This chapter shows you how to start up and shut down the BeOS, describes the fundamentals of the user interface, takes a look at the Deskbar and Tracker applications, and tells you how to search for files and folders.  Chapter 2, "Be Application Basics," begins where this one leaves off, covering the basic techniques you use with Be applications.  Later chapters describe the applications that come with the BeOS.  

This document assumes that you are familiar with the general operation and features of a computer at the user level--that you know what the mouse and keyboard do, what a window is, how to use a menu, and so on.

This chapter includes the following:

NOTE: The BeBox is supported for BeOS releases until January 1, 2000.   For BeBox-related information not included in the main chapters of this guide, see "Appendix C: The BeBox Guide".

Booting the BeOS

After installing the BeOS you're ready to boot from your hard disk.   (If you haven't installed yet, see the installation booklet that came with your BeOS Release 4.0 CD-ROM).   Make sure there's no CD-ROM with BeOS system software inserted in a drive connected to your computer, and then boot the BeOS:

• BeOS for Intel.  Look for the BeOS Launcher icon on your Windows desktop (the BeOS installer copies it to your C: drive at C://BeLaunch/BeOSLauncher).   Double-click the icon to launch the BeOS.

• BeOS for PowerPC.  Double-click the BeOS Launcher application (in the BeOS Mac Tools folder on the Macintosh hard disk, which you copied from the BeOS CD-ROM as described in the Installation Guide) or choose BeOS when the OS selection dialog appears during startup.  

When you boot, the BeOS logo appears briefly as the computer starts to load the Be system software, including the Deskbar and Tracker applications.   Together, Deskbar and Tracker serve as the BeOS file management and navigation tool, used for arranging and opening files, starting applications, and so on.

Selecting a Boot Volume

You set the boot volume--your choice of a disk or partition to boot the BeOS from--during installation.   There are two ways to change your boot volume after installation: by using the Boot preference application, or in the boot menu screen.

Boot Preference Application

The Boot preference app lets you select the volume from which you launch the BeOS.  This is meaningful only if you have the BeOS installed on more than one partition.  To learn how to use Boot, see "Boot" in Chapter 5, "Customizing the BeOS ."

Boot Menu Screen

You can also change the boot volume in the boot menu screen.  To see this screen, you need to interrupt the boot sequence:

• BeOS for Intel.  Boot the BeOS.  As soon as you see the message "Starting the BeOS boot sequence," press and hold down the spacebar.  

• BeOS for PowerPC.  Double-click the BeOS Launcher and immediately hold down the Control key.

The boot menu screen looks like this:

The screen lists each bootable volume by its device name and by its volume name.  Use the arrow keys to select a boot disk and press Enter to make the selection take effect.  The boot process then continues.

Shutting Down the BeOS

Before you turn off the computer you should shut down the BeOS to give applications a chance to clean up after themselves.

1. Save files you are currently working in.  

2. Click on the Be logo in the Deskbar to bring up the Be Menu, then choose Shut Down or Restart.

3. If there are tasks in progress (copying or moving files, emptying the trash, etc.), a dialog asks you to confirm shut down/restart when they are complete.

4. Eventually, you'll see a message that it's safe to turn off the computer, or click the Reboot System button.  If you want to reboot immediately press Enter to restart the BeOS.  (If you chose Restart, this message does not appear.)

Resetting the BeOS

If your computer crashes, you'll need to restart or "reset" the BeOS:

• BeOS for Intel.  Press Control+Alt+Delete  (the Del key on the numeric keypad or the Delete key above the arrow keys).

• BeOS for PPC.  Press Control+Command+Power On.

• On a BeBox (or other hardware).  Press the Reset and Interrupt buttons.  Check your computer's user manual for the location of these buttons.

WARNING: If you reset the computer without choosing Restart or Shut Down first, you risk losing data.  In particular, you'll lose changes made to documents since you last saved them.

Getting to Know the BeOS Workspace

Familiarize yourself with the Be workspace as it appears in this screen:

Appearing on the desktop when you boot the BeOS:

• An icon that represents the BeOS partition that you installed on your hard drive.  This is where the Be file system lives.

• An icon representing the Windows or Mac partition of your hard drive.  You can read and write the files on this "foreign" partition, but you can't run Windows or Mac applications.

