Interacting with mwm

You interact with mwm with a pointing device (usually a mouse), by pressing various combinations of keys on the keyboard, or both. The Motif Window Manager (mwm) uses an object-action model of interaction. You select a window, menu, icon or other graphic object and indicate an action for that object.

A graphic image on the display, called a pointer, tracks the movement of the mouse on your desk. When X starts up, the pointer has an X shape. (This shape is the default; the pointer shape can be customized.) When you move the mouse, the image of the pointer may change. The pointer shape is meant to provide a visual cue as to the activity that is being performed. For example, inside a terminal window or text editor, the pointer may look like an I-beam, see below.

Pointing
Working
Moving
Resizing

Using the Mouse

You can perform the following actions with a mouse:

Pointing

Sliding the mouse on the desktop to position the pointer on an object on the screen

Pressing

Holding down a mouse button

Clicking

Pressing and releasing a mouse button without moving the pointer

Double-Clicking

Clicking a mouse button twice in rapid succession

Dragging

Pressing and holding down a button while moving the mouse

For details of the conventions used in this guide when referring to mouse buttons, see Typographic and Keying Conventions.

Using the Keyboard

You can perform many window management functions without using a mouse. Often, window management functions from the keyboard require using modifier keys. When you press these keys, they modify the action normally associated with other keys. Because OSF/Motif runs on many different kinds of terminals and workstations, the names of the keys vary from one system to the another.

For details of the conventions used in this guide when referring to keys, see Typographic and Keying Conventions.

All mwm keyboard actions conform to the behavior specified in the OSF/Motif Style Guide. For example, pressing pops up the window menu for the active window. You browse through the menu items using the arrow keys. Pressing selects a menu item. Pressing cancels the current window management operation.