All about windows on the Mac and how to control them

All about windows on the Mac and how to control them.

Contents

Naming Confusion
Where do windows show up?
How to move a window
How to scroll a window
How to resize a window
When a window seems all gone
How to close a window

Naming Confusion

Microsoft makes an operating system (OS) named Windows. All computers that have a "GUI" (Graphical User Interface) have windows (note the small "w").

I'm sorry. I don't like this either. 'Tis how 'tis.

All about windows

Why windows?

Windows are one of the major conventions of "GUIs" (Graphical User Interfaces) -- that is, how we use computers. As long as you work with computers you will manipulate (and therefor need to understand) windows.

The parts of a window

You get a window pretty much all the time. Whenever you open the hard drive, a folder or a document you get a window. (I'll give specific instructions in how to open a window in the activity below.) Windows look like this:

Now that you've seen a window, like the Finder Directory window above, here's an image of a window with explanations. The letters on this image refer to the narrative explanations below:

Note:

• These explanations come from "Balloon Help". You can turn this off and on using the Help menu (at the right of the named menus). (Click here for an explanation of how to use Menus on a Mac.)

Activities

Try each of these sets of steps on your Mac.

How to Open a window

1. Put the pointer over the picture part of the Trash icon (usually in the lower right of the desktop on a Mac).
2. Double click. This will open a directory window on the desktop.

How to move a window

1. Put the pointer anywhere within the Title Bar across the top of the window. Please see the screen shot below
2. Press and drag. The window will move (in its current size and shape) and will appear where you let up the mouse button.

How to resize a window

1. Put the pointer over the lower right corner of the window (called the Size Box).
2. Press and drag the Size Box. The window will drag in outline and be resized when you let go of the mouse button.

Note:

This screen shot above shows the outline of a dragged window Size Box. When I let go it changes size and shape by snapping to where I let go of the mouse button.

When a window seems all gone

Occasionally you might have one window that is wholly behind another window. If that happens, look for a menu named Window, click on that menu and click again on the menu items that is the name of the window you want. That will bring it to the foreground. You can also double-click on the icon for that window which will bringing it to the foreground. Or, just close, resize or move the window in the foreground.

How to close a window

There are two major ways to close a window

1. Click anywhere in the window. (This will bring it into the foreground in case it wasn't.)
2. Click the close box in the upper left corner of the top title bar of the window.
3. You can also call up the Close menu command under the File menu.

Open and close several windows a couple of times.

Click here for a related lesson on how to scroll around in a window.

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