• A link to your home folder.  This contains, among other things, a query folder for system queries you generate with the Find feature, a mail folder, and a SampleMedia folder with test files to use with applications.

• Welcome_To_BeOS.html takes you to the online documentation.

• The Trash icon.  This is where you drag files that you want to dispose of.

• The Deskbar, which is explained in its own section below.

Like most operating systems, the BeOS presents documents (and other data) in windows, and lets you operate on the data through direct manipulation (typing, cut/copy/paste, etc.) and through the use of menus. Before looking at specific parts of the BeOS, such as the Deskbar and Tracker, we'll glance at how windows and menus look and behave on the BeOS.

A Look at BeOS Windows

The windows that the BeOS presents are similar to those of other operating systems.  For one thing, they're square.  And you can move them, resize them, close them (and so on), using techniques that should be familiar to anyone that's touched a computer in the last ten years.  This section provides a very brief look at a typical BeOS window, and tells you how to manipulate it.

Be windows look like this:

• Moving and Resizing.  To move a window, drag it by its tab or border.  To resize it, grab the resize area and drag.  On windows that have scroll bars, the resize area is the square between the scroll bars (as shown above); on other windows, it's simply part of the window's border.

• Zooming.  You can also resize a window by clicking its zoom button.  This resizes the window so it's big enough to display everything it contains (without spilling off the screen).  Click the zoom button again to return the window to its previous size and location.  

• Hiding and unhiding.  To hide a window, double-click its window tab anywhere except in the close or zoom button.  When a window is hidden, its icon in the application's Window List (in Deskbar) is gray; to unhide the window, click on the grayed-out icon.  (The Window List is described and illustrated later in the "The Deskbar," later in this chapter.)

• Closing.  You close a window by clicking the close button.  For most applications, closing the app's final window automatically quits the app.

• Sliding the window tab.  A unique feature of Be windows is that you can slide the window tab across the top of the window.  You do this by holding down the Shift key and then dragging the tab.

  

The BeOS has a notion of an active window.  Many windows can be open but only one window can respond to your actions, such as pressing keys on the keyboard.  This active window is the one that's frontmost on your screen and has a yellow tab.  (The tabs of all other windows are gray.) To make a window active, click its tab, border, or, for most windows, anywhere inside it.  When you start up a new application or switch applications, the frontmost window in the new application is usually the active window.

NOTE: If you've used the Mouse  preference to turn on Focus follows mouse, the active window will be whatever window the mouse is pointing to.  In focus-follows-mouse mode, the active window may not be frontmost, but it will have a yellow tab.

Working with Menus

Menus are pop open palettes of commands.  BeOS menus aren't much different f rom menus on other operating systems--if you've used a computer before, you shouldn't have any trouble using the Be menus.  

This section describes the default look and behavior of Be menus.  To customize the menus on your computer, see Menu in Chapter 5.

Windows and Menu Bars

Almost all windows have a menu bar, a grey bar at the top of the window that contains some number of menu titles.  Click on a title and the menu it corresponds to pops open, displaying its commands.   An arrow to the right of a command indicates a submenu.  If a command title has an ellipsis ("...") at the end, it indicates that if you choose the command, an additional panel will appear.

To select a command from a menu, simply click on it--the command is executed and the menus go away.  To dismiss a menu without choosing anything, hit Escape.  If you have submenus open, you have to hit Escape for each one.

The menu shown above was opened by clicking (i.e. pressing and releasing the mouse).  You can also drag through a menu: Press on a menu title and drag through the menu, releasing the mouse when it's pointing to the command that you want.  Submenus automatically open and close as you drag over them.  To dismiss the menu(s) without choosing a command, simply drag the mouse outside the bounds of the menu and release.  

Context Menus

Many items that appear on the desktop and in Be applications have context menus associated with them.  A context menu is an object-specific menu that's displayed when you press (mouse-and-hold) on the object; it takes a moment for the menu to appear--long enough for the system to realize that you're not going to double-click the object.  You can pop open a context menu immediately by pressing with the second mouse button, or by holding down Control+Alt when you press with any button.

An object that has a context menu doesn't give you any visual indication that the menu exists--you learn which ones do mostly by experience.  Most objects presented by Tracker and Deskbar do have context menus.  For example, if you press a file icon inside a Tracker window, you'll see this context menu:

Shortcuts and Triggers

BeOS menus can also be operated from the keyboard, through shortcut keys and trigger letters.

