moving the gantry manually

i've been away working on learning the cad/cam software. quite the learning curve.
now i'm back at the machine end. forgotton most of what i had learned. but, i now understand that everything in the cnc world consists of "steps". so my question is:
what are the "steps" for moving the gantry in xyz? what are the steps for starting and stopping the spindle as well as spindle speed adjustment? all of this in manual mode so that i can accomplish basic procedures without creating cad/cam graphics". for instance, if i wanted to router a channel, or make a quick pocket.

jacques

i forgot to mention that when i use the arrows or page up/page down, i see the animated "spindle" move on the screen in the wanted direction, but the actual spindle does not move at the same time.

jacques