Thanks to the dynamic nature of its new apps platform, the Metro-style apps that Microsoft includes with Windows 8/RT will change over time, so it’s highly likely that this app will appear somewhat differently over time and will include additional features. This is normal, and as a general statement, it’s probably fair to say that the version of Windows Store you use will provide a superset of the functionality we describe in this chapter.
Navigating the Store’s Home Screen
As a true Metro-style experience, Windows Store offers horizontal rather than vertical navigation. That is, you scroll from left to right through the various app category sections that make up the home screen of this app, and not up and down as you would in a document-based application like Microsoft Word.
This navigation occurs logically enough as well: Users with touch-based devices will find that horizontal swipes work exactly as expected. Those with a mouse (or trackpad) can access the bottom-mounted scroll bar that appears when that pointing device is present, as shown in Figure 6-3, or use the mouse’s scroll wheel.
Figure 6-3: Mouse users can navigate Windows Store with a scroll bar.
And if you’re keyboard-bound, Page Up and Page Down will scroll the UI from category to category. Home and End will navigate directly to the front and rear of the app’s home screen, respectively.
In fact, it’s very similar to how the Start screen works. Windows Store even supports the semantic zoom feature that’s also available in the Start screen. This feature lets you zoom out the display of the app and view it from afar, enabling you to gain a better understanding of its layout and navigate more quickly to a specific store category.
The semantic zoom view is shown in Figure 6-4.
Figure 6-4: Windows Store in semantic zoom view
To achieve this effect, you pinch the screen if you’re using a touch-based device. With a mouse and keyboard, hold down the Ctrl key and use the mouse’s scroll wheel to move in and out of semantic zoom view.
Windows Store also provides an app bar, though it appears a bit differently than with other Metro-style apps, at the top of the app rather than the bottom, and using text-based links instead of normal buttons. Shown in Figure 6-5, the Store’s app bar lets you navigate quickly back to the Home screen from anywhere in the app—a handy feature given how quickly you can get lost while spelunking for apps.
Figure 6-5: Windows Store’s app bar provides a couple of handy quick links.
The Store’s app bar also provides a way to jump quickly to Your Apps, a list of the apps you’ve already downloaded or paid for. We discuss this latter feature later in the chapter.
Understanding Windows Store Categories
As noted earlier, Windows Store uses a category-based design in which the various app categories are represented visually by groups that are laid out from left to right, much as Start screen groups can be. The following major groups are available:
• Spotlight: The first group provides a front-of-store experience, with the latest and most highly reviewed apps, showcased apps, and other notable apps.
• Games: Expected to be the most popular app category as it is on Windows Phone and other mobile platforms, this group gets preferential placement and additional promotional space.
• Social: This group contains apps related to social network services, such as Facebook and Twitter as well as blog-related apps, such as WordPress.
• Entertainment: This group covers entertainment related apps that often cross over into music and video, including Flixster, Netflix, Xbox Companion, and the like.
• Photo: Here, you’ll find apps that extend the basic photo experiences in Windows 8 with support for editing capabilities and various online photo services.
• Music & Video: As with photos, Windows 8 provides only a basic multimedia experience, so this category will open up the platform’s support for music, video, online radio, podcast, and other related services.
• Sports: Need an app to check up on the latest sports scores and gossip? It’ll be in here.
• Books & Reference: Filled with apps for e-book reading platforms like Kindle and Nook, as well as more traditional reference material, this is the category to check out if you’re looking to turn that Windows 8 tablet into an electronic bookshelf.
• News & Weather: If you wish to stay up to date with the news or weather, you’ll find a plethora of apps here for newspapers like
• Health & Fitness: Need to track how many calories you’ve burned preparing for that dinner you made using an app from the next app category? You’ll find an app for that in this category.
• Food & Dining: This category highlights cookbooks, restaurant review apps, and related apps.
• Lifestyle: A collection of apps related to lifestyle activities that are not covered by the other categories.
• Shopping: Here, you’ll find apps for Amazon.com and your other favorite retailers as well as apps related to the shopping experience, including reviews-based apps.
• Travel: Travel apps, including currency converters, guides to international locales, and hotel, airfare, and auto rentals can be found in this category.
• Finance: Apps related to personal finance, taxes, and the stock market are available here.
• Productivity: Perhaps the broadest category aside from games, this category includes apps related to productivity, including note-taking solutions like OneNote and Evernote, word processors and other document editors, cloud storage, and much, much more.
• Tools: A collection of useful utilities which, like Security below, also includes a larger- than-usual selection of desktop applications in addition to Metro-style apps.
• Security: The most curious category because it will likely consist mostly of links to traditional desktop applications over time rather than Metro-style apps, this category houses PC security and personal protection apps.
• Business: This category includes the expected business-oriented titles, but also cloud-based storage services.
• Education: Here you’ll find educational app titles of all types, from SAT preparation to star charts.
Within each group in the home screen, you will see a few promoted apps, tiled for top free and paid apps in that category, and other entries.
Diving a Bit Deeper
