5. Windows Apps and the Windows Store

For the most part, Modern apps also adhere to the following guidelines:

Clean layout—App interfaces are characterized by a generous amount of open space, so you won’t find lots of graphical knickknacks such as lines, boxes, and borders. These interfaces are also visually simple, so you won’t find color tricks such as gradients and blurs. The result is that the content gets some room to breathe.

Uncluttered interface—Apps have lots of white (or black or green or whatever) space surrounding the content. Most apps achieve this look by not leaving commands, navigational aids, and other features displayed full-time. Instead, apps “leverage the edge” by placing commands and features out of sight or minimized. One common interface feature is to display a menu of icons down the left side, as shown in Figure 5.1. Clicking the Menu icon (the three-line “hamburger” icon in the top-left corner) expands the menu to show the command names, as shown in Figure 5.2. Many Modern apps also use the See More icon (the three dots pointed out in Figure 5.1) to display extra commands or interface elements.

Typography conveys hierarchy—Traditional programs use boxes and lines to separate sections and establish interface hierarchies. Apps use typographical indicators—particularly text size, weight, and color—to convey boundaries and hierarchies.

Direct content interaction—In most apps, you manipulate the content itself by performing taps, drags, zooms, and swipes directly on an item. Wherever possible, an app doesn’t offer separate controls for manipulating content.

Set alarms—Select the Alarm tab to create alarms that ring at specified times and frequencies.

See times in other locations—Select the World Clock tab to add one or more clocks that show the time in different locations around the world.

Count down a specified interval—Select the Time tab to set a time in hours, minutes, and seconds and then count down to 0 from that time.

Time an event—Select the Stopwatch tab to start a timer. You can also get split times along the way by selecting the Laps/Splits icon (the flag).

You switch between these modes by selecting the Menu icon in the top-left corner, as shown in Figure 5.3.

Your personal calendar associated with your Microsoft account. These events use a light green background text.

A Birthday calendar that displays birthdays from contacts associated with your Microsoft account. Birthdays appear with an orange background.

A Holidays calendar that shows prominent holidays from your location (for example, a U.S. Holidays calendar if you’re located in the United States). Holidays use a gray background.

A generic calendar for all other events. These items appear with a yellow background.

You can also add other accounts to Calendar. Click the Settings icon (the gear) at the bottom of the screen, and then click Accounts to open the Accounts pane. Click Add Account, click the account type, and then fill in the details.

To change the calendar view, select one of the four views that appear along the top of the window: Day, Work Week, Week, or Month. (A fifth view called Today shows a list of your upcoming events.) Whichever view you choose, note that you navigate by clicking the Next and Previous arrows, which are downward- and upward-pointing in Month view, right- and left-pointing in the other views. (If you don’t see these arrows, move your mouse pointer over the Calendar screen.) If you’re using a touchscreen, you can also navigate the Calendar view by moving down and up in Month view, or right and left in the other views.

To add an event, either click the day of the event in Month view or click the time the event occurs (on the day it occurs) in Week, Work Week, or Day view and fill in the event information in the box that opens.

Take a photo—Select the Camera app on the Start menu, and then either click or tap the screen or select the Camera icon to take the photo.

Record a video—Select the Camera app on the Start menu, select the small video icon to switch to Video mode, and then select the large Video icon to start recording. When you’re finished, select the Video icon again.

Photos and videos you shoot with the Camera app are stored in your user account’s Pictures folder, in the Camera Roll folder.

Finally, you can also select the Settings icon (the gear) to configure various options, which vary depending on your camera. For example, you can choose a photo aspect ratio, a video resolution, and you can display a framing grid within the camera window.

1. Right-click an empty section of the taskbar.

2. Select Search.

3. Select Hidden. If you want extra room on the taskbar but prefer to keep easy access to the Search feature, select Show Search Icon, which replaces the text box with the Search icon.

Home—The top food-related story of the day.

Tasks & Tools—Links to specific sections of the app.

Recipes—Links to recipes from around the Web.

Chefs—Profiles of famous chefs.

Wine—Overviews of wine varieties and regions as well as reviews of specific wines.

Cocktails—Recipes for various cocktails as well as bartending tips and techniques.

Next Steps—Miscellaneous links to various sections of the Food & Drink app.

Home—The top health-and-fitness–related story of the day.

Quick Access—Links to your health-related data, such as calories consumed and current symptoms, as well as fitness-related info such as exercises performed.

Fitness—Tips and techniques as well as the latest news stories related to fitness and exercise.

Nutrition—Diets, nutrition info, healthy recipes, and recent nutrition-related news articles.

Medical—Information on medical conditions, drugs, and procedures, as well as the latest stories related to medicine.

Next Steps—Various links to sections of the Health & Fitness app.

For more coverage of the Mail app, see “Working with Email,” p. 339.

Besides enabling you to peruse the map, the Maps app also offers the following features:

Search for a location—Click Search, and then type the address or name of the location you want.

Display your current location—Select Show My Location to have the map zero in on your present location. (If this doesn’t work, see the steps that follow this list.)

Get directions to a location—Select Directions, specify a starting point (the default is your current location) and a destination, and specify the method of travel (car, transit, or walking).

Change the map view—Select Map Views and then click Aerial View (that is, satellite view) or Traffic. The latter overlays traffic data on the map. Routes shown in green have good traffic, routes shown in orange have some traffic, and routes shown in red have heavy traffic.

To get the most out of Maps, you should make sure your PC has the Windows Location platform turned on:

1. In the taskbar’s Search box, type location.

2. In the search results, select Location Settings. The Settings app runs, opens the Privacy window, and selects the Location tab.

3. Make sure the Location switch is On.

You also need to give Maps (and other apps) permission to use your location. In the Settings app’s Location tab, scroll down to the Choose Apps That Can Use Your Location section and set the switch to On for each app you want to access your location.

