesn't find a removable disk with system software, it checks the "boot preference" to determine what disk you prefer to use as the boot disk. The BeOS then tries to boot from the disk specified in the boot preference. If for some reason the preferred disk isn't available or doesn't contain system software, the BeOS tries to boot from any other available disk with system software on it.
When you install the BeOS on a disk, the Installer asks if you want to change the boot preference to that disk. You can change the boot preference at any time with the Boot preferences application, as described in "Boot".
Regardless of the boot preference and what disks are inserted or attached, you can select the disk you want to boot from in the boot selection screen. On a BeBox, you open the boot selection screen by pressing and holding down any key right after you start the BeOS—as soon as you see the Be logo start to appear. On a Power Macintosh, you open the boot selection screen by holding down the Option key immediately after you double-click BeOS Launcher.
Each bootable disk is listed by its device name as well as by the name it has in the Browser. Disks that don't have Be system software on them aren't included in the list.
Caution: Don't select the "Erase their databases" option without first reading "Rebuilding the Database".
For more information about SCSI IDs and IDE disks, see your computer's owner's guide.
Before you turn off the computer, you must first shut down the BeOS. Shutting down ensures that any open files—including system files—are saved to disk correctly. If you turn off the computer without first shutting down, you risk losing information.
Saving files and quitting applications are described in the next chapter.
The main menu is just to the right of the application list, at the top-left corner of the screen. For more information about menus, see "Working with Menus".
If you just want to restart the BeOS instead of shutting it down, choose Restart from the main menu instead.
If the Browser is busy copying or moving files or emptying the trash when you choose Shut Down or Restart, a panel asks you to confirm that you want to shut down or restart the BeOS when these tasks are complete.
If the BeOS crashes, or if the Shut Down and Restart commands don't work, you can restart the BeOS (without turning the computer off and on) by resetting the BeOS.
There are two ways to reset the BeOS. The nostalgic way is to press "Control-Alt-Delete." In other words, press the following three keys at the same time:
(For help finding these keys on a PC or Macintosh keyboard, see "Using the Keyboard".)
The other way to reset the BeOS is to press the Reset switch:
Caution: If you restart the BeOS without choosing Shut Down first, you risk losing data. In particular, you'll lose any changes you've made to open files since you last saved them. You also risk corrupting the Be database. If you corrupt the Be database, you may need to rebuild it. For details, see "Rebuilding the Database".
Caution: In the prerelease version of the BeOS, the interaction between the Interrupt button and the Debugger is broken, so you shouldn't use the Interrupt button.
If you're using the Be Debugger, you can interrupt the BeOS and open a debugger window. (Using the Debugger is described in "Using the Be Debugger".)
To interrupt the BeOS, press the Interrupt button. On a BeBox, the Interrupt button is on the horizontal surface underneath the right side of the floppy disk drive, just above the right LED array. Push up on the button to operate it. If you're running the BeOS on a Macintosh, see its owner's guide to learn the location of its Interrupt switch.
If you press the Interrupt button accidentally, type g and press Enter to tell the BeOS to continue doing what it was doing when you interrupted it. Then close the Debugger window.
When you start the BeOS, the Browser starts up and the dock appears along the left side of the Be workspace. The background of the workspace is called the desktop—initially a solid blue area where windows open and you do your work.
Take a moment to identify the following features of the Be workspace:
Though most of this guide concentrates on showing you how to work in this initial workspace, you can create up to 32 workspaces and switch among them using the Workspaces application. For details, see "Workspaces".
You use the mouse to control items on the screen.
When you move the mouse, a small icon called the cursor moves across
the screen. The cursor changes shape depending on what you're doing: A
hand 
for selecting items and
choosing from menus, an I-beam 
for selecting text, and so on.
You use the mouse buttons to manipulate the items on-screen that are underneath the cursor. The BeOS can take advantage of one-, two-, and three-button mice. On a three-button mouse, the left mouse button is initially the primary mouse button, the button you click to perform the most common tasks; the right button is the secondary mouse button; and the middle button is the tertiary mouse button. You can change the role of the mouse buttons with the Mouse preferences application, as described in "Mouse".
