Chapter 8 summary

We're in the home stretch!  Two short chapters to cover things they feel like they ought to mention, but don't want to --  or can't -- take too much time to cover.

Chapter 8 discusses digital still images and sound.

• Windows Media Player organizes and plays audio and video files, downloads audio and/or video files from the Internet, and allows sound files to be copied (ripped) from audio CDs to the computer and copied (burned) from the computer to an audio CD or a portable media player.
• Windows DVD Maker can make a DVD from your pictures and video.  You can import content from both Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Movie Maker.
• Windows Live Photo Gallery (bundled in Windows Live Essentials) can be used to view and edit pictures and to organize -- but not to view -- video clips.
• Windows Live Movie Maker (bundled in Windows Live Essentials) will be discussed in Chapter 9.  It is used to edit video.

Commercial CDs and DVDs frequently have copyright-protection software preventing copying or ripping of sound or images.  Other files are probably also copyrighted even though they may not have software preventing their reproduction.  Photographs you take with your own camera are your property to be used as you see fit.  The images that come with Win7 are allowed to be used, but Microsoft maintains copyright. A further discussion of copyright is WAY beyond the limits of this course.

When you connect your digital camera to  your computer by USB cable, you can import your pictures and video to the computer using either Windows  or Windows Live Photo Gallery.  Conventional camera pictures need to be converted to digital, either by creating digital photos on an optical disc at the photo-processing lab or by scanning existing photographs onto digital media. If you import your images using Windows, the images are simply sent to the My Pictures (or My Videos) folder on the computer.  If you use Windows Live Photo Gallery, that program opens and you can begin working with your images. WLPG allows you to apply tags as  you import the images, making it easier to classify and find them.  Your camera should be turned off before you disconnect it from the computer, and once you have imported your pictures you no longer need to have your camera connected to the computer.  While your camera may turn off automatically after a period of inactivity, manual shut-down saves battery life.

You can create folders in WLPG; it also classifies pictures by date taken and by tags. Pictures are shown as thumbnails (miniature images of the picture); hovering over the thumbnail will pull  up a live preview of the image.  Right-clicking in an open area to the right of the pictures/videos will pull up a shortcut menu to add more information to the thumbnail such as date taken, date modified, file size, image size, rating, caption, file name, or all details.  Properties can be changed on the Details view.  The shortcut menu also has a Table of Contents command; the Table of Contents pops up similar to a navigation pane to organize the images in the file.  ToC is a toggle; click it again to turn it off. 

The Navigation pane selection determines in what order the pictures and videos are sorted; there is a button to change from Ascending to Descending and vice versa. 

Pictures can be rated and the view can be restricted to a particular rating or to pictures not having a rating.

Groups of pictures will be assigned a name by WLPG; this name can be changed.  The first picture in the group will have the group name; each following picture will be named Group Name; # where # is a three-digit sequential number (the second picture will be 002, etc.)

Tags can be created independent of a file in WLPG.  For example, you can create the tag Vacation to classify all vacation pictures and videos.  Dragging pictures and videos to a tag will assign the tag to them.  

Pictures can be copied, can have the red-eye effect corrected, can be cropped (cut to a different size to show only part of a picture), and printed with WLPG. Color pictures can be rendered in various black-and-white effects, including Sepia (the sort of brownish black-and-white associated with the early 20th century). Changes can be undone by clicking Undo in the Fix pane.

WLPG can have options changed for various reasons, e.g. deleting originals to save space.  However, once the originals are deleted you can't Undo to them.

You can order prints of your pictures online from WLPG. The printing company's website then takes over pricing and billing.

You can create a video of pictures on Windows DVD Maker, change the title of the DVD, select a menu style, change slide show settings, preview and burn a DVD. Tags can be deleted from the Navigation pane; this removes the tag wherever it is used but NOT THE PICTURES THEMSELVES.  Deleting a photo or video from the gallery deletes the image but not necessarily the tags assigned to it.

