Getting Around Your Tablet

Tutorial

For touch, mouse, and keyboard

Whether you’re using a Tablet with a touchscreen or one with a mouse and keyboard, knowing some of the basic actions in Windows 8.1 can go a long way toward helping you use your tablet quickly and efficiently. With a few taps, clicks, or keystrokes, you can find things fast, switch between apps, and get around on your tablet.

Before you read the details, it’s important that you’re familiar with the desktop, the Start screen, and Apps view. You’ll likely use each of these as you work, use apps, stay in touch with your friends, surf the web, and do anything else on your PC.

Desktop

The desktop you’re familiar with is still here. You can personalize it with different backgrounds, colors, and themes, and pin your favorite apps to the taskbar.

To get to the desktop, tap or click the Desktop tile on the Start screen, or press Windows logo key +D on your keyboard.

If the desktop tile isn’t on the Start screen, you can pin it by following these steps:

On the Start screen, slide up from the middle of the screen to see the Apps view. (If you’re using a mouse, click the Down arrow near the lower-left corner of the screen.)
Press and hold or right-click Desktop, and then tap or click Pin to Start. (If you can’t find the Desktop tile, start typing Desktop.)

Getting Around Your Microsoft Windows Tablet

Start Screen

Start is where you can see and quickly get to your favorite apps, people, websites, folders, and other things that are important to you.

To get to Start, swipe in from the right edge of the screen and tap Start. If you’re using a mouse, the fastest way to get to Start is to move your mouse pointer all the way into the lower-left corner of the screen and click the Start button.

For more info about the Start screen, see All about Start.

Apps View

The Apps view is where you can see all apps installed on your PC. In Apps view, you can open apps, pin them to Start, or pin them to the desktop taskbar.

To get to the Apps view, slide up from the middle of the Start screen, or click the Down arrow near the lower-left corner of the Start screen.

Getting Around Your Microsoft Windows Tablet - Apps

Getting Around With Touch

Please Click Here to watch an instructional video.

Common Actions With Touch

The following table shows how to do some common actions on your PC by using touch. For a full list of touch gestures, see Touch: Swipe, tap, and beyond.

Action	How To Do It	Keyboard Shortcut
Open the charms	Swipe in from the right edge of your screen.	Windows logo key + C
Show commands for an app	Swipe in from the top or bottom edge of the screen.	Windows logo key + Z
Switch to your last app	Swipe in from the left edge of the screen.	Windows logo key + Tab
See a list of recent apps	Swipe in from the left edge, and with your finger still on the screen, move it back toward the left edge.	Press and hold the Windows logo key + Tab
Close an app	Drag the app from the top edge of the screen to the bottom of the screen.	Alt+F4
Zoom	Touch the screen with two or more fingers, and then move your fingers toward each other (pinch) to zoom out or away from each other (stretch) to zoom in.	Ctrl+Plus Sign (+) or Ctrl+Minus Sign (-)
Select an item	Swipe down or across the item, or press and hold to select it.

Getting Around With A Mouse

Please Click here to watch an instructional video.

Common Actions using A Mouse

The following table shows how to do some common actions on your PC by using a mouse. For more info about mouse gestures, see Mouse and keyboard: What’s new.

Many of these actions have keyboard shortcuts, too. For a full list of keyboard shortcuts, see Keyboard shortcuts.

Action	How To Do It	Keyboard Shortcut
Open the charms	Move your mouse pointer all the way into the upper-right or lower-right corner. When the charms appear, move up or down the edge and click the one you want.	Windows logo key + C
Show commands for an app	Right-click within the app.	Windows logo key + Z
Switch to your last app	Move your mouse pointer all the way into the upper-left corner of your screen, and then click.	Windows logo key + Tab
See a list of recent apps	Move your mouse pointer into the upper-left corner, and then move it down the edge.	Press and hold the Windows logo key + Tab
Close an app	Move your mouse pointer to the top of the screen and then click the close icon button.	Alt+F4
Zoom	Press Ctrl while you rotate the wheel button.	Ctrl+Plus Sign (+) or Ctrl+Minus Sign (-)
Show The taskbar	Move your mouse pointer below the bottom edge of the screen.	Windows logo key + T selects the first app on the taskbar

TIP: You can use the desktop side by side with any other app, but apps in the desktop always share the same window

Using apps side by side

Depending on the resolution of your screen, you can have up to four apps on a screen at a time. You can schedule meetings on your calendar while you respond to email, or record a lecture in class with Sound Recorder while you take notes in the desktop.

Please Click Here to watch an instructional video.

Using Apps Side by Side

Open an app that you’d like to use.
Slide in from the top of the screen until an opening appears behind the app, then drag the app to the left or right side.
(If you’re using a mouse, point to the upper-left corner of the screen and right-click the app icon in the title bar. Choose eitherSplit Left or Split Right. )
Go back to Start and open a second app. It will appear next to the first app.
To resize the apps, drag the divider between the apps.

To open a third app

If you go back to Start and open a third app, it’ll appear on top of the first two. You can tap or click the left or right side of the third app to replace one of the apps underneath it.

If you want use all three apps on the same screen, drag the third app until an open space appears next to or between the other apps. If a space doesn’t open, your screen can only fit two apps at a time.