Common Software FeaturesIntroductionThe variety of software programs used by the Department of Defense and theU. S. Navy make it impractical to discuss each program and undesirable toselect only one program for inclusion in this chapter.There are, however,several features and options common to a majority of software programs.There is no attempt to identify individual programs in this section. Yoursoftware may or may not have any of these features.Cursers andpointersCursers and pointers indicate a current position on the screen. Commoncursers are blinking horizontal or vertical bars and are usually moved by thekeyboard or mouse. Pointers are usually associated with the mouse andappear as arrowheads, trailing arrowheads, crosshairs, hourglasses, I-beams,prohibiting circles, hands, and sometimes bars and cross hairs withdirectional arrows.Figure 8-2 shows a variety of common cursers and pointers.Figure 8-2.—Common cursers and pointers.BLINKING BAR:A blinking, heavy-weighted bar usually precedes text.Its place is to the left of the next character. A mouse (rapid action inputdevice) pointer may also appear on the screen, but as a non-blinking I-beam.The I-beam moves as the mouse moves.The blinking bar moves byoperating the keyboard, curser control keys, or by repositioning the bar withthe mouse and clicking to anchor it in place.ARROWHEADS and TRAILING ARROWHEADS:Arrowheads appearwhen you use a mouse to move around the screen in graphics softwareprograms.The tip of the arrowhead must touch the section or item youintend to alter. If the image of the arrowhead tail lingers, it is said to betrailing.CROSSHAIRS: Crosshairs representing the curser or pointer appear whenusing the draw feature of graphics programs or desktop publishing programs.Crosshairs allow more precise positioning by focusing on a picture element(pixel).Continued on next page8-14
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