If you have a single-button mouse, you can emulate a three-button mouse by pressing Control-Command while you click the mouse button to emulate the secondary mouse button, and by pressing Control-Option while you click to emulate the tertiary mouse button. (On a PC keyboard, the Command key is usually labeled "Alt," and the Option key is the key labeled "Ctrl" to the right of the spacebar.)
There are a few basic techniques (and terms that describe them) for using the mouse that you should learn before continuing with this guide:
You can adjust how the BeOS interprets multiple clicks and how rapidly the cursor moves across the screen when you move the mouse (see "Mouse").
In addition to using the keyboard to type text, you also use it to modify the action of the mouse, to select items, to choose menu items, and to perform many other tasks. The keyboard has two main parts: The main keyboard and the keypad. Along the top of the keyboard are the Escape key and function keys. Between the main keyboard and the keypad are more function keys, plus the arrow keys. Standard PC keyboards, which you use with a BeBox, are laid out slightly differently than standard Macintosh keyboards.
There are hundreds of different manufacturers of "standard" PC keyboards, employing a considerable variety of key symbols and labels, but the BeOS assigns functions to keys by their position on the keyboard, not by their labels.
Most of the labels on a Macintosh keyboard match
the roles their keys play in the BeOS. A few exceptions are the Command
keys, which are marked with a 
symbol, and the Backspace key (the top-right key on the main keypad), which
is often labeled "Delete."
Most of the keyboard keys should be familiar to you from typing class. However, the BeOS uses some of the keys on a PC keyboard in ways you might not guess:
Using the keyboard is described throughout this guide. In particular, see "Typing Special Characters", "Navigating Menus from the Keyboard", and "Navigating Windows and Panels from the Keyboard". For information about how the BeOS maps the characters you see on screen to the layout of the keys on the keyboard, see "Keymap" and "FontChart".
The BeOS displays information in windows, areas on the screen with some of all of the following features:
Most windows have a tab at the top, with the title of the window and one or more buttons. In the Browser, the title usually tells you the name of the folder whose contents are shown in the window. (For details, see "Working with the Browser".)
You can have one or many windows open at a time, but only the active window responds to your actions. For example, pressing keys on the keyboard affects only the active window. Even when windows aren't overlapping, you can tell which is the active window by its tab: The active window has a yellow tab.
You make a window the active window by clicking its border or (for most windows) anywhere in it. When you start up a new application or switch applications, the frontmost window in the new application becomes the active window.
You move a window by dragging it by its border. The border includes the tab and the gray area on the edges of windows where there's no scroll bar. For most Browser windows, this means you can drag the window by its left and top borders, including the tab. You can drag other windows, panels, and palettes by any border.
When you drag a window by its tab, take care not to click the close or zoom button accidentally.
You can change the size and dimensions of a window by dragging its resize knob. The resize knob can be a box-shaped area or just a special part of the bottom-right corner of the window's border—depending on whether the window has scroll bars.
You can also click a window's zoom button (the 
icon in the window's title bar) to make it as big as need be to show all
that it contains—or at least as big as the screen. Clicking the zoom button
again restores the window to its previous size.
In the Browser, choosing the Resize to Fit command from a window's Window menu has the same effect as clicking its zoom button.
Sometimes a window contains more icons, more text, or a bigger picture than can fit in the window. You can move the contents of the window within the window to see the items or parts of the document that aren't visible. This is called scrolling.
When a window contains more than you can see in it, its scroll bars become active to show that you can scroll to see more. Initially, windows in the BeOS have proportional scroll bars, so called because their scroll knobs change size to give you a rough idea of what proportion of the contents of a window is visible: When you can see almost everything the window contains, the scroll knob is almost as long as the scroll bar; but when you can only see a tiny part of what the window contains, the scroll knob becomes small in relation to the whole scroll bar. You can turn off proportional scroll bars, change the look of the scroll knob, and set some other options for how scroll bars work with the ScrollBar preferences application, as described in "ScrollBar".