Folders can be deleted from the gallery (which only removes the reference from the gallery) or deleted from the computer (which removes them from both the gallery and the computer).

Windows Media Player has preset library categories.  When a media file is played, it will be added to the Player library unless it is on removable media.  You can create a playlist of songs that you like. WMP files are categorized into Music, Videos, Pictures, and Recorded TV; whatever you last viewed when the program was closed will be the default when you open WMP again. WMP picks up images from all over your computer, not just the Pictures and Videos libraries.

You can use the Navigation pane to filter Player library listings according to artist, album or genre.  You can also filter by rating.  Files can be ripped from CDs, so long as the CD does not have copy protection.  If the CD is not one that WMP has cover or track information on, it will come up as Unknown and Track X; you can edit the album and the tracks manually (but it's TEDIOUS!).  

Clicking Play in the upper right-hand corner plays the CD. As with a physical CD player, clicking pause will pause playback. WMP will rip any tracks selected; to tell WMP not to rip a track, deselect the check box in front of that track. You can click and drag the icon of a ripped song to the playlist to add it to the playlist.

Clicking Burn in the upper right-hand corner switches WMP to Burn mode.  Drag items from the List pane to the Burn list to create a list of tracks to burn.  The blank CD in the burner must have room for more data and must not be finalized to burn more tracks to it.  Click Start burn to start burning the songs onto the CD.  After the CD has been burned, it ejects automatically and the Burn pane pops up again. It's a good idea to label a freshly-burned CD with either a paper label or a felt-tip pen as soon as possible so you don't have unlabeled burned CDs lying around your computer space. You can add images to the playlist using the Pictures category. If a playlist has files other than music files, you must burn a data CD rather than an audio CD. Playlists can be deleted. Songs can be deleted from the player library.  

Chapter 8 then reminds us to empty the Recycle Bin and log off and shut down the computer.

Chapter 7 summary

Chapter 7 goes into advanced file searching, which (I believe)  hasn't changed much since Win 3.1.  There may be some keyboard shortcuts involved, though.

For one thing, Win7 permits a Search box to be installed on the Start bar.  (Some of us with more recent iterations of WinXP had something similar that was labeled "Desktop Search" but actually could be used to search the entire computer.)

When you design a search (no matter what program or what widget is doing the searching), it's important to remember that the computer will search for what you tell it to search for.  Unless the program is highly developed, the computer will make a distinction between searching for MCC, searching for McHenry County College, and searching for mchenry county college (and Mc Henry County College, for that matter; take it from a woman whose maiden name was Van Cleave!)  We encountered the wildcard asterisk (*) in Chapter 3, and it becomes very useful here.  Searching McHenry * would yield McHenry, City of; McHenry City Council; McHenry County College; and just about any permutation of McHenry something or another. The asterisk matches to any combination of characters (or no characters) after that space.

A file has various properties, and the Win7 search engine will match on any of those properties: all or part of a file name, a file type, a tag for a file, or various other file properties that might happen to match that sequence of characters.

Boolean operators allow us to refine the search a bit further.  type: htm tells the search engine that we're looking for a hypertext markup document -- probably a copy of a webpage, type: rtf tells it we're looking for a Rich Text format document -- probably something we created on WordPad, although we can choose to use an RTF extension in most word processing systems.  AND (or the plus sign) lets us connect two concepts: we can ask McHenry AND type: HTM to find HTM documents with McHenry as part of a property.   OR (or the dash) lets us check for either (or both) of two concepts; McHenry OR RTF would find anything with McHenry in a property or RTF in a property (or both). NOT allows us to exclude possibilities: McHenry NOT City would find all files with McHenry as part of any property but will then exclude files with City as part of any property. The greater than (>) and less than (<) sign work as they do in mathematics (so does the equals sign (=) AFAIK) to allow us to ask for files date: < 11/23/2014 or for files size: > 10 MB.  AND, OR, NOT all have to be typed in upper case, and only one can be  used at a time. The quotation mark sets off an exact match string; "cynthia Heimsoth" would only match files with that exact property, not Cynthia Heimsoth, cynthia heimsoth, CYNTHIA HEIMSOTH or Cynthia heimsoth. (Or cynthiaheimsoth, for that matter.)  Speaking of parentheses, they can be used to indicate bits of property that both must be present but not necessarily in the same order; (city McHenry) would match McHenry, city of (but not McHenry, City of!) or city of McHenry (but not City of McHenry).  It's all a bit confusing, really!

