Moving a program window
You can easily move a program window
about the screen just by dragging its title bar. However, you can’t
start with a minimized window. You have to get the program window to an
in-between size or maximized size before you even get started. Then
just get the mouse pointer somewhere near the top center of the window
you want to move, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the window
around. Release the mouse button when the window is where you want it
on the desktop. This works for both in-between sized and maximized
windows.
Dialog boxes work the same way. You can’t size or
minimize a dialog box, and dialog boxes don’t have taskbar buttons. But
you can easily drag a dialog box around the screen by its title bar.
Moving and sizing from the keyboard
As you’ve seen, most of the techniques
for moving and sizing program windows rely on the mouse. There are some
keyboard alternatives, but they’re not available in all program
windows. The only way to find out whether these work in the window
you’re using at the moment is to press Alt+Spacebar and see whether a
system menu drops down from the upper-left corner, as in Figure 10.
If you see the menu, you just have to press the
underlined letter from the menu option you want to select. For example,
press the letter x to Maximize or n to Minimize. If you press m to Move or s
to Size, you can then use the arrow keys (?, ?, ?, ?) to move or size
the window. Then press Enter when the window is positioned or sized to
your liking.
Tip
Sometimes, a window can be
outside the viewable area of the desktop. This can happen if you extend
your Windows desktop onto another monitor but that monitor isn’t
connected or turned on. If you can press Alt+Tab and determine that a
program is running, but you can’t see it on the desktop, press Alt+Tab
and select the program (make it active). Then, press Alt+Spacebar,
press M, and use the arrow keys on the keyboard to move the window into
a viewable area of the desktop.
