3.13 The Maximize button in a title bar.
Figure 3.14 The Minimize button in a title bar.
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, so it 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 3.14).
● 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.
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. You can do that in one of two ways:
● 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. 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. You can tell that because the program's taskbar button is still on the taskbar. When you want to view that program window, click its taskbar button 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 removed from the RAM (making room for other things you might want to work with). The way to get back to the program is to restart it from its icon. However, this new program window is an entirely new running copy of the program, unrelated to any other copies that were running.
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 3.15.
Figure 3.15 Use the two-headed arrow to resize a window.
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. Follow these steps:
1. Click the program window's control menu button (upper-left corner of the window) and choose Size. Note that the control menu is not available on all apps.
2. Press the navigation arrow keys (←, →, ↑, ↓) until the window (or the border around the window) is the size you want.
3. Press Enter.
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 begin. Then place 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 usually 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.
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. To find out whether these work in the window you're using at the moment, press Alt+Spacebar and see whether a system menu drops down from the upper-left corner, as in Figure 3.16.
Figure 3.16 A system menu from a program window.
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.
Closing a Program
When you're finished using a program, you should close it. Every open program and document consumes some resources, mostly in the form of using memory (RAM). The computer also uses virtual memory, which is basically space on the hard disk configured to look like RAM to the computer.
RAM has no moving parts and, thus, can feed stuff to the processor (where all the work takes place) at amazing speeds. A standard hard disk has moving parts and is much, much slower. Newer solid state drives do not rely on moving parts, but you still have speed differences between RAM and solid state drives. As soon as Windows has to start using virtual memory, everything slows down. So, you don't want to have stuff you're not using to remain open and consuming resources.
You have many ways to close a program. Use whichever of the following techniques is most convenient for you, because they all produce the same result – the program is removed from memory, and both its program window and taskbar button are removed from the screen (until the next time you open the program):
● Click the Close (X) button in the program window's upper-right corner.
● Right-click the title bar across the top of the program window and choose Close.
● Choose File
● Right-click the program's taskbar