If you know that you created a particular file after October 10, 2014, but before November 17, 2014, you can search for it  by using date: > 10/10/2014 AND < 11/17/2014. (Note that you can't include an OR or a NOT or an additional AND; you'd have to give up one of your date markers to search on any other properties.)

At the end of a search list, there is a panel to "Search again in:".  This enables you to narrow your search to the libraries, your homegroup, your computer, the Internet, the contents of a file, or to customize a particular search area. For example you use the Custom search to search in the Documents library because you know the file is a document stored in that library.

Win7 can have natural language searching turned on, a bit more like the searches we're used to doing on search engines. For example, using the natural language search checkbox, college final document would try to find a document containing "college" and "final" somewhere in the properties. To clear the search, click on the x in the right side of the search box (where the magnifying glass usually is). You can close the filter list and turn off natural language searching, then select the search terms out of the saved list in the search box to try searching with natural language turned off (basically, a Boolean search for a file having "college", "search", and "document" among its properties). 

Once you have a file list, you can filter files by any of the file list headings; for example, by Type as Application or Screen saver. Unchecking the box for that filter restores the complete list. You can also sort by Date Modified by a date or a date range, or by Today, or Yesterday, or Last Week, or sort by Name alphabetically or select a range of letters (for example I - Z).

Making a folder indexed makes searching faster. In Control Panel, using either Large Icons or Small Icons, select Indexing Options. Click the Modify button to display the Indexed Locations dialog box. Drop down the list of folders on the drive you're looking at (C:/, for example), locate and select the folder you want to index, and click OK. You should see your selected file among the indexed locations.  This permits searching within files for words or phrases.

Media files frequently have specialized properties which can be useful in searches. However, they don't discuss this in detail till page WIN447.

If you don't get the results you expect (particularly if no items match your search) you may need to refine your search by changing your keywords, expanding your search to other locations, including hidden and system files in your search, or search based on different parameters altogether.

Some files have tags.  This is a convenient way to group files that deal with the same thing; for example, picture files that are landscapes can each be given the tag "landscape" to pull them out from pictures that aren't.  Searching tags: landscape then pulls these tagged files out -- but not files tagged Landscape.

If you know who is on the computer as the Author of a file, you can search by the authors property.  For example, if I want to find files I created at McHenry Public Library on DL02 (which are credited as authored by DL02), I can search authors: DL02 (but that won't find files I created at MCC or on DL01).

When searching by date, you can search on the date the file was created (datecreated:) or the date it was last modified (datemodified:).  You can search by a date, a date range, or one of the defined ranges Yesterday, Earlier this week, Last week, Earlier this month, Earlier this year, or A long time ago.

When searching by file size, you can find files that are smaller than, equal to, or greater than a particular size. To do greater or equal or smaller or equal, you would need to compose an OR search.

To search a non-indexed location, click Search Again In: Custom to pull up the Choose Search Location box.  Type your non-indexed location in the 'Or type a location here' box and Add it to the list of selected locations.

Picture files can have properties of Camera make:, Camera model:, Dimensions:, Orientation:, Date taken:, Width:, Height:, Flash mode:, and Rating:.  Ratings are generally assigned by the owner of the computer.

