Apple Macintosh LC - Manual (Page 21)

Creating a New Document
In this exercise you will learn by working with TeachText, an application
Apple provides with Macintosh computers. But the things that you learn will
help you to use any application program on the Macintosh.
Opening an application program
Follow these steps to open the TeachText application program and create a new
TeachText document:
1.If it isn't already open, open the System Startup disk icon.
Either double-click the icon, or click it and choose Open from the File menu.
The System Startup icon opens and its window appears. Notice the TeachText
icon.
2.If necessary, resize the window (by dragging the size box) so that the
window looks something like this:
3.Open the TeachText application program.
You open application programs the same way you open disk or folder icons:
double-click the icon or click it and choose Open from the File menu.
The computer reads the program from the disk and displays a watch for a
couple of seconds to let you know that it will be ready in a moment.
In a few seconds a blank TeachText document appears on your screen.
What's Going on Here?
Opening an application program is very similar to opening a folder or disk:
you use the same techniques to open the icon, and the icon opens into a
window. But there are some important differences.
In opening a disk or folder, you are looking to see what the disk or folder
holds (what folders and files and programs are stored there). But when you
open an application, you are not asking the Macintosh to show you what's
inside the application. Rather you are telling the Macintosh that you want to
use the application to do something (draw, write, play a game, calculate
expenses, or whatever the particular application is designed to do).
Directory versus document
When you open a disk or folder, you get a window that shows the contents of
that icon -- a directory window. But when you open an application, you get a
different kind of window -- a document window.
You can think of this empty document window as a blank piece of typing paper,
a blank piece of drawing paper, or whatever is appropriate to the program
you're using. It is your work space for doing whatever it is that the program
is designed to do. Since you opened the TeachText application (a program
designed for word processing), you have a blank TeachText document on your
screen.