Navigating in the SAS Windowing Environment

SAS windows have several features that work in a similar manner across all operating environments: menus, toolbars, and online Help. You can customize many of these features by selecting ToolsCustomize from the menu. For specific information about these features, see the documentation for your operating environment.

Menus contain lists of options that you can select. The following example shows the menu options that are available when you select Help from the menu bar:

Menu choices change as you change the windows that you are using. For example, if you select Explorer from the View menu, and then select View again, the menu lists the View options that are available when the Explorer window is active. The following display shows the View menu when the Explorer window is active.

If you select Program Editor from the View menu, and then select View again, the menu lists the View options that are available when the Program Editor window is active. The following display shows the View menu when the Program Editor window is active.

You can also access menus when you right-click an item. For example, when you select ViewExplorer and then right-click Libraries in the Explorer window, the following menu appears:

The menu remains visible until you make a selection from the menu or until you click an area outside of the menu area.

A toolbar displays a block of window buttons or icons. When you click items in the toolbar, a function or an action is started. For example, clicking a picture of a printer in a toolbar starts a print process. The toolbar displays icons for many of the actions that you perform most often in a particular window.

The toolbar that you see depends on which window is active. For example, when the Program Editor window is active, the following toolbar displays.

When you position your cursor at one of the items in the toolbar, a text window appears that identifies the purpose of the icon.

The command line is located to the left of the toolbar. In the command line, you can enter commands, such as those that open SAS windows and that retrieve help information.

The following is an example of the command line with Help footnotes entered.

Click an item to access Help for that topic.