Music files can have properties of Bit rate:, Artist:, Year:, Duration:, Album:, Genre:, Lyrics:, Track:, Year:, and Rating:.  Again, ratings are generally assigned by the owner of the computer.  The properties are not always set, and they can be set in a confusing manner.

Video files may have the properties of both pictures and music (because they have elements of each) as well as Title, Length, Frame width, Frame height, Data rate, Total bit rate and Frame rate.  Commercial producers may also flag comments that identify the original producer of the video.  The Title property of a video file is not necessarily the same as the file name!

Saved searches save the instructions on how to conduct a particular search.  Microsoft provides two saved searches by default: Everywhere and Indexed Locations.  You can then create a search in one of these windows and save that search as its own search.  Deleting a saved search will delete the instructions, but deleting the results of that search will delete the files themselves -- be careful! Saved searches can be accessed under the Favorites listing of the Navigation pane.  The Searches window is accessed by clicking your user name on the Start menu to open your personal folder.  Saved searches can be deleted, and links can be deleted from the Favorites list.

There is also a search window at the bottom of the Start menu. Click the See More Results link to expand your search to other locations like the Internet.  Property searches can be done at the bottom of the Start Menu, as can Boolean searches. You can remove a folder from the index -- and should, if you no longer need the file to be indexed, since it will slow down indexed searches.

Chapter 7 then reminds us how to delete unneeded folders and how to log off and turn off the computer.

User account?

I knew my problems with creating a user account were going to come back and get me.  I'll see if I can make it to Lab A sometime next week, but part of the reason I'm doing Chapter 6 early is that my schedule is action-packed next week -- and the following week is Thanksgiving . . . oy . . .

Chapter 6 summary

Chapter 6 deals with Control Panel in Win7.

In order to change settings marked with a shield in Control Panel, you must have an Administrator Account; User Accounts are generally blocked from access to sensitive Control Panel functions (the menu may not even be visible).

The Control Panel can be displayed by category or by either large or small icons (more similar to previous versions of Windows).

The System and Security window controls Windows Firewall, the Windows Action Center, the System window, Windows Update, Power Options, Backup and Restore, BitLocker Drive Encryption, Administrative Tools, and sometimes NVIDIA controls.

The Windows Action Center displays recent security messages (marked by a blue flag in the Notification Area).  It offers ways to modify security features on the computer including firewall settings, Windows automatic updating, virus protection, spyware/malware protection, Internet security settings, User Account Control settings and Network Access protection.  Two arrows (one for security, one for maintenance) drop down expanded lists of selections and their current settings.

Windows Firewall provides protection against unauthorized use of your computer by monitoring and restricting information travelling between your computer and a network or the internet.  It is automatically launched when Win7 launches.  Using third-party software firewalls with Windows Firewall may cause unexpected effects; a decision should be made about which firewall should remain functional and which should be shut down.

The System window provides summary information about your computer such as its installed processor, RAM memory, computer name, domain, and workgroup settings, and Windows activation data.  You can access Device Manager from here and update Win7 registration information.  The Windows Experience Index link off this page shows the Performance Information and Tools window, which gives scores for the processor, RAM memory, graphics, gaming graphics and primary hard disk, leading to an overall score between 1 (pitiful) and 7.9 (da bomb) for your computer in Microsoft's opinion.  This score helps in deciding whether your computer can support new hardware.
The Device Manager link leads to a list of hardware devices and provides means to analyze and troubleshoot hardware problems (the main difference here from previous versions of Windows is presentation, not content). Each device has a way to view its properties, and each property can be double-clicked for a status and driver summary.

Windows Update is turned on by default when Win7 is installed; it automatically searches for updates whenever your computer is on and connected to the Internet.  Unlike previous versions, the updates are also automatically installed.  There is also a way to view update history.  Updates can fail, and failed updates can be retried manually from the update history.  If Windows Update shows updates are available, they can be installed manually (particularly optional updates which are not installed automatically).

