Any window, be it a system window such as My Documents, My Computer, or the Control Panel, or a program window, such as opened by the Movie Maker or WordPad application, contains vari-ous combinations of controls and features. You can use these to modify the window and, in the case of program windows, navigate the application program.
The following list describes the features and controls found on all your typical windows:
Title bar: Identifies the program or file in the opened window;
also houses the Control menu, which appears when you click the program icon on the left side of the title bar.
Menu bar: Contains the pull-down menus with commands spe-cific to a program; see“The menu bar” later in this part.
Minimize button:Shrinks the window down to a button on the taskbar.
Maximize button:Zooms the window up to full size; to restore a maximized window to its former size, click the Restore Down button that replaces the Maximize button.
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Close button:Closes the window and exits any program running in it.
Toolbars: If the window is equipped with other toolbars (such as a Standard Buttons bar), these extra toolbars are usually located below the menu bar.
Vertical scroll bar: Enables you to vertically scroll new parts of the window into view with the up and down arrows or by drag-ging the scroll button.
Horizontal scroll bar:Enables you to horizontally scroll new parts of the window into view with the right and left arrows or by dragging the scroll button.
Status bar: Gives you different sorts of information about the current state of the program.
Here are some basic tips on dealing with the windows you encounter in Windows XP:
A window must be active before you can select any of the com-mands or use any of the features. To activate a window, click anywhere on it. The active window is immediately placed on top of the desktop, and the title bar becomes highlighted.
You can change the size of a window by dragging the borders with the mouse or by using the Size command.
To move a window on the desktop, position the mouse pointer somewhere on the window title bar, and drag the outline to the new location with the mouse.
If the window contains a toolbar, and you don’t have a clue as to what the tool does, point to the tool button, and Windows displays a ScreenTip with the tool name.
You can move windows around the desktop and resize them from full-screen (called maximized) all the way down to wee buttons on the taskbar (called minimized) at your convenience.
To move a window, follow these steps:
1. If necessary, restore the window to an in-between size, either by clicking the Restore Down button, if the window is maximized, or by clicking the taskbar button, if the window is minimized.
2. Position the mouse pointer over the window title bar.
3. Drag the outline of the window to the new location on the desktop.
4. Release the mouse button to drop the window in the new loca-tion on the desktop.
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To maximize a window, you have two methods to choose between:
Click the Maximize button on the window title bar if the window is displayed at less than full size. (The Maximize button is located in the middle of the three buttons on the right side of the title bar.) Otherwise, click the window taskbar button if the window is minimized.
Choose Maximize from the window Control menu (which you open by clicking the program icon in the far-left side of the window title bar).
Remember that after you maximize a window, you can restore the window to the original size by doing one of these two things:
Click the Restore Down button on the window title bar. (The Restore button is located in the middle of the three buttons on the right side of the title bar.)
Choose Restore from the window Control menu (which you open by clicking the program icon in the far-left side of the window title bar).
To minimize a window to just a button on the taskbar, you can do either of the following:
Click the Minimize button on the window title bar. (The Minimize button is the one with the minus sign, located on the left of the three buttons on the right side of the title bar.)
Choose Minimize from the window Control menu (which you open by clicking the program icon in the far-left side of the window title bar).
In addition to using the automatic sizing controls, you can manu-ally size a window (assuming that it’s not currently minimized or maximized) by dragging any of the sides or corners. You can always tell when Windows XP will allow you to move one or more of the sides of a window by dragging, because the mouse pointer changes from the standard pointer to a double-headed arrow.
Keep the following points in mind to get the most out of resizing windows while you work:
Move a window whenever something else (such as the taskbar or another window) gets in the way so that you can’t see the window contents.
Maximize a window when you’re doing some serious work (or playing) in that window and don’t need the distraction of all the other junk that populates the Windows XP desktop.
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Minimize a window when you still need it open (especially when it’s running processes, such as printing or calculating, in the background) but won’t be directly using those features for a while.
Keep the window sized in-between when you need to see part of those contents on the desktop at the same time as you’re doing something else (as when moving or copying with drag-and-drop).
See“Control menus” later in this part for information on how to use the Control menu to size and move windows.