Windows Programs "Save As" Dialogue Box
Saving a document, spreadsheet, web page, picture, audio file or other item to your computer is a very common activity. There are a number of methods for saving an item to your computer. There is the simple Control s method, the Alt f a method, and the new method in Office 2013 of hitting the F12 key. In Office 2013 the Control s or Alt f a brings up a three layered menu that is different at the beginning but still leads to the "Save As" dialogue box. All of these different methods bring up the same "Save As" dialogue box. Windows File Explorer have the "Tree View" and the "List View" in common--they both have these two areas. The "Save As" dialogue also has a place to type the name of the document or file, and just beneath that a combo box which allows you to select which file type you want to save in. For example, if you are saving a Word file, open the "Save As" dialogue box, type the name of the document, Tab one time, down arrow through the file types, stop on the type you want, Tab to the "Save" button and hit the Spacebar. A few of the file types in Word are the PDF, plain text, rich text format, and other versions of Word documents. If you decide you want to save a document, picture, even web page to a folder other than "Documents," Tab or Shift Tab again-and-again until you reach the "Tree View." Use you up arrow to find the "Libraries" area and its' sub folders, or use the down arrow to move to Computer, right arrow, then down arrow to the drive you want, right arrow, down arrow to the folder you want, hit Enter one time, Tab again-and-again until you reach the "Save" button, and then hit the Spacebar, or simply press Alt s to save the document or other item. Do the following activities to develop your skill of using the "Save As" dialogue box. There are headings on this page. Hit the letter h to move through the headings, or Shift h to move backwards through the headings. When you are on a heading you want to work with, down arrow through the steps to complete the activity. There is an audio demonstration link after the activities. When you are finished, move to the link at the bottom of this web page titled "BACK" to go to the "Simple Windows Lessons" web page.
1. Open Word.
2. Press Control s for pre 2013 versions of Word, or F12 for Word 2013 and the "Save As" dialogue box will pop up.
3. Hit the Escape key one time to close the "Save As" dialogue box.
4. Press Alt F4 to close Word.
5. Open Excel.
6. Press Control s in pre 2013 versions of Excel, or F12 for Excel 2013 and the "Save As" dialogue box will pop up.
7. Hit the Escape key one time to close the "Save As" dialogue box.
8. Press Alt F4 to close Excel.
9. Bring up Internet Explorer or Firefox to go to the web.
10. Press Control s and the "Save As dialogue box will pop up.
11. Hit the Escape key one time and the "Save As" dialogue box will close.
12. Practice the above steps with different programs to increase your speed and efficiency.
1. Open Word.
2. Press Control s for pre 2013 versions of Word, or hit the F12 key in Word 2013 to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box.
3. Press Alt n to move to the edit box where you type the document name.
4. Press Alt t to move to the combo box where you select the file type.
5. Down and up arrow through the many different files types that you can pick from.
6. Press and hold down the Shift key and hit the Tab key again-and-again until you reach the "List View."
7. Down and up arrow through the items or documents in the "List View."
8. Press and hold down the Alt key and hit the Tab key again-and-again until you reach the "Tree View." You will probably land on the "Documents" item in the "Libraries" area because Word saves to "Documents" by default.
9. Right arrow to open the "Documents" sub folders.
10. Down arrow through the "Documents" sub folders.
11. Left arrow to close the "Documents" item.
12. Down arrow until you reach the "Computer" item.
13. Right arrow to open the "Computer" item.
14. Down arrow to the hard drive of your computer (Local Drive C in most cases).
15. Right arrow one time.
16. Down arrow five times to see the beginning folders of "Local Drive C."
17. Left arrow one time to close "Local Drive C."
18. Down arrow to your USB memory stick, if you have inserted one.
19. Right arrow one time.
20. Down arrow through the folders on your USB memory stick, or any device that you have attached to your computer.
21. Left arrow one time to close your USB memory stick, or other item you have attached to your computer.
22. Hit the Tab key again-and-again to move all of the way through the "Save As" dialogue box. Do this until you get back to the "Tree View."
23. Press and hold down the Shift key and hit the Tab key again-and-again to move backwards through the "Save As" dialogue box. Do this until you get back to the "Tree View."
24. Practice tabbing to the "Save" button. Do not do this at this time, but know that the key command Alt s will instantly save and close the "Save As" dialogue box.
25. Do the above steps again-and-again until you understand the layout of the "Save As" dialogue box, and are very quick and efficient in moving through this dialogue box.
NOTE: Once you save a file, Control s does a silent save and does not bring up the "Save As" dialogue box for that same document or file. Internet Explorer and Firefox are exceptions. Even if you have saved the web page before, Control s will still bring up the "Save As" dialogue box for these two Internet programs.
NOTE: In most cases, the last drive and folder where you saved a file is where you will be placed when you bring up the "Save As" dialogue box for the next item you want to save.
1. Open Word.
2. Save the open document.
3. In pre 2013 versions of Word press Alt f then a to open the "Save As" dialogue box. In Word 2013 use the F12 key command to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box, even if the file is already saved.
4. Hit the Escape key one time to close the "Save As" dialogue box.
5. Do steps "3" and "4" above again-and-again. Try the same with other programs.
1. Open Word.
2. Press Control s for pre 2013 Word, or hit the F12 key for Word 2013 to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box.
3. You are in the edit box where you can type a name for your document.
4. Type "Dog" (without the quotes).
5. Hit the Escape key one time to close the "Save As" dialogue box.
6. Press Control s for pre 2013 Word, or hit the F12 key for Word 2013 to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box.
7. Type "Cat" (without the quotes).
8. Hit the Escape key one time to close the "Save As" dialogue box.
9. Press Control s for pre 2013 Word, or hit the F12 key for Word 2013 to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box.
10. Type "Bird" (without the quotes).
11. Hit the Escape key to close the "Save As" dialogue box.
12. Do steps "2" through "11" above again-and-again until you are quick and accurate. In a real save, you would type a name for the document or file which represents the content of that document or file.
1. Open Word.
2. Press Control s for pre 2013 Word, or hit the F12 key for Word 2013 to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box.
3. Type a name for the document.
4. Hit the Tab key one time, or press Alt t to go to the "Save as Type" combo box.
5. Down arrow to "Plain Text."
6. Hit the Escape key one time.
7. Press Control s for pre 2013 Word, or hit the F12 key for Word 2013 to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box.
8. Type a name for the document.
9. Hit the Tab key one time, or press Alt t to go to the "Save as Type" combo box.
10. Down arrow to the "PDF" (Portable Document Format read in Adobe Reader).
11. Hit the Escape key one time.
12. Do steps "2" through "11" above and experiment with selecting different file types such as "Rich Text Format." Do this again-and-again until you are quick and accurate.
1. Open Word.
2. Type your name.
3. Hit the Enter key one time.
4. Press Control s for pre 2013 Word, or hit the F12 key for Word 2013 to bring up the "Save As" dialogue box.
5. Shift Tab to the "Tree View." You may be on the "Documents" item in the "Libraries" area. If not, use your up or down arrow to move there.
6. Hit the Enter key one time to activate the "Documents" item.
7. Press and hold down the Alt key and hit the letter t to move to the "Save as Type" combo box.
8. Down arrow to the Rich Text Format (RTF).
9. Pres and hold down the Alt key and hit the letter s to save the document and close the "Save As" dialogue box.
10. Press Alt F4 to close Word.
11. Do the above steps again-and-again until you are very familiar with the "Save As" dialogue box, and are quick and efficient.
12. Experiment with other programs such as Excel and PowerPoint.