1 )' . ' sign is used to represent dot product and ' x 'sign is used to represent cross product
from this sign , you can understand which one you needed.
2) considering the direction, if vector in same direction of two vectors are needed,then you can do dot product and if vector in the perpendicular direction of two vectros are needed ,then please do cross product.
these are the main classifying difference and many others are concludede from these relations.
LIke if satisifed