Chapter 6 skips over the Network and Internet window as this is discussed in Appendix C.

The Hardware and Sound Window is used to install devices, configure AutoPlay for devices, configure the mouse, scanners and cameras, connect to a projector, and many more matters dealing with connecting a peripheral to your computer.  Normally, when you connect a peripheral to your computer Win7 will install and configure it automatically, but the Hardware and Sound window provides controls to installing a device manually or for changing the configuration after it is installed. There are detailed procedures for installing and deleting printers (local or network; Bluetooth and wireless printers are handled under the network selection), for changing the mouse button configuration, to adjust the mouse double-click speed, to turn on and use ClickLock (rather than having to click and hold to highlight a block of text, for example), to adjust the mouse pointer speed, to turn on Snap To if desired (Snap To causes a mouse pointer to go to the default button in any dialog box), and to display a pointer trail.  You can also adjust AutoPlay settings for all media and devices inserted into your computer.

The Programs window replaces Program Manager in older versions of Windows.  Uninstalling programs from the Programs and Features window means you don't have to recall whether the program has its own uninstall program or uses the Windows uninstaller.  It removes all files (except user data files like documents or spreadsheets) from the computer.  Unlike previous versions, you do not install programs from Control Panel; you install from an optical disc, flash drive, or download from the Internet.

The User Accounts and Family Safety window provides access to create, modify and delete user accounts and control what access each account has to the computer.  We explored this a little bit in Chapter 1 -- those of us who had Administrator access, anyway! ^_^"  Rather than shutting down the computer to log on as a different user, you can use the Switch User command to leave the current user in its present state and go to the desktop of a different user.  Clicking Log Off will log off the current user and return to the Welcome Screen.

The Clock, Language and Region Window allows control of the date and time display in the Notification Area, including adding another clock to show time in a different time zone when you hover the mouse above the taskbar clock and modifying how the date is displayed.  It seems reasonable that this also controls what language Windows speaks, but Chapter 6 is silent on this point.

The Ease of Access link on the CLR window provides access to accessibility tools such as magnifier, narrator, on-screen keyboard and high contrast views.  A computer used by a blind person could be set to not have a display and to read all text.  A computer used by a hearing-impaired person could be set to generate a visual warning when the computer makes a sound and to turn on captions (when available) when a program speaks or makes sounds.  A computer used by somebody who is mobility impaired can be set to use the numeric keypad instead of the mouse to move the mouse pointer, click, double-click and drag,  High Contrast is useful to people who are visually impaired because it makes a greater contrast between objects on the screen and therefore makes it easier for the person to read the text.

As always, Chapter 6 reminds us how to log off and turn off the computer.

Chapter 5 summary

Chapter 5 deals with how to customize the desktop environment in Windows 7.  While concepts are familiar, there are some more bells and whistles, including Aero.

Right-clicking an open area of desktop and selecting the Personalize command opens the Personalization window.  If the sys admin permits, you can change your desktop background (wallpaper), sound choices, screensaver and "Windows color" (the color used for window titles and the command bar) from the defaults.

The intensity as well as the color of the Window titles and command bar can be modified, and custom colors can be mixed. Selecting the Advanced Appearance Settings link brings up the Window Color and Appearance dialog box.  However, both sys admin restrictions and the use of Aero may render this non-functional.

The Sounds Personalization box is in a familiar format to users of previous versions of Windows, but there are a lot more (and a lot more interesting!) preset sound schemes.  You can also import sound files to create a custom sound scheme.

Screen savers have evolved from being a means of protecting the CRT from burn-thru to a quick way to hide the desktop and have an attractive appearance when the computer is not being used.  Photos from the Photo file can be imported to create a single slide or a slide show of images to be used as a screensaver, as well as more familiar screensavers from previous versions of Windows. The timing of the slide change, the order in which the slides are displayed, and the amount of time before the screensaver is invoked can all be modified. The selected screensaver can also be previewed.

