Working With Windows

To close a window, click on the Close Window button (with the small “x”) in the window titlebar. If the application has any unsaved data, it will prompt you to save it.

To maximize a window, i.e. make it fill the entire screen (except for the part taken by the panels), click on the Maximize button (middle button on the right side). Clicking on this button once again will restore the window to its original size.

To minimize (sometimes also called hide or iconify) a window, click on the Minimize button. The window will disappear from screen. However, it is not lost: the application in this window continues running, no data is lost — it is just temporarily hidden. All minimized windows are shown in the Window List applet and can be restored as described below.

A convenient alternative to minimizing windows is shading them. When you shade a window, it “rolls up” into its own titlebar, so the titlebar is the only part of the window left on screen. To shade a window, click on Shade button; to unshade, click on this button again. You can also shade and unshade window by double-clicking on the titlebar.

Windows on your screen can overlap, so that one of the windows is “on top” of another. You can “raise” a window (i.e., put it on top of all others) by clicking on the window titlebar. You can also switch a window from raised to lowered and back by right-clicking in the titlebar, or by right-clicking anywhere inside the window while holding down Alt key.

Of all the windows on your screen, only one is active (in computer parlance, “focused”), which means that anything you type on the keyboard will be sent to the application running in that window. (It does not mean that the applications in other windows are idle — they can be running as well.) To help you see which window has focus, the titlebar of this window has different color (left side is blue, as opposed to gray for all other windows). To change focus to another window, just click anywhere in that window. You can also click in the window titlebar to focus and raise the window simultaneously.

You can also use Alt+Tab shortcut to switch between windows. This cyclically switches all existing windows. The window to which you switch is raised and given focus.

To move a window, drag its titlebar to a new location using left mouse button (i.e., click in the title bar and move the mouse without releasing the button). You can also move a window by clicking anywhere inside the window while holding down the Alt key.

To resize a window, place the mouse cursor on any of the window borders or corners. The mouse cursor will change to an arrow pushing a line or corner, allowing you to drag the border or corner to a new position.