Working with Windows

When you open a new program or file, a new window is opened on the screen to display it. You can iconize and re-open this window as described in the Open Programs and Documents section, but there are some other basic ways you can manipulate these windows which are described in the following sections.

How to Close a Window

If you click on the Shows the close button. button in the top right-hand corner of the window, the program will exit and the window will close. Generally, if the program has data that you haven't saved yet (such as changes you were typing into a word processing program), it will prompt you to see whether you want to save the changes before exiting. It's to better to explicitly save first rather than rely on this though, just in case.

How to Maximize a Window's Size

If you want to make a window as big as possible, you can click on the middle of the three buttons in the top right-hand corner of the window. Shows the maximize button. The window will then expand to fill the screen.

When you do this, the button changes to this: Shows the restore button. If you click on this button, then the window will be restored to its previous size (i.e. the size before you maximized it).

How to Move a Window

If you move the cursor to the top of the window (the bar at the top where the title and the iconize, maximize and close buttons are), and press and hold the left mouse button, you can drag the window to any position on the screen. When it's in the right place, release the mouse button.

How to Resize a Window

If you move the cursor to the edge of a window, the cursor will change shape. If it's at one of the sides, it will change to Shows the cursor which indicates that a window can be expanded horizontally. (for the left or right sides) or Shows the cursor which indicates that a window can be expanded vertically. (for the top or bottom). When either of these cursors is shown, if you press and hold the left mouse button, you can drag that side of the window to resize it.

If you move the cursor to one of the corners of a window, it changes to a diagonal Shows the cursor which indicates that a window can be expanded diagonally. In this case, if you press and hold the left mouse button, you can drag the window and change its size in two different directions at the same time. For example, if the cursor is at the bottom right-hand corner, you can expand the window downwards and to the right.

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