The simplest way to scroll is to click or press a scroll arrow. But there are lots of other ways to scroll:
When you're working in the Browser, you can also:
| Do This | To |
|---|---|
| Press Page Up | Scroll up a windowful |
| Press Page Down | Scroll down a windowful |
| Press Home | Scroll all the way to the top |
| Press End | Scroll all the way to the bottom |
The contents of a window also scrolls when you select an item that's not in view, for example, when you use the arrow keys to select items in a Browser window.
You can quickly increase the size of a window by clicking its zoom button. In the Browser, clicking the zoom button is the same as choosing the Resize to Fit command from a window's Window menu: The window becomes as large as necessary to display everything in it. Click the zoom button again to return the window to its previous size and location. Some applications use the zoom button slightly differently. For example, when you click the zoom button in the Workspaces application's window, it moves the window to the lower-right corner of the screen.
If you begin to have more windows open than is convenient, you can minimize one or more windows. Minimizing a window hides all of the window except its tab. To minimize a window, double-click its tab (but be careful not to double-click the close or zoom button). Tabs of minimized windows are initially laid in rows across the bottom of the desktop. If you prefer a different organization of minimized windows, you can drag tabs to wherever you want on the desktop.
To restore a minimized window to its original size and location, double-click its tab again. Other ways to open minimized windows include:
You can click the close button in the tab of a minimized window to close the window. If the window contains changes you haven't saved, you're asked if you want to save the changes before closing the window.
To work with an item in a window, you first select it. Selected items usually change color to show that they're selected. For example, when you click an icon in a Browser window, it becomes darker (or highlighted).
Besides clicking, there are lots of techniques and shortcuts for selecting items. The following table summarizes ways you can select items in Browser windows, query windows, and some panels, such as the Open and Save panels.
Initially, the items in Browser windows are displayed as large icons with their names underneath them. If you prefer, you can view the items in the window as small icons with their names to the right. You can also view the items in the window in an ordered list view, which can tell you additional information about the items in the window. List views are also used in query windows, as well as some panels, such as the Open and Save panels.
You change views by choosing Icon View, Mini Icon View, or List View from a window's Window menu.
When you're working in icon view or mini icon view,
you can move one or more items in a window to a new location in that window—perhaps
to group related items in the same part of the window. Simply drag an item
to the location you want. If more than one item is selected, they all move
when you drag one of them. If you hold down the Command key ("Alt"
on most PC keyboards; 
on Mac keyboards)
while you drag icons, they snap to an invisible grid when you release the
mouse button.
In icon view and mini icon view, you can use commands in the Window menu to straighten up the arrangement of all the icons in the window. Choose Clean Up to align each icon in the window to the nearest location on the invisible grid. If you hold down the Shift key, the Clean Up command changes to Clean Up All. Choosing this command sorts the icons in the window in alphabetical order on the grid.
When you're working in list view, you can change how the items are ordered in the list. Initially, items are sorted alphabetically by name, and the Name field title is underlined at the top of the list. If you click on another field title, the items in the list are sorted in a way that's appropriate for that field, and the field title you clicked becomes underlined. If you click a second time on a field title (or hold down the Shift key while you click on a field title the first time), the items are sorted in reverse order.
You can choose the fields you want to see in list view from the Fields menu. Fields shown in the window are checked in the menu.
When you're done working with the contents of a window, you can close the window to make more room for other windows on the desktop. To close a window, click its close button. In many applications you can also choose the Close command, which is usually in a window's Window or File menu.
If you're working in an application where you need to save the changes you make, a panel asks if you want to save any unsaved changes when you close a window.
In many Be applications—such as the preferences applications—when you close an application's last (or only) window, the application quits.
You can manipulate the buttons, pop-up lists, sliders, and other objects in windows and panels from the keyboard (for information on working with menus from the keyboard, see "Navigating Menus from the Keyboard"). Not all applications' windows and panels take advantage of this support yet (for example, the Open and Save panels retain their own form of keyboard navigation, as described earlier in this chapter). Most of the applications in /preferences and the BeMail application offer keyboard navigation.