• A shortcut key is an Alt+letter combination that's assigned to a specific menu command (or, on a Macintosh-based machine, Command +letter).  Some shortcuts specify additional modifier keys, such as Shift or Control.   Pressing the keyboard shortcut when the menu is closed chooses that command.  The shortcuts for a menu's command are shown along the right side of the open menu.  Not every command needs to have an shortcut.  Keep in mind that the shortcuts only work when the menu is closed.

  

• A trigger letter is a single character that's assigned to a command.  By pressing a trigger letter, you invoke the associated command.  Trigger letters are underlined in a menu's title or in a menu item, and only work when the menu is open.

The Deskbar

The Deskbar is a roster of system services and applications.  It contains Be Menu items, the Status View, and a list of all running applications.  When you start the BeOS, the Deskbar appears in the upper-right corner of the screen.  To move it to any of the four corners or to spread it across the top or bottom of the screen, grab the dotted border at the right of Status View.  This is easier to see than to describe:

When it's lying along a side of the screen (as opposed to spread along the top or bottom), the Deskbar can appear expanded (the default) or compact.  To compact the Deskbar, press the dotted line and drag up.  When the Deskbar is compact, a blackboard icon next to the Be Menu represents the Application List.  Clicking on the blackboard pops open the list of running applications.

The Be Menu

The Be Menu opens when you click the Be logo in the Deskbar.  The Be Menu contains:

• About BeOS.  Basic system information and credits.

• Find.  The system query application, described in detail in "Finding Files and Folders" in this chapter.

• Show/Hide Replicants.  The replicants mechanism lets you "clone" views and drop them into other applications.  The Show/Hide Replicants menu item displays or hides the replicant's handles, or draggers.  See "Replicants" in this chapter for more information.

• Restart/Shut Down.  These were described in "Booting the BeOS," above.

• The folders listed at the bottom of the Be Menu comprise the "shortcut" list--folders and files that you want to keep at your fingertips.  By default, the list contains the apps, preferences, and demos folders.  

Status View

The Status View initially shows the time.  Click on the time and it changes to the date.  To set the Time preference, see "Time (and Date)" in Chapter 5.

Certain system services add icons to the Status View to tell you that they're running, and to give you access to their menus.  For example, the mailbox icon shown above is added by the mail daemon (the background service that sends and delivers e-mail).  Clicking on the mailbox icon pops up a list of mail commands (the commands themselves are examined in a later chapter).

The Application List

The Application List shows all currently running applications.  The application is always visible in Deskbar's expanded form; when Deskbar is contracted, you pop open the list by clicking the blackboard icon.   Clicking on an application in the list "activates" that application and brings one of its windows to the front of the screen.  

Each application has its own Window List which you can see by clicking and holding the app's icon. The Window List lets you select individual windows, and also lets you show, hide, and close all windows in an application

Windows that are hidden are grayed out; click on the gray icon to make the window reappear on the desktop.  "Speedlines" next to a window icon indicate that the window is in a different workspace than the current one; clicking on the icon takes you to that workspace.

Working with the Tracker

The Tracker application is the BeOS file system navigation and file management interface.  Tracker's windows present the contents of individual folders.  The next sections explain how Tracker windows are set up ("Looking at Tracker Windows"), how to use the windows to navigate the file system ("Navigating in Tracker Windows"), and explore some of the things that Tracker lets you do to files and folders ("Tracker Basics").

Looking at Tracker Windows

When you double-click a folder, a new Tracker window opens on the screen.  The window can display its contents--the files and folders it contains--as icons, mini-icons, or as a "list view." You change modes by choosing an option from the Window menu.

Icon and Mini Icon View

In Icon View and Mini Icon View, you can move an icon within the window by dragging it to the location you want.  If more than one icon is selected, they all move when you drag.

Some of the commands in the Window menu arrange the icons in a grid.  Choose Clean Up to align each icon in the window to the nearest location in the grid.  If you hold down the Shift key, Clean Up changes to Clean Up All, which sorts the icons in the window in alphabetical order.

List View

In List View mode, the Tracker window displays its contents in a vertical list, and additional facts, or attributes, are given for each item.  The names of the attributes are listed in the window's attribute bar.