Similar to previous versions, a customized Mouse Pointer may be selected by clicking the Change Mouse Pointers link.  The selections include a mouse pointer customized to Windows Aero.  Most mouse pointers are provided in various sizes. Using the Apply button allows a preview before deciding on a version.  Custom schemes can be created and schemes can be deleted.

Clicking on a theme in My Themes applies that theme, and clicking on another (for example, the default that you should have saved before starting this chapter) will re-apply that theme.

Clicking on the Display link allows for settings to adjust text size globally, adjust resolution of images, adjust brightness of images, calibrate color, change display settings, connect the computer to a projector, adjust ClearType text, and set a custom text size in dots per inch (dpi).  This is a bit more elaborate that what was available in WinXP, but is not that different.  Advanced settings on the Adjust Resolution screen are best left alone if you don't know what you're doing.

Win7 is set up to only show the Recycle Bin on the desktop.  The Change Desktop Icons link permits other icons to be put on the desktop (unlike Start Menu in WinXP) and icon appearance can be changed to a variety of thumbnails. You can also choose whether or not the theme will override your selection of desktop icons.

Desktop themes can be deleted (thank goodness!), as can desktop icons.

The taskbar can be customized, just as in previous versions of Windows.  By default the taskbar is locked; it must be unlocked in order to make any changes.  The taskbar can be moved from its default location at the bottom of the screen to the top or to either side. Shortcuts can be pinned to the taskbar. Pinned programs can be started by clicking the pinned image, rather than searching on the desktop or through the menus. Programs can also be unpinned from the taskbar.  Like previous versions, you can set the taskbar to auto-hide when you're not actively using it. This is useful if you want to use the entire screen for a window.

By default, Win7 hides button labels and cascades buttons for multiple windows of the same program.  The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box allows for changing to individual icons and combining only when the taskbar is full or for always using individual icons.  Note that labels only display if a program is running even when labels are activated.  As with previous versions, the taskbar can be resized.

Win7 has a variety of toolbars that can be added to the taskbar. You can also create custom toolbars. Toolbars can have displayed or hidden titles. By default, toolbars display in a collapsed format; they can be expanded to full size by double-clicking the dotted vertical bar on the left side of the toolbar. Chapter 5 demonstrates the various uses of the Address toolbar by displaying the contents of a folder, displaying a web page, and searching on the Internet using the Address toolbar.  Toolbars can be removed from the taskbar by right clicking the label to display a shortcut menu, selecting Toolbars, and clicking off the toolbar to be removed.  To lock the taskbar once you're done modifying it, right-click an open area of the taskbar to bring up the shortcut menu and select Lock the Taskbar.

The notification area is on the right end of the taskbar and contains the date/time, various shortcuts to icons and indicators for your computer, and very probably a Show Hidden Icons indicator (a small upward triangle).  The SHI reveals other shortcuts that are available but which the admin has decided should not be displayed openly in the notification area (sometimes for reasons of space, sometimes because not everybody would use the shortcut). Right-clicking an open area in the notification area brings up the shortcut menu with the Customize Notification Icons command.  You can choose to show the icon and all notifications, hide the icon and all notifications at all times, or only have the icon show if there are notifications.  There is also a link to Restore Default Icon Behaviors (thank goodness!).

As with previous versions of Windows, it is possible -- and a bit easier -- to customize the Start Menu.  By default, the Computer command is a link on the Start Menu; you can ask it to display as a menu, or tell it not to display at all.  (Similarly, the Control Panel, Documents, and Downloads can be modified.)  You can select the number of recent programs to display in the Start Menu. The Use Default Settings button restores the defaults.

The Folder Options dialog box (off the Organize button on the Computer window) gives the option whether to open each folder in the same window or in its own window, Again, a Restore Defaults button restores the default of each folder opening in the same window.  And Chapter 5 reminds us of how to log off and shut down the computer.

