INTRODUCTION
GUI stands for Graphical User Interface and those software that are equipment with GUI feature like (Windows, Dialogue Boxes, Wizards, Check Boxes, Icons and so on) are called GUI software. GUI software are so commonly used now a days that we may find them almost on every computer. The reason for their so widespread usage is that these software are highly user-friendly with attractive capabilities like colour, graphics, ease of use and numerous other beneficial characteristics. The users are capable to work with GUI software in a very delightful manner as they can have the advantages as well as fun of their use.
In this Article, our emphasis is the use of GUI Operating System, Word Processors, Spreadsheets and Internet browsing. For this purpose we will describe their general characteristics as well as their exemplar products. The exemplar products all Microsoft related software such as MS-Windows, MS-Word, MS-Excel and MS-Internet Explorer. So let us have a look on these GUI software one by one.
- MS-Windows:
As we have stated earlier, MS-Windows is a GUI operating system i.e. it contains all those features that are involving the clicking of mouse for quick input. A GUI product is one in which we can input through keyboard as well however in case of selection among graphical objects such as Windows, Icons, Dialogue Boxes etc, use of mouse is a better and faster alternative than keyboard.
Windows is a DOS based operating system that uses GUI features in order to operate DOS commands for example if we wand to make a folder, we use the GUI objects like pop-up menus and make selections through mouse pointer however internally the DOS command DIR is used for this purpose. The reason for this close interaction and dependence between Windows and DOS is that DOS kernel files are active behind the interpretation of commands and booting of Windows operating system. However an advantage of GUI features is that as the name refers, we can open and work in as many Windows as we need. In that sense, Windows can be categorised as a multitasking operating system. Another key feature of Windows operating system is that it can work with a network of computers thus supporting multi-user computing. DOS on the other hand misses these multitasking and multi-user support features.
- Components of MS-Windows:
As a GUI operating system, certain components of MS-Windows operating system are graphical in nature. These include the Desktop, Window, Icons, Wizards, GUI utilities and numerous other for making selection with the help of mouse like check boxes, radio buttons, command buttons, drop-down list boxes, text boxes, span boxes and so on. These components alongwith the selection techniques are discussed in this article one by one below:
- Desktop:
A desktop is the first screen that appears after the completion of Windows booting. It is the Graphical User Interface given to users to work with Windows operating system. The desktop by itself comprises a task bar, an icons area and the free space on the screen as demonstrated below. These components of a typical desktop are described one by one below:
- Task Bar is the bar present at the bottom of the desktop. It contains a start button on its left side, a quick launch bar portion next to the right of start button, a running application area (which in the picture below contains application icons for folder and document next to the right of quick launch bar. The last portion of task bar is the notification area that notifies users about certain important information like clock timing, connection to the Internet and so on. This notification area is the right most component of the Windows task bar. The component so called because it is highly related with the computational tasks that are continued or are needed start.
- Icon Area is that portion of the Windows desktop that contains icons. Icons are actually the graphical objects that are clicked to switch to a particular software or folder.
- Free Space is that area of the desktop that does not contain any icon. This area may be used to accommodate new icons in future. The scene or picture of the desktop is also called its background or Windows wall paper.
- Windows:
A Window is another component of a GUI operating system that provides us with the facility to open an application software or GUI utility and work with that. Due to the multitasking characteristic of Windows operating system, we can open more than one window simultaneously.
- Application window is a window through which we can work within any application software. Common types of such windows are MS-Word, MS-Excel and MS-Power Point windows. In these window, we are fully facilitated with all the commands and facilities provided for the users benefits by the particular application software.
- Document window is a window through which we can work within any document that is concerned to specific application software. This window is a part of application window and may have all or one of its own minimize, restore and close buttons on the right side of its upper most bar called title bar.
- Dialogue box is that window through which a dialogue occurs between the user and the computer system. These dialogue boxes are most commonly used in situations when the user command is not a straightforward one and operating system needs further details about doing a task. An example of a dialog box is a "Save As" dialogue box that asks about the name of file and location on the hard disk where the user wants to save it.
- Icons:
As discussed earlier, icons are those graphical representation that are clicked in order to switch to particular application software, a utility or to open a folder. These icons are contained within the icon area of desktop. Common types of icons are Application icons (such as icons for MS-Word, MS-Excel and MS-Power Point etc), Document icons (used to open any document), shortcut icons (that provide shortcuts to open a specific application or document window), folder icons (that are clicked to open a folder) and disk drive icons (which are used to access Floppy or CD drives or partitions on the hard disk like C:, D:, E: and so on). It must be noted that a shortcut icon will have a bending arrow at its lower left edge whereas a normal Application icon is not like this.
- Wizards:
Wizards are somewhat similar to guidelines that are used to tell how to perform a complicated task. These are highly useful for users with little knowledge about the hardware especially in case of installation or any other such operations. Some wizards are also used for performing certain other operations like adding a new option to the start menu. These wizards are extensively helpful for a user as they provide information in advance about the consequences of clicking at specific commands buttons like Next, Back, Finish and so on. The wizards provide these command buttons and the user can decide which button should be clicked according to the information provided to him / her by the wizards. A typical wizard is given below:
- GUI Utilities / Services:
Certain GUI utilities like Window Screen Savers, Windows Calculators, Paint and Editors are also used to perform specific tasks. These GUI utilities such as Windows Calculator greatly help the users for making their computation simple for them. Some GUI utilities are Windows built-in means that they are contained within the MS-Windows software whereas others like Anti-Viruses and Windows compressing and decompressing programs e.g. WinZip are not so and need to be explicitly installed.