The window displays an Attributes menu.  This menu lets you select the attributes you want to display.  The full list of attributes depends on the type of files the window contains, but some common attributes (name, size, modification date) are available to all files.  You can also pop open a copy of the Attributes menu by right-clicking in the attribute bar.

Moving and Resizing Attribute Columns

To change the order of the attributes, click on an attribute in the attribute bar and drag it to another location.  You can resize an attribute's column by pressing and dragging the divider between two of them .  A special cursor and a blue line indicate that you're in resize mode.

To move an attribute drag it where you want it; drag it out of the attribute bar to remove it.  

Sort Order

Initially, items in List View are sorted alphabetically by name--in attribute-speak, the "name" attribute is the primary sort field.  If you click on an attribute it becomes the primary sort field and the items in the list are sorted accordingly.  Also, the attribute you clicked is now underlined.  To set a secondary sort field, Shift+click on another attribute.  A dotted underline indicates the secondary field.  Click a second time on either attribute to sort in reverse order.  

Navigating in Tracker Windows

Like most modern operating systems, the BeOS is based on a hierarchical file system that uses the metaphor of folders (or directories) to help you organize and keep track of your files.  Within the hierarchy, every folder has a parent folder.  There are three ways to open the parent of the Tracker window that you're currently working in:

• By choosing Open Parent from the Window menu.

• By pressing Alt+up arrow.

• By using the path pop-up, as described below.

Click the lower-left edge of a folder window (the area that shows the number of items the folder contains).  This displays the path pop-up, a list that describes the succession of nested folders--the "parent path"--to your current folder.  You can open any folder from the path pop-up by selecting it.

If you hold down the Windows key when opening a parent folder, the original folder closes when the parent opens.  

You can "descend" the file hierarchy simply by double-clicking a folder within your current Tracker window.  This opens a new window for the "child" folder, in which you can double-click another folder, and so on.  Again, if you hold down the Windows key while opening a new Tracker window, the old window closes.

You can also descend the hierarchy by using the context menu that pops open when you press and hold the mouse on a folder icon.  The context menu shows the standard File menu commands, plus, at the top of the menu, an item that represents the folder that you pressed the mouse on.  Move the mouse over the item and another menu appears that shows the folder's contents.  You can select a file or folder in this menu, or descend some more by moving your mouse over yet another folder, and so on.

For information on keyboard navigation of Tracker windows, see "Keyboard Shortcuts"  in Appendix A.

Tracker Basics

Some of this information will already be familiar to you from other operating systems, but some is BeOS-specific.

Getting Information About an Item

To get information about an item in a Tracker window, select it and choose Get Info from the File menu.  Most context menus also have a Get Info command.

The information you receive depends on the item: Disk information is about storage capacity and free space.  File information is about size, creation, modification date, and location in the file system.  For applications, you get this same information, plus a version number.

Renaming Items

To rename an item in a Tracker window, click on the name and type, or select the item and choose Edit Name from the File menu.  You can use up to 255 characters--anything but a forward slash ("/")--and any name not already used in that folder.

If you change your mind about renaming a file or folder while editing its name, press the Escape key to restore the original name.

WARNING: Do NOT rename the /beos folder located on the boot disk or the BeOS will no longer work.

Moving, Copying, and Linking

You can move items from one folder to another by dragging them into the window or onto the icon of the destination folder.  

NOTE: If the destination folder is on a different volume, the item is copied instead of moved.

If you want to copy an item rather than move it, hold down the Windows key while you drag the item.  This forces a copy whether the destination is on the same volume or not.  You can also copy an item (into the same folder) by selecting it and choosing Duplicate from the window's File menu.  The duplicate has the same name as the original, but with "copy" appended.  If you make multiple copies of the same item, "copy 2," "copy 3," etc., is added to the name.

If you hold down the Control key when you're dragging a file or folder icon, you'll see the file options menu.  Choose from one of the options to create a link to (which we'll explain in a moment), move, or copy the file (or cancel).  

The context menu that you get when you press and hold on an icon presents a similar array of file options.  In addition, it lets you navigate the file hierarchy to search for the destination folder at the same time.  

If you're copying or moving a lot of files, a Status window shows the progress of the task.  You can click the Stop button to stop a task in midstream, but whatever you've done so far is not undone.

Creating a Link

A link is a "dummy" file that points to an actual file or folder.  The link file displays the same icon that represents the real item.  To show that it's a link, the link's filename is underlined.  A link is a handy way to create a shortcut to a file, folder, or application that you frequently use.  You can put a link anywhere, but they often live on the desktop.