Frustrated!

This was a very frustrating chapter.  The Distance Learning computers at MPL are not set up with Windows Live Essentials, therefore they do not have Windows Live Mail installed.  I'm thinking of adding the ersatz contacts to my Hotmail account and posting that; it can't be too different.  I'm also taking a chance and trying to install WLE; 1) normally I would be in violation of Library rules but since part of this course is learning how to install software and modify the computer it should be permissible on a DL computer, 2) it's taking an awfully long time and I only have 45 more minutes, 3) well, if it works somebody should be able to do this class with a LOT less frustration.

Chapter 4 summary

In Chapter 4 we discuss personal information management and communication using Microsoft's Windows Live Essentials programs and features.  Email and messaging are no longer bundled into Windows 7.  Windows Live Mail (a drive-based email processor) and Windows Live Messenger are the two tools most used in this chapter.  Internet Explorer is bundled with Windows 7 and interacts with WL Mail and WL Messenger to get the job done.

There are guidelines and cautions to using electronic communication.  You need to determine what information you need and who has that information in a reliable form.  You need to know whom you can trust.  File attachments that you are not expecting to receive are very likely the basis of an invasion of your computer by either spyware or malware.  Your form of communication should reflect the formality or informality of the situation; don't use chatspeak when emailing your boss, and consider whether text or email might be "overheard" and therefore not the best method of communication.  Acquire email addresses and IM addresses (cell phone numbers etc.) for people with whom  you expect to communicate electronically, and keep this information safe.  Remember that a spam attack on your device could lead to them being spam-attacked.

Email is handled by drive-based programs like Windows Live Mail, Microsoft Outlook and Mozilla Thunderbird, and by Web-based email services like WL Hotmail, GMail, and Yahoo! Mail.  Free Web-based email services sometimes have advertising in the email or on the page while paid services generally do not (except possibly for the ISP providing the paid service). Drive-based programs as a rule work only on one hard drive and cannot be accessed on another computer; web-based services can be accessed by a variety of computers.  In some older cases, a blended system exists where the unread emails are stored on the Web but downloaded to the drive as they are read; when you access such a system from another computer it may not show the emails you already read on the first computer since they are now resident on the first computer's drive.  (Very annoying if you use many computers in many places!)

The chapter runs us through installing WL Essentials, starting WL Mail, and an overview of the WL Mail window.  It resembles MS Outlook in that there is a menu bar at the top, a navigation bar on the left side, a list of messages in the middle (or on the bottom), and a preview of the current message on the right (or above the list of messages). 

Depending on settings, previewing the message may or may not mark it read (IIRC default is that the message is only marked read when it is opened).  Double-clicking on a message opens it in a new window and marks the message as read (if it isn't already).  Selecting a message and clicking the Print button will print the message, whether it has been read or not. Closing the window with the open message can be done by clicking the Close button on the title bar, by typing ALT, clicking File-Close or by clicking ALT-F4.

Click on the Reply button on the toolbar to reply to the current email.  As usual, clicking Reply only sends back to the author of the email, clicking Reply All replies to everybody who received the email.  Unless you tell WL Mail otherwise, a copy of the original message will be included below the reply.  Type in the text of your reply in the message box and click Send. At one time it was possible to recall messages on some email systems, but this functionality either never existed or has been disabled in WL Mail; just as well, since you could only recall unread messages, and many people read their messages as soon as they are received.

Emails can be deleted by dragging the message to the Deleted Items folder, by right-clicking the message and clicking Delete on the shortcut menu, by pressing ALT and clicking Edit-Delete, by clicking CTRL-D, or by clicking ALT-E (Edit) and pressing D.

Clicking on the attachment icon will open an attachment to the email.  It may open in a different program if it was composed in a different program.  If you do not have the program the attachment was composed in, Windows may have a default set to open the attachment in a similar program, or it may prompt you to choose a program to open the attachment because it has no idea what to use.  The attachment may be saved in the usual manner.

