Guide with all the touch gestures of Windows RT

While the arrival of Surface Pro in Spain is already on the horizon, many of us are using its more limited version through Surface RT by coming with Windows RT. Both this system and Windows 8 come prepared for touch control, and if for budget reasons we have been forced to do without its Touch Cover, it will be time to learn all the available touch gestures.

Although we have been with it for a few months on the market, it is still a new Operating System, so you always have to get used to its additional features.Some of its touch functions are quite intuitive, and some will even come out almost without realizing it. But there are others that can give us a few headaches, so we will now go over all its tactile gestures so that there are no more doubts or problems .

After accessing our Start menu, the most common question that can come to mind if we have to act only with touch gestures is, how do I organize the icons of Windows 8? Based on trial and error one can come up with the right move to do it, but we are going to root out that problem. If we want, for example, to move an icon, we must click on it and drag almost instantly. We will see how, after pressing, its size will vary slightly, doubling in the part where we have pressed, to indicate that we can interact with it. If we take too long, what we will do with our finger pressed will be to navigate through the Start menu.

Uninstall programs, change icon sizes, unpin start, and see more apps

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Another of the basic gestures of Windows RT is to display the application bar All we have to do is slide our finger from the bottom of the the screen upwards, and it will be displayed, showing the All applications section, from which we can consult, as its name indicates, all the applications that we have installed in Windows RT. Both those that are visible and those that are not, such as those of the Windows 8 administrative type, which are not few."

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The latter, by the way, we can also anchor them to start, and in two different ways. Or separately and manually, clicking and dragging the access in question to the bottom of the screen so that another application bar is displayed.Or all at once and automatically by accessing the application settings (slide your finger from the right side to the left), activating the Show administrative tools icon section."

But of course, there is a problem here. What if we want to control the icons from the start menu? Change its size, uninstall programs directly from there, or unpin from start. Well, the procedure is similar to that from the applications section, except that here we must control the pulsation and speed when sliding down an icon to edit it. It has to be a direct and quick flick to the bottom, to bring up the full app bar. If we do it wrong we will expand the screen showing all the groups that we have in our start menu. And that does not interest us. Although since we mentioned it, zooming in and out of the screen is done with two fingers, joining or separating, respectively.Very intuitive.

Going back to before, once the application bar with an icon is displayed, we will see that we will have several options to choose from, and with quite explanatory functions:

• Pin/Unpin from Start
• Uninstall
• Make an icon larger/smaller
• Activate/deactivate dynamic icon

Close a program, activate the virtual keyboard, navigate between apps or hold two at the same time

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At this point, another of the essential questions we can ask ourselves when faced with this new Microsoft Operating System is How do we close a program in Windows RT? Because in Windows 8 and earlier OS we have done it with our mouse by clicking on the X, or with the Alt+F4 key combination, to name two classic ways.What if we depend on touch control in Windows RT? Nothing happens, because the movement is very simple. All we have to do is drag an open application by pressing from the top of the screen to the bottom, as if we were throwing it into an invisible garbage container. And although the ideal is to make the movement quickly, it will not be necessary. If we do it slowly we will see how the application significantly reduces its size, and then disappears at the bottom of the screen."

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This movement (slow) will also help us to activate the function of two simultaneous applications in an easier way. Going down>left or right The side chosen will be the one on which the application in question will be shown with a smaller aspect so that we can continue working with another at the same time."

One of the most striking features of Windows 8 and RT, and therefore of Surface RT, is the issue of navigate between applications When we have several apps running, we can navigate between them by sliding our finger from the left side to the right, as if we were reading a manga. Also, if we shorten the movement from left to right almost at the beginning, to return to the left, we will open a bar with which we will instantly see what applications we have running, being able to click on the one we want to go to it.

Despite the fact that Windows RT bases its applications exclusively for the Windows Store, we have the desktop of a lifetime, with a Windows 7 appearance. Although here our pointer to the mouse will be our finger If we want to open a pop-up menu, such as to see the properties of a file, folder or directory, or create same a new folder, we just have to keep our finger pressed on an area of ​​the screen for a few seconds and release. And how can we write if there is no keyboard? We must activate it from the desktop tools menu by clicking on the keyboard icon.And here we will have three options: QWERTY icon (default option; see photo above), QWERTY icon split in half with a numeric keypad in the center, and a predictive manual keyboard so that we can write what we want with our finger.

Last but certainly not least, we have the call Charm Bar, mentioned a few paragraphs above when talking about how to access to the configuration of any application. To open it we must slide our finger from the right side of the screen to the left. It will not be necessary to go to the bottom, just a little. By opening this bar, apart from the configuration, we can search and share content, return to the start menu, or manage our devices. And another important aspect, check the battery, the WiFi signal, and the current day and time.

Having mastered all these gestures we should no longer fear the thought of ditching the Touch Cover on the Surface RT at some point. In the end it's a matter of getting used to it. As in everything.