GUI stands for Graphical User Interface and those software that are equipment with GUI feature like (Windows, Dialogue Boxes, Wizards, Check Boxes, Icons and so on) are called GUI software. GUI software are so commonly used now a days that we may find them almost on every computer. The reason for their so widespread usage is that these software are highly user-friendly with attractive capabilities like colour, graphics, ease of use and numerous other beneficial characteristics. The users are capable to work with GUI software in a very delightful manner as they can have the advantages as well as fun of their use.
In this Article, our emphasis is the use of GUI Operating System, Word Processors, Spreadsheets and Internet browsing. For this purpose we will describe their general characteristics as well as their exemplar products. The exemplar products all Microsoft related software such as MS-Windows, MS-Word, MS-Excel and MS-Internet Explorer. So let us have a look on these GUI software one by one.
- MS-Windows:
As we have stated earlier, MS-Windows is a GUI operating system i.e. it contains all those features that are involving the clicking of mouse for quick input. A GUI product is one in which we can input through keyboard as well however in case of selection among graphical objects such as Windows, Icons, Dialogue Boxes etc, use of mouse is a better and faster alternative than keyboard.
Windows is a DOS based operating system that uses GUI features in order to operate DOS commands for example if we wand to make a folder, we use the GUI objects like pop-up menus and make selections through mouse pointer however internally the DOS command DIR is used for this purpose. The reason for this close interaction and dependence between Windows and DOS is that DOS kernel files are active behind the interpretation of commands and booting of Windows operating system. However an advantage of GUI features is that as the name refers, we can open and work in as many Windows as we need. In that sense, Windows can be categorised as a multitasking operating system. Another key feature of Windows operating system is that it can work with a network of computers thus supporting multi-user computing. DOS on the other hand misses these multitasking and multi-user support features. - Components of MS-Windows:
As a GUI operating system, certain components of MS-Windows operating system are graphical in nature. These include the Desktop, Window, Icons, Wizards, GUI utilities and numerous other for making selection with the help of mouse like check boxes, radio buttons, command buttons, drop-down list boxes, text boxes, span boxes and so on. These components alongwith the selection techniques are discussed in this article one by one below: - Desktop:
A desktop is the first screen that appears after the completion of Windows booting. It is the Graphical User Interface given to users to work with Windows operating system. The desktop by itself comprises a task bar, an icons area and the free space on the screen as demonstrated below. These components of a typical desktop are described one by one below: - Task Bar is the bar present at the bottom of the desktop. It contains a start button on its left side, a quick launch bar portion next to the right of start button, a running application area (which in the picture below contains application icons for folder and document next to the right of quick launch bar. The last portion of task bar is the notification area that notifies users about certain important information like clock timing, connection to the Internet and so on. This notification area is the right most component of the Windows task bar. The component so called because it is highly related with the computational tasks that are continued or are needed start.
- Icon Area is that portion of the Windows desktop that contains icons. Icons are actually the graphical objects that are clicked to switch to a particular software or folder.
- Free Space is that area of the desktop that does not contain any icon. This area may be used to accommodate new icons in future. The scene or picture of the desktop is also called its background or Windows wall paper.
- Windows:
A Window is another component of a GUI operating system that provides us with the facility to open an application software or GUI utility and work with that. Due to the multitasking characteristic of Windows operating system, we can open more than one window simultaneously. - Application window is a window through which we can work within any application software. Common types of such windows are MS-Word, MS-Excel and MS-Power Point windows. In these window, we are fully facilitated with all the commands and facilities provided for the users benefits by the particular application software.
- Document window is a window through which we can work within any document that is concerned to specific application software. This window is a part of application window and may have all or one of its own minimize, restore and close buttons on the right side of its upper most bar called title bar.
- Dialogue box is that window through which a dialogue occurs between the user and the computer system. These dialogue boxes are most commonly used in situations when the user command is not a straightforward one and operating system needs further details about doing a task. An example of a dialog box is a "Save As" dialogue box that asks about the name of file and location on the hard disk where the user wants to save it.
- Icons:
As discussed earlier, icons are those graphical representation that are clicked in order to switch to particular application software, a utility or to open a folder. These icons are contained within the icon area of desktop. Common types of icons are Application icons (such as icons for MS-Word, MS-Excel and MS-Power Point etc), Document icons (used to open any document), shortcut icons (that provide shortcuts to open a specific application or document window), folder icons (that are clicked to open a folder) and disk drive icons (which are used to access Floppy or CD drives or partitions on the hard disk like C:, D:, E: and so on). It must be noted that a shortcut icon will have a bending arrow at its lower left edge whereas a normal Application icon is not like this. - Wizards:
Wizards are somewhat similar to guidelines that are used to tell how to perform a complicated task. These are highly useful for users with little knowledge about the hardware especially in case of installation or any other such operations. Some wizards are also used for performing certain other operations like adding a new option to the start menu. These wizards are extensively helpful for a user as they provide information in advance about the consequences of clicking at specific commands buttons like Next, Back, Finish and so on. The wizards provide these command buttons and the user can decide which button should be clicked according to the information provided to him / her by the wizards. A typical wizard is given below: - GUI Utilities / Services:
Certain GUI utilities like Window Screen Savers, Windows Calculators, Paint and Editors are also used to perform specific tasks. These GUI utilities such as Windows Calculator greatly help the users for making their computation simple for them. Some GUI utilities are Windows built-in means that they are contained within the MS-Windows software whereas others like Anti-Viruses and Windows compressing and decompressing programs e.g. WinZip are not so and need to be explicitly installed.