Emails can be composed on a plain window or on a Stationery form.  If your recipient doesn't have the same Stationery strange things may happen to the formatting.  You can also format your email after you type in in a plain window. Click the Attach button to find and attach an attachment to your email. Click Send to send your email.

WL Calendar serves similar purposes to a paper calendar or a personal data assistant in tracking appointments and schedules. The subject line allows input of the text to show on the calendar for the event. Start times, end times, locations, reminders and notes regarding the appointments can also be created.  The Calendar can display by day, by week, or by month. Events can also be edited and deleted from the Calendar.

WL Contacts is an address list in WL Mail.  You can call up a form to add information regarding a new contact.  In past versions, emails you receive could create new contacts, I don't know if that functionality still exists; when it did you had only the person's email address and possibly their name if they were also using Windows Live/Outlook.  Contacts can be edited and deleted.

Microsoft NewsServer controls internet newsgroup use for Windows Live Mail.  Since there are other newsgroup clients, WL Mail will ask if MS NewsServer should be set as the default client. A list of newsgroups will be displayed; one can be selected to Subscribe to.  Clicking Go To then closes the Subscriptions dialog box and opens a window displaying the articles in the selected newsgroup. Articles can be read, printed and posted. It is also possible to unsubscribe from a newsgroup.  Chapter 4 then discusses how to close Windows Live Mail.

Internet Explorer permits you to subscribe to RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds and Web Slices.  RSS feeds give a quick way to see what is new on a particular website (in a headline format) without having to go to that website.  A Web Slice is a portion of a webpage that can be viewed from the Favorites bar in IE. Chapter 4 runs through the details of how to subscribe to RSS, how to view RSS feeds in the Favorites center, how to modify feed properties, how to subscribe to a web slice, and how to view and delete a webslice.

Blogs are constantly updated commentaries on a web page, ranging from diary-like personal blogs to informational databases such as Wikipedia and iMDB.  These databases are edited by their readers, with no certification of the objectivity of the information, though both iMDB and Wikipedia have flags for articles that are not sufficiently documented and that show too much of one side of a discussion.  This Blogger series of posts, for that matter, is a blog, and my Blogger blog shows my personal side, just as the other blogs generated for this class show each student's personal side.  (It would be interesting to see an instructor's blog as well, though that might make it way too easy to cheat!)

Chat rooms are areas (like mIRC) where people can send short messages to each other in real time.  Unlike SMS text messaging, the contents of the chat room consist of conversation lines scrolling down the page, with all threads going on at the same time. It's a bit like a text transcript of Twitter, or Facebook without Group separation.  (I remember getting headaches the first little while trying to figure out who was talking to whom!)

Mailing lists allow an individual to send the same email to multiple recipients at the same time.  For example, if Rob used regular email, he could create a mailing list of the CDM130 Fall 2014 students and send out the Chapter announcements to all of us.  (Fortunately, Compass does the same thing with more security.) Many times, if you find out somebody is giving something away on Facebook or on the Internet, you'll find that by putting your email address in to get the giveaway you've just joined somebody's mailing list.  Bloggers also will have mailing lists to broadcast news of their latest posts.

The book defines social networks as single websites from which you can access blogs, wikis and other communication tools; I'm not sure I'd agree that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest quite fit that definition, but they certainly each use various aspects of the above to create interesting sites.

WL Messenger allows two people online at the same time to exchange real-time messages, very similar to SMS text messaging (which instant messaging predates). Chapter 4 shows how to start WL Messenger, how to sign in, how to add a contact to the contacts list, how to send an instant message, how to close the IM window, and how to delete a contact on the contacts list.  (Contacts can also be edited.)  Finally, Chapter 4 shows how to close WL Messenger and sign out.

And, in case you forgot, they tell you how to log off the computer and turn it off.