When you're working in a window or panel that supports keyboard navigation, you use the Tab key to move the focus of keyboard control from one object (or group of objects) to the next. The object that is the focus of keyboard control in a window is typically identified with an underline or a similar marking. To move the focus of keyboard control in the reverse direction of Tab, press Shift-Tab.
You operate the object in focus in different ways,
depending on the object:
Buttons include large buttons with text labels as well as the "radio buttons" and check boxes for options in panels.
If a window or panel has a default button, pressing Return is the same as clicking the default button, regardless of the focus of keyboard navigation.
If you're entering text in a field in which you need to be able to type a tab character (such as the message area of a BeMail window), press Option-Tab to move the focus to the next item in the window (the Option key is the key labeled "Ctrl" on the right side of the spacebar on most PC keyboards).
Be menus contain commands, lists of applications, settings, and other items.
You work with menus in three main places:
The application list and the main application menu,
or main menu, are at the top-left corner of the screen. The application
list has the Be logo as its title. It's described in "Switching
Applications". The main menu contains menu items for the active
application, that is, the application you're currently working in. The
main menu's title is the logo of the active application.
Most of an application's menus are along the tops
of its windows.
Pop-up lists and other controls in panels work very much like menus.
You can navigate menus and choose items from them in a number of ways, using the mouse, the keyboard, or a combination of the two.
Note: This section describes how menus behave when you first install the BeOS, but you can change a number of ways that fonts look and how they work with the Menu preferences application, as described in "Menu".
You can press a menu title, drag to the menu item you want, and release the mouse button to choose that menu item. If you release the mouse button without choosing a menu item, the menu closes.
When you drag through menus, you also see the keyboard
shortcuts for the items in the menu. Keyboard shortcuts are combinations
of keys you can press as a shortcut to choosing the menu items with the
mouse. The 
icon represents the
Command key (either of the keys labeled "Alt" on either side
of the spacebar on most PC keyboards; either of the keys labeled 
on Mac keyboards). The 
icon
represents the Shift key. Choosing menu items from the keyboard is described
in "Navigating Menus from the Keyboard".
In some applications, such as the Browser, you can open a menu by selecting an item or positioning the cursor over it and then pressing a mouse button. For example in the Browser, if you position the cursor over an icon in the dock and press the secondary mouse button, a menu with items relevant to the item in the dock opens underneath the cursor. Context-sensitive menus are also available in the Open and Save panels. You can drag to a menu item you want and release the mouse button to choose it. If you don't want to choose one of the items in the menu, drag the cursor out of the menu before you release the mouse button.
Initially, the secondary mouse button is the right mouse button on a three-button mouse, but you can rearrange the buttons and their roles with the Mouse preferences application. See "Mouse" for more information.
You can also open context-sensitive menus by pressing (holding down the mouse button) when the cursor is on an object—such as an icon or selection of icons in the Browser—and waiting for a moment. The delay before the context-sensitive menu opens is related to the double-click speed you set in the Mouse preferences, which is described in "Mouse".
You can click a menu's title to open the menu and view its contents. Then you can click a menu item to choose it.
When you click a menu title, the menu stays open until you choose a menu item, click another menu title, or click elsewhere on the screen. When you move the cursor (without pressing a mouse button) over items in an open menu, menu items highlight underneath the cursor and submenus open. You can press the Enter key on the keyboard to choose a highlighted menu item.
When you click a menu title, you see the menu's triggers. Triggers are characters you can type when a menu is open to choose a menu item by typing instead of clicking. Triggers are indicated by underlined letters in menu titles and menu items. For more information, see "Navigating Menus from the Keyboard".
An arrow next to a menu item indicates that it's a submenu. Move the cursor over a submenu title to open it. Then click the menu item you want to choose in the submenu.
You can press and release a key to display the triggers for the menu titles in the active window.
)
and Escape at the same time; or press the equal sign key (=) that's on
the numeric keypad. Triggers are underlined letters in menus that indicate the character you can type as an alternative to clicking a menu title or menu item. Type the trigger letter for the menu you want to open. Then type the trigger letter for the menu item you want to choose.
If triggers are showing and you decide you don't want to choose a menu item, press Escape to hide the triggers.