Deleting Items

You delete files, folders, and other items by dragging them into the Trash. You can also choose Move to Trash from the File menu or from object's context menu.  You can also highlight an item and press the Delete key (not the backspace key).  When the Trash can isn't empty, it displays rubbish.

Items in the trash aren't actually deleted until you empty the trash.  If you decide not to delete something, double-click the Trash icon and drag it out of the Trash window that opens up.

When you want to remove items permanently, choose the Empty Trash command from the File menu in the Trash window, or from the Trash icon's context menu.  You should empty the trash periodically, because eventually it can take up a lot of disk space.  

Replicants

A replicant is a component of an application that you can "clone" so that it resides inside another application.  To replicate an item, open the Be Menu in the Deskbar and choose Show Replicants.  This creates hand-like draggers on items you can replicate.  Grab by the dragger to place the replicant anywhere you want, including the desktop.

Currently, you can replicate the Clock application and NetPositive web pages.  For more on web page replicants, see "NetPositive as a Replicant--Live Desktop Pages"  in chapter 4.

To delete a replicant, right-click on the dragger; a pop-up menu gives you the option to delete.

Mounting Disks

Mounting disks makes their contents available to the operating system.  Use the Mount command in the desktop context menu or in the context menu that appears when you press on the icon of any mounted volume.  In both context menus, all available disks appear in the Mount menu pop-up; disks that are already mounted have a checkmark beside them.  Both menus also give you the option of mounting all attached disks with the All Disks command.

If you click Settings, you'll see the Disk Mount Settings panel, which lets you specify automounter settings--which disks you want mounted on your desktop.

Finding Files and Folders

You use the Find command in the Be Menu to search for files, folders, and other items in the Be file system.  You can also search for such things as e-mail or the names of audio CD tracks you enter in the CDPlayer application.  

When you choose Find, the Find panel opens; there you specify the attributes of the thing you're looking for.

The Find panel shown here is prepared to search for any file or folder that has the word "screen" in its name.  The search is performed on all disks (including Mac or Windows volumes).  Click the Search button and a window opens and starts to fill with items.

As shown here, the window (a Query Result window) looks a lot like a Tracker window, except the background is gray, and it only works in List View.  (In fact, the window is created by Tracker.) You can double-click the files and folders that are listed in the window, move them, copy them--you can do just about anything you would do in a "normal" Tracker window.  

The Find panel lets you modify your search, or query, in these ways:

• The top-left pop-up lets you choose the type of item you want to find ("All files and folders", "E-mail", "Bookmark", etc.)

• The center pop-up lets you choose one of three search techniques: You can search by name, by attribute, or by formula.  The attribute search is the most powerful--it lets you ask for files of a certain age, size, and so on.  The formula search, in which you type in a logical expression (such as name="*screen*") is the most flexible, but is also the clumsiest and hardest to understand.

• The right pop-up lets you restrict your search to a particular volume.

Toggle the Find panel's little grey arrowhead, and you'll see more choices.

• The Query name: field lets you name the query that you're creating so you can run it again later.  You don't have to name your queries--usually you only do this for queries that you run by habit.  For example, if you regularly check your disk for large files, or for e-mail of a certain age (so you can prune it), you would want to name these queries.

• The Include trash checkbox tells the Find mechanism to rummage through the Trash can.  By default it avoids that rubbish.

• Checking the Temporary check box means your search results will be saved only for a certain system-set period of time.  If you want to save your query uncheck Temporary.

Saving and Editing Queries

Queries are saved as files in the home/queries folder, either under the names that you gave them, or using the default names that the query mechanism gives them.  When you double-click a query file, the query is re-run--it's as if you opened the Find panel, typed in the query criteria, and hit Search.

To edit a query, select a query file in the home/queries window and select Edit Query from the File menu (Alt+G).  This brings up the Find panel that's filled in with the query's criteria; you can then change the criteria.  The Query Result window also has an Edit Query item in its File menu.  This lets you bring back the Find panel for a query that you've just run.

To delete a query, drag it into the trash, just like any other file.

The Be User's Guide, in lovely HTML, for BeOS Release 4.

Copyright © 1998 Be, Inc.  All rights reserved.

Last modified November 10, 1998.