Home—The top story of the day, as well as recent values of market indices, such as the Dow and the NASDAQ.

Market—Current values and daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly charts for four market indices: Dow, S&P 500, NASDAQ, and Russell 2000.

Watchlist—A list of stocks you’re watching. Note that you see this section only if you’ve added at least one stock. To add a stock to your list, click Add (+), type the company name or stock symbol, and then click the stock you want in the list that appears.

Currencies—A currency converter that uses the latest currency values.

Mortgage Calculator—A simple calculator for determining the monthly payment for a mortgage or loan.

World Markets—Recent values for various stock markets around the world.

Settings—Personal finance-related tools, such as a mortgage calculator and a retirement planner.

Videos—This section displays your videos. To view a video, select it and the playback begins immediately. Move the mouse to display the playback controls (see Figure 5.7), which include the Pause/Play button, a scrubber to scroll through the video, a volume control, a full-screen control, a command to play the video on a connected device, and a zoom feature.

Movies—This section displays movies you’ve purchased or rented.

TV—This section displays TV shows you’ve purchased.

Most usefully, the News app is fully customizable by topic, meaning that you can display articles on those news topics that most interest you. Here’s how you customize the Topics section of the News window:

1. Select the Menu icon in the upper-left corner, and then select Interests.

2. To hide a preset topic, display the topic and then click its checkmark icon. To display a preset topic, click its Add (+) icon.

3. To add custom content, click Add (+) near the top of the screen, use the Search box to begin typing the custom content (such as the topic) you want to follow. As you type, News displays a list of matching items, as shown in Figure 5.8.

4. When you see the item you want, click it.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to add other topics that interest you.

We’re happy to report that the answer to that question is, “You can!” The electronic version of your paper notebook is OneNote, which enables you to quickly and easily record just about anything that you’d normally scribble on a piece of paper. With OneNote (see Figure 5.9), you can do all that and also much more:

Paste pictures, clip art, and text

Insert links to websites

Organize data into tables

Share your notes with other people

The main Photos section is called Collection, and it organizes the photos from your user account’s Pictures folder by month (see Figure 5.1, earlier in this chapter). You can scroll up and down through the images, or you can click an image to view it full-screen and then use the left- and right-arrow keys to navigate the rest of the photos.

Click the screen to display the photo tools: Share, Slide Show, Enhance (which applies certain automatic fixes), Edit, Rotate, and Delete. (You can also click See More to access the Copy, Print, Set As Lock Screen, and File Info commands.) When you click Edit, Photos displays its editing tools, as shown in Figure 5.10. The tool categories—Basic Fixes, Filters, Light, Color, and Effects—appear on the left, and the tools in the selected category appear on the right.

To save the current web page or article, follow these steps:

1. Run the app’s Share command (in Microsoft Edge, for example, select More Actions—the three dots). The Share Pane appears.

2. Select Reading List. The Reading List pane appears.

3. Select a category for the item (or select New Category, type the category name, and then select OK).

4. Select Add. The app shares the page or article with the Reading List app.

You can remove any Reading List item by right-clicking it and then clicking Delete. To see your deleted items from the past 30 days, right-click the screen and then click Recently Deleted. If you change your mind about a deleted item, right-click it and then click Add Back. Alternatively, click Delete to permanently delete the item.

News—The top sports stories of the day.

Scoreboard—The latest game results and a schedule of upcoming games in whatever major sports are currently playing.

Slideshows—Links to sports-related photos displayed as themed slideshows.

Videos—Links to sports-related videos.

In the News tab, you can also select Add a Favorite to add a team to your list of favorites. Type the team name, and then click the team you want in the list that appears. You can then click the team to get extra information related to that team, including news, schedules, results, individual stats, team stats, and the team roster.

You can also see extra news and data from various leagues either by scrolling down in the News tab or clicking the Menu icon in the upper-left corner, and then and selecting a league (such as NFL, NBA, MLB, or NHL).

Clicking an item displays its details, including its user rating, price, description and features, user reviews, permissions, and more. See also “Installing Apps from the Windows Store,” later in this chapter.

1. Select Menu in the upper-left corner and then select Places. The Places screen appears.

2. Click Add (+). Weather prompts you to enter the city name.

3. Start typing the name of the city you want to add.

4. When you see the name of the city in the list that appears, click it. Weather adds the city to the Places screen.

Home—This section offers an overview of your account and your friends’ activities.

Messages—You use this section to send and receive messages between other Xbox users.

Activity Alerts—This section shows alerts for all your recent activities, including likes, shares, comments, and friend requests.

Achievements—This section provides a list of all your game achievements.

Game DVR—This section shows your recorded games.

Store—This icon just connects you to the Games section of the Windows Store.

OneGuide—This section show the TV listings from your connected Xbox device.

1. On the Start screen, tap Store. The Windows Store appears.

2. Select the Apps tab.

3. Display the app that you want to install. See the “Store” section, earlier in this chapter, to learn how to navigate the Windows Store.

4. If it’s a paid app, tap the price; otherwise, tap Free. The Store app shows the progress of the install as well as buttons for pausing or canceling the install (see Figure 5.13).

1. Use the Start menu to locate the app you want to uninstall.

2. Right-click the app tile.

3. Select Uninstall. Windows 10 asks you to confirm.

4. Select Uninstall. Windows 10 removes the app.

First, here are the general steps to follow to use the Share feature:

1. Using an app, open or select the data you want to share.

2. Select the Menu icon (the hamburger icon in the upper-left corner of the app window).

3. Tap Share. The Share pane appears and displays a list of apps you can use to share the data.

4. Tap the app you want to use to send the selected item.

5. Fill in any data that’s required to send the item and then initiate the send.