Icons - Basic Classes

In this lesson you will learn:

Icons

Icons are picture representations of objects or actions (events) on your computer. They can be shortcuts that point to menu items or to the actual programs or objects themselves. They can change depending on the event, as in Mouse Clicks.

Different vendors have developed Icons and images that represent their programs. Because different programs are represented by different Icons, you will learn to identify these in later lessons, as well as by sight the more you work with them.

Windows Icons use standardized pictures to represent objects like drives, folders, directories and windows. This ensures that each Icon means exactly the same thing regardless of the Computer System type (platform) or the Application that uses it. At first, there are so many Icons and Menus that it is hard to remember them all, but after time it will become second nature and they will become very easy to use.

Icons can represent the actual object, like a program or a drive, or it can represent a shortcut to it. Shortcut Icons have a small arrow in the lower left hand of the image pointing up. The shortcut is actually a pointer that the computer uses to open the actual object when you click on it. Deleting, moving or changing the shortcut Icon does not affect the actual program because the Icon is merely a pointer to the program or object that is actually located elsewhere on the computer.

The lesson on Shortcuts will show that having shortcut Icons on your desktop is an ideal way of accessing your most frequently used programs and files without much effort in finding them again.

Things about Icons to consider:

Cursor Icons

Cursors are Icons that mark the location point of your work on the screen. These change depending on the action that you are performing, and according to the default settings in Windows that determine what these Icons look like. These are changeable and you will learn how to change the animated cursors and pointers later in this course.

For now, the defaults are listed in the table, along with a basic description of their meaning.

Identifying Cursor Actions by Icons

NAME		ICON	MEANING
Hourglass			Wait-Busy
Arrows			Pointer
Pointers	I-Beams	I	Placement
	Double Headed Arrows		Move and Resize
	Crosshair	┼	Draw Section Box
Prevent			Halt -Can't Do

Arranging Icons and Objects on the Desktop

Try the following exercise:

You can ensure that objects are kept in a permanently arranged state by choosing 'Auto Arrange'. Right click the Desktop >Arrange Icons By > Auto Arrange. Now whenever you move an object, it will automatically be rearranged for you. Undo this as needed.

If there are only squares where the Icon should be but no Icon Pictures for a program, it is because Windows cannot find the program associated with it. File Associations are covered in the File Types.