As we all know Windows 8 has new touch paradigm which is quite different as compared to other devices, so here I am just sharing some touch and navigation tips which are basically used throughout the Metro interface.
Touch tips:
- Single tap – For initiating primary action like launching an app from Start Screen
- Tap and hold – For identifying functionality of an element
- Swipe down - For selecting an element
- Swipe down further - For releasing an element from current position
- Slide left or right - For dragging element after releasing it on screen
- Swipe from the right edge of the screen inward – This will serve you Metro Interface charms with Search, Share, Start, Devices, Settings charms, system time and info related to connection
- Swipe from the top or bottom edge inward - This Will display specific charms which might be there on top or bottom of the screen
- Swipe from the left edge inward - For switching to previously launched app
- Swipe from the left edge inward and hold – This will Displays preview of app that you might have launched previously allowing you to snap it to the left quarter of the screen on release
- Pinch zoom – For zooming in or out on an element that supports Semantic Zoom
Windows 8 Metro Interface has collection of tiles labeled with some text for giving information regarding the tile. Start screen stretches horizontally, one can have multiple screens which can be scrolled by sliding a finger. There is a charms bar which includes set of buttons and is hidden to the right of the screen. One can get them up by swiping a finger on screen, charms are labeled with Search, Share, Start, Devices and Settings. One can get the applications bar by swiping left side, application bar will display thumbnail of running applications. If you press any of them then it will get filled on main screen. There are a lot of such tricks for navigating through Windows 8 Metro Interface, I am just sharing some useful ones which are hard to discover as a newbie.
Navigation tips:
- Returning to the Start screen - Sometimes we get lost while carrying out tasks in Windows 8 and in such case returning to the Start screen is a better idea. For that you just have to swipe out charms bar on the right and press Start charm.
- Organizing the Start screen – You can have large number of tiles on start screen but separating them into categories make them appear simpler and helps one in finding the tile you might be looking for easily. You can simply drag tiles using your finger drop them in related tiles near each other.
- Naming groups of tiles: You can Zoom out on Start screen and get overall view of the Start screen tiles. You can use two-fingered pinching gesture for that. For naming groups of tiles you can touch the group, choose a name Group and enter the name you want.
- Pinning tiles: For adding applications on Start screen you can touch a blank spot on start screen then touch the app you want pin when they appear on bottom.
- Displaying administrative tools: For viewing administrative tools press Windows key + X and the tools menu will appears in the lower left. You can also swipe out Charms bar, touch Settings, touch tiles and flip the switch to Yes. Administrative tool tiles will get pinned to extreme right of the Start screen.
- Search: In Windows 8 - For searching in windows 8 you can charms bar, choose search and enter whatever you want to search. For e.g if you want to search for start screen then you can simply type “Start Screen” without quotes and hit enter.
- Switching from application to application - If you are having more than one app opened then you can swipe out from left side of screen and back to the left side again without lifting your finger. This will reveal thumbnails of all running application and you can press the one you want.
- Snapping apps - Metro Interface displays two applications simultaneously where one is in narrow strip at right or left where as other occupies rest of the screen. You can snap the smaller ones to right and left using Windows key + . If you press Windows key + it will get snapped on the right and when you press it again then it will get snapped to the left. You can switch between the snapped application and main application by dragging vertical dividing bar between them towards the center until main application gets snapped to the other side.
- Closing a Metro application -You can swipe from top of the screen without lifting your finger to the bottom for closing a metro application. The application will get shrink first and will disappear as it reaches the bottom.
- Getting out of Metro - You can Press Alt + Tab and release it once you get to the desktop for getting out of Metro.
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