Most menu items have a trigger. If you want to use the keyboard to choose a menu item that doesn't have a trigger, you can use the arrow keys to select the menu item and then press Enter.
When you open a menu, you can also use the arrow keys on the keyboard to navigate menus. Use the left and right arrow keys to open different menus and submenus. Use the up and down arrow keys to highlight menu items. When the menu item you want to choose is highlighted, press Enter.
To open an application's main menu, press Command-spacebar (that is, press the Command key and the spacebar at the same time). To open the application list (so you can switch applications), press Command-Tab.
Many menu items have shortcuts: Combinations of
keys you can press to choose a menu item instead of choosing it by dragging,
clicking, or by navigating to the menu item from the keyboard. If a menu
item has a shortcut, it's displayed to the right of the menu item in the
menu. The 
icon represents the
Command key (either of the keys labeled "Alt" on either side
of the spacebar on most PC keyboards; the key labeled 
on Mac keyboards). The 
icon
represents the Shift key. Shortcuts are always displayed in menus as uppercase
letters, though you need to press the Shift key along with the Command
and letter keys only if the shortcut includes the 
icon.
You use the Browser to organize your work: Files, applications, database items, and so on. The Browser is also the main tool you use to start applications.
Applications, documents, and other files in the Be file system are stored on disks. Because the number of files can become quite large, it's convenient to sort them into related groups. To do this, the BeOS—like many other operating systems—uses the metaphor of folders (also called "directories"), where you can keep together related files, and even related folders.
In the following illustration, the file Emily (selected at the bottom of the screen) is in the system_fonts folder, which is in the fonts folder, which is in the system folder, which is on the disk named Boot Disk. (In this guide, boldface is used for the names of files and folders.)
There's another way of expressing the location of items in this hierarchy that you use, for example, when you're working in the Terminal application: You use an item's path name. A path name is a series of folder names separated by slashes. For example, the path name of the Emily font in the illustration is: /system/fonts/system_fonts/Emily. The path for the folder the fonts folder is in is often represented as /system. The leading slash indicates that the system folder is in the root of the boot disk: That is, on the disk you booted from but not in a folder.
This system gets more complicated when you're working with more than one disk. There are also shortcuts to represent items in the same folder and items in folders closer to the root of the hierarchy. For more information, see "Terminal".
You can get information about an item in a Browser window or the dock by selecting it and choosing Get Info from the File menu.
The information you get depends on the item. For disks, you get information about their capacity and free space. For files, you get information about their size, when they were created and modified, and their location in the file system. For applications, you get this same information, plus a version number.
You double-click a folder to open a window that shows the contents of the folder. The title of the folder window is the name of the folder.
A folder that contains another folder is often called the parent of the folder it contains. When you're viewing the contents of a folder in a window, you can open its parent folder by choosing Open Parent from the Window menu.
You can also open a folder's parents from the pop-up menu that opens when you press the lower-left edge of a folder window, the area that normally lists the number of items in the window.
If you hold down the Control key when you double-click a folder, the folder's parent closes when the folder you double-clicked opens. This is a handy way to reduce the number of folders open in a workspace.
If you press the secondary mouse button when the cursor is over a folder icon, a disk icon, or an empty area in a folder window, a context-sensitive menu opens under the cursor. The top item in the menu is a submenu that has the same name as the folder the cursor is over. All the folders, applications, and other files in the folder the cursor is over are arranged hierarchically in the submenu. You can navigate the submenu to choose any folder or file to open it.
In addition to the boot (or "startup") disk, you can have many disks and their contents available in the Browser and in other applications: Additional SCSI or IDE hard disks, CD-ROMs, floppy disks, and so on. To make a disk available in the Browser and other applications, you mount it.
All currently mounted disks are listed in the BeBox window, which you can open by double-clicking the BeBox icon in the dock.
Tip: If you've removed the BeBox icon from the dock, you use the Browser's Find command to open a query window, from which you can drag the BeBox icon back to the dock, or just open the icon. For more information, see the tip in "Opening a Query".)
