Title bar—shows the name of the application and the document in use.

Size/Close controls—use the Maximize button to enlarge the window to fill the screen and the Minimize button to reduce the window to a button on the taskbar.  After you have maximized a window, the Maximize button becomes a Restore button.  Click the Restore button to return the application or document to its previous size.  Use the Close button to close the application or document.  Notice you have size/close controls for both the application and the open document.

Menu bar—shows the names of drop-down menus.

Scroll bars—let you use the mouse to move through documents.

Scroll arrows—let you move to the previous or next page of information

Scroll box—lets you move through a document by dragging the box until you reach the part of the document you want to see.

Insertion point—blinking vertical bar displaying the position where information you enter appears.

Status bar—displays information about the current document.

Standard toolbar—contains shortcut buttons for commonly used menu commands

Formatting toolbar—lets you format without using menus.

Taskbar—displays the Start button and buttons representing open applications so you can easily access other applications.

Office Shortcut Bar—lets you quickly switch between Office 97 applications.

Office Assistant—offers tips and lets you ask questions about using Office.

I-Beam—the mouse pointer displayed on the screen as it moves over the text.

Icon—graphic symbol (picture) on a screen representing a command (e.g., a trash can for a deletion command).

CD-ROM—(Compact Disk-Read-Only Memory)  A form of optical disk that allows data to be read but not recorded.

Hardware—equipment that includes a keyboard, monitor, printer, the computer itself, and other devices.

Hard-Disk Drive—enclosed disk drive that contains one or more metallic disks.
A hard disk has many times the capacity of a floppy disk.

Document—any kind of text material, such as a letter or a report.

Laptop—a portable computer weighing 10-16 pounds.

Laser Printer—printer that creates dotlike images on a drum using a laser beam.  The characters are then treated with magnetically charged inklike toner and transferred from the drum to the paper.

Dot-Matrix Printer—a printer that forms characters or images using a matrix of pins that strike an inked ribbon.

Ink-Jet Printer—a printer that forms characters by spraying small droplets of ink at high speed onto the surface of the paper.

Monitor—an output device that displays data processed by the computer.

Mouse—an input device that can be rolled on a tabletop to direct the position of the cursor on the screen.

CPU—(Central Processing Unit) the part of the computer that consists of the control unit, arithmetic-logic unit, and primary storage.  It executes program instructions.

Cursor—a blinking symbol on the screen that shows where data may be entered next.

ROM—(Read Only Memory) chips containing programs that are built into the system board at the factory.  The instructions on these chips cannot be changed.

RAM—(Random Access Memory) temporary storage that holds the program and data that the CPU is processing.

Program—a set of step-by-step instructions that tell a computer how to accomplish a task.

Software—another name for computer programs.

Word Processing—the use of a computer to create, edit, save, and print documents comprised of text, such as letters, reports, and contracts.

Window—an area defined on the screen for viewing data from a program.