When you open Pontis, you will see the Pontis Desktop. The name of the currently selected module will appear in the main window title in the upper left corner of the main window. To switch to different Pontis modules, click the down arrow next to the name of the current module to activate the module selection list, then click on the module you would like to work with.

In this lesson, you will learn the basic elements of the Pontis Desktop.

The basic elements of the Pontis desktop are the Menu Bar at the top of the screen, the Module Toolbar along the left side of the screen, the Support Tools directly above the Structure or Project List, the Status Bar along the bottom, and the Structure or Project List. The Support Tool buttons are considered part of the Structure or Project List.

The Menu Bar contains five main items: File, View, Tools, Window and Help. Available choices under each of these items vary depending on which module you are in, and what activity you are performing.

The toolbar down the left side of the screen contains buttons for commonly performed functions, which change as you select different modules. For example, in the Inspection module, there are buttons for creating structures and inspections; in the Project Planning module, there are buttons for creating and deleting projects.

The Status Bar across the bottom of the screen includes:

• The system status block, which shows various messages generated by Pontis.
• The database status block, which indicates which database you are using.
• The edit status block, which allows you to toggle between "Edit On" and "Edit Off" modes when data entry screens are active.
• The date-time block, which indicates the current system date and time.

The Structures List is available in the Inspection, Gateway, and Project Planning modules. The Structures List, along with its Support Tool buttons across the top allows you to:

• Browse through the different structures in the inventory;
• Find a particular structure, and
• Select a subset of structures for various operations available from the Module Toolbar.

In this lesson, you learned the basic elements of the Pontis Desktop.