Before you can mount any disk the first time, you must use the Installer application to initialize the disk, that is, to prepare it to work with the BeOS. For information on initializing disks, see "Installer". You can't mount an uninitialized disk—even if the disk is a hard disk that was connected to the computer and turned on when you started the BeOS, its icon doesn't appear in the BeBox window until you initialize it.
You work with mounted disks in much the same way as you work with folders: Double-click them to open them, drag files onto them to copy the files onto the disk, and so on.
The easiest way to mount a SCSI or IDE hard disk is to have it connected to the computer—and if it's an external device, turned on—when you start the BeOS. Icons for mounted disks are in the BeBox window, which you open by double-clicking the BeBox icon in the dock.
To mount a CD-ROM that has a Be file system on it, simply insert it into the CD-ROM drive: The CD is mounted automatically.
To mount a floppy disk, insert it in the floppy disk drive and choose Mount Floppy Disk from the BeBox window's File menu. The disk's icon appears in the BeBox window, where you can work with it in the same way you work with a folder icon. (If the computer can automatically detect floppy disks, they're mounted automatically when you insert them in the drive—you don't have to choose Mount Floppy Disk.)
Note: The current release of the BeOS supports only high-density floppy disks. (These are usually labeled "HD".)
To mount all disks connected to the computer, including hard disks, choose Mount All Disks from the BeBox window's Disk menu.
A disk is also mounted after you initialize it with the Installer application.
To unmount a floppy disk, CD-ROM, or any other kind of disk, select it in the BeBox window and choose Unmount Disk from the Disk menu (or just drag the disk icon to the Trash icon). The disk's icon is removed from the BeBox window, any windows for folders on that disk are closed. When you unmount a CD-ROM and some other kinds of disks, it's ejected from its drive automatically. If the disk is a floppy disk or another kind of disk that isn't ejected automatically, press the drive's Eject button when the drive's light goes out.
You can rename any file, folder, or other item in a Browser window and in some panels, such as the Open and Save panels. To change an item's name, select the name by clicking it and type a new one. You can also select an item in a Browser window and choose Edit Name from the window's File menu to select the name.
You type and edit an item's name in the same way as you type and edit any other text in Be applications. For more information, see "Working with Text".
You can name an item anything you want, as long as there's no other item in the same folder with that name already. You can use up to 58 letters, numbers, and symbols—anything you can type, except the asterisk (*), slash (/), colon (:), and backslash (\) characters.
Tip: If you change your mind about renaming a file or folder while editing its name, just press the Escape key to restore the original name.
You can create a new folder to store related files and even other folders.
For more information on windows, see "Working with Windows".
A folder named New Folder is created. The folder's name is selected, so you can simply type a name and press Enter to name the folder.
Note: In theory, you can't create a folder more than 60 folders removed from the root.
You can move items (such as a file or folder) from one folder to another. Simply drag the item into the window or onto the icon of the folder where you want to move it. You may have to arrange the windows on your desktop so both the item you want to move and the window or folder where you want to move the item are visible.
If the folder you drag an item onto is on a different disk, the item is copied instead of moved. That is, a new copy of the item you drag is created where you dragged it, but the original copy remains in the folder from which you dragged it.
If you want to have copies of the item you're moving in both the source and destination folders on the same disk, hold down the Control key (the key labeled "Ctrl" on the left side of most PC keyboards) while you drag the item. This forces a copy whether the destination is on the same disk or not.
Another way to copy or move files or folders is to use the Browser's context-sensitive menus. Position the cursor over the item you want to move or copy and press the secondary mouse button. In the menu that opens under the cursor, drag to the Move To or Copy To submenu and then through the hierarchy of submenus to select the folder where you want to copy or move the item under the cursor.
If you're copying or moving a lot of files, a status window opens with updates on the progress of that task. If you're moving or copying more than one set of files or emptying the trash, each such task is listed in the status window. You can click a status bar in the Status window and click Cancel to stop that task in midstream, but whatever has been moved, copied, or deleted so far stays moved, copied, or deleted—it's not undone.
You can create a copy of any item by selecting it and choosing Duplicate from its window's File menu. The duplicate is created in the same folder as the original, and has the same name, with "copy" appended. If you create more than one duplicate of the same item, the duplicates have "copy 2", "copy 3", and so on, appended to the original name.
