Xic provides a menu of buttons along the side (the ``side menu''), and s number of drop-down menus along the top of the main window. Xic responds to key presses in various ways, and provides an input/output text area just below the main window. Key presses are interpreted as macros, special commands, menu command accelerators, or as `!' commands. Several control sequences directly initiate certain operations, for example Ctrl-r will redraw the window and Ctrl-g will prompt for grid parameters. Other control sequences will trigger menu commands as accelerators, and typing the unique prefix of the command name (as shown in the tool tip which appears as the mouse pointer hovers over a menu entry) will trigger menu commands. If `!' is pressed, the rest of the sequence (until Enter is pressed) is taken as an internal or Unix shell command. If `?' is pressed, the rest of the sequence (until Enter is pressed) is taken as a help database keyword.