Sizing program windows
As a rule, program windows can be any
size you want them to be, but this rule has a few exceptions. For
example, the tiny Calculator program can’t be sized at all. Some
programs, such as Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center, will
shrink down only so far. But in general, most open program windows can
appear in three categories of sizes:
- Maximized, in which the program fills the entire screen above the taskbar, covering the desktop
- Minimized, in which only the program’s taskbar button is visible, and the program window takes up no space on the desktop
- Any size in between those two extremes
Often, you’ll want to work with two or
more program windows at a time. Knowing how to size program windows is
a critical skill for doing so, because working with multiple program
windows is difficult if you can’t see at least some portion of each one.
Maximize a program window
A maximized program window enlarges to
its greatest window size, which in many cases causes it to fill all the
space above the taskbar. This makes it easy to see everything inside
the program window. If a program window isn’t already maximized, you
can maximize it in several ways:
- Click the Maximize button in the program’s title bar (see Figure 6).
- Grab the title bar and move the window to the top of the screen.
Pause for a moment and then release the mouse button. The window
maximizes.
- Double-click the program’s title bar.
- Click the upper-left corner of the window you want to maximize and
choose Maximize. Optionally, right-click anywhere near the center top
of the window and choose Maximize.
Tip
Remember, few buttons on the screen show
their name. But you can find out a button’s name just by touching the
button with the tip of the mouse pointer.
Minimize a program window
If you want to get a program window off
the screen temporarily without losing your place, minimize the program
window. When you minimize the program window, the program remains
running. However, it takes up no space on the screen and therefore
can’t cover anything else on the screen. When minimized, only the
window’s taskbar button remains visible. You can minimize a window in
several ways:
- Click the Minimize button in the program’s title bar (see Figure 7).
- Click the upper-left corner of the window you want to minimize (or
right-click anywhere near the center top of the window) and choose
Minimize.
- Click the program’s taskbar button once or twice. (If the program
isn’t in the active window, the first click just makes it the active
window. The second click then minimizes the active window.)
- Right-click the program’s taskbar button or title bar and choose Minimize.
Size at will
Between the two extremes of maximized
(hog up the entire desktop) and minimized (not even visible on the
desktop), most program windows can be any size you want them to be. The
first step to sizing a program window is to get it to an in-between
size so that it’s neither maximized nor minimized. To do that:
- If the program window is currently minimized, click its taskbar button to make it visible on the screen.
- If the program window is currently maximized, double-click its
title bar or click its Restore Down button to shrink it down a little. Figure 8
shows the tooltip that appears when you point to the Restore Down
button. Optionally, use the Cascade Windows option described earlier to
get all open program windows down to an in-between size.
Minimize Versus Close
Everything that’s “in your computer,”
so to speak, is actually a file on your hard disk. The stuff on your
hard disk is always there, whether the computer is on or off. When you
open an item, two things happen. The most obvious is that the item
becomes visible on the screen. What’s not so obvious is the fact that a
copy of the program is also loaded in the computer’s memory (RAM).
When you minimize an open window, the
program is still in memory. The only way you can tell that is by the
fact that the program’s taskbar button is still on the taskbar. When
you want to view that program window, you just click its taskbar to
make it visible on the screen again. It shows up looking exactly as it
did before you minimized it.
When you close a program, its window
and taskbar button both disappear, and the program is also removed from
the RAM (making room for other things you might want to work with). The
only way to get back to the program is to restart it from its icon.
However, this new program window will be an entirely new instance of
the program, unrelated to how things looked before you closed the
program.
After the program window is visible but
not hogging up the entire screen, you can size it to your liking by
dragging any edge or corner. You have to get the tip of the mouse
pointer right on the border of the window you want to size so that the
pointer turns into a two-headed arrow, as in Figure 9.
When you see the two-headed arrow, hold down the
left mouse button without moving the mouse. After the mouse button is
down, drag in the direction you want to size the window. Release the
mouse button when the window is the size you want.
You can also size a program window using the
mouse and the keyboard. Again, the program window has to be at some
in-between size to start with. Also, note that you always begin the
process from the program window’s taskbar button. Here are the steps:
1. Click the program window’s control menu button (upper-left corner of the window) and choose Size.
2. Press the navigation arrow keys (?, ?, ?, ?) until the window (or the border around the window) is the size you want.
3. Press the Enter key.