You can delete files, folders, and most other items you see in the Browser by dragging them to the Trash icon on the dock. You can also put items in the trash by selecting them in a Browser window and choosing the Move to Trash command from the window's File menu. When there are items in the trash, the Trash icon appears to have trash in it:
Items you put in the trash aren't deleted permanently. You can double-click the Trash icon to see what's in the trash and drag items back into a Browser folder window if you decide you'd rather not delete them after all.
When you're sure you want to remove items permanently, choose the Empty Trash command from the Browser's main menu.
If you make a habit of putting items in the trash and never emptying it, the trash eventually takes up a lot of disk space, so it's a good idea to empty the trash periodically.
Note: Dragging an item from the dock to the Trash icon doesn't put it in the trash: It just removes the item from the dock.
The dock is a convenient place to store icons of the applications, files, folders, and other items you use most often. It's often easier to double-click an icon in the dock than to find the original item in its folder.
An icon in the dock isn't the real item it represents—the original remains in its folder. If you rename the original, the name changes in the dock. Similarly, if you move the original, the icon in the dock still represents the original, but in its new location. Conversely, you can't rename or destroy the icon in the dock, you can only open it, move it to a new location in the dock, or remove it from the dock.
To add an item to the dock, drag it onto one of the dock's slots.
If you drag a file onto an application icon in the dock, the application tries to open the file. If you drag any item onto a disk or folder icon, the item is moved or copied to that disk or folder. If you drag any item into a space on the dock that already has an icon in it, but not directly onto the item, both items occupy that space in the dock, and the slot get's a dog-eared corner to indicate there's more than one item in that slot. Click the dog-ear to see the other items in that slot.
To move an item on the dock to another slot on the dock, drag it to the slot you want.
To remove an item from the dock, select it and choose "Remove from Dock" from the Browser's main menu. Or drag the item to the trash (this doesn't throw out the original item in the file system—it just removes the icon from the dock).
You can change how the dock displays its contents. You can also hide the dock from view.
Initially, items in the dock are displayed as large icons with their names underneath. You change how items are displayed by choosing options from the Dock Display submenu in the Browser's main menu.
To hide all but a border of the dock from view, click the left or right border. Click the border again to display the whole dock.
You can use the Find command in the Browser's main menu to search for files, folders, and other items in the Be file system (that is, items stored as files on a disk). You can also search for entities in the Be database, such as e-mail or the names of audio CD tracks you enter in the CDPlayer application. When you choose Find, the Find window opens, where you specify in greater or lesser detail the attributes of what you're looking for. These specifications, called queries, are saved in the Be database, so you can reuse them later.
A query window opens, listing all the items that
match the attributes you set in the Find window.
Query windows are very similar to other Browser windows, except they have
a gray background and work only in list view. You can double-click items
to open them, drag items to the dock and to other folders, add and remove
fields using the Fields menu, and so on. (Think twice before dragging items
from a query window to a location in the file system: Query windows usually
contain items from many parts of the file system, and once you move them,
you can't move them back as a set.)
Caution: Though you can see and edit a text version of the query
in the upper part of a query window, resist the temptation to experiment.
The query language is incomplete in the prerelease version of the software,
and you can easily create an irreparable query.
The Be database saves every query you create—until you decide to delete it. You can double-click the Queries icon in the dock to open a window that lists all your queries. Double-click a query in the window to open another query window, which shows the current result of the saved query.
You can drag queries you don't want any more from the Query window to the trash.
Tip: The Queries icon is part of the Be database. Because it isn't a file or folder, you can't find it on a disk. If the Queries icon isn't in the dock, you can use the Find command to search for a BrowserItem named Queries. Then you can double-click the Queries icon in the resulting query window or drag the icon back onto the dock. You can also use this technique to restore the BeBox, People, and Mailbox icons to the dock.
BeOS User's Guide, DR8.2 for Power Mac Edition, 1/16/97.
Copyright © 1997, Be, Inc. All rights reserved.
Please send corrections, suggestions, and comments to userdocs@be.com.
