Tips for First-time Users of Windows

Tips Part 4

Managing your desktop: moving and re-sizing windows,
switching between running applications (programs)

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Contents

Preamble - do you do this?
The GUI - Parts of a Window
Switching Between Running Programs (Applications)
Moving and Resizing Windows
Windows within Windows
Tiling vs Cascading Windows
Common Keystroke Shortcuts

Preamble - Have you been doing this?

A friend of mine who is extremely adept at using several programs which he needs to do his job, once complained about the inconvenience of switching between them. When I asked him to explain, I was astonished to discover that he was shutting down program A, then starting program B; when he was finished with program B, he shut it down and opened program C, etc. He was equally astonished when I told him he could have all three programs running at the same time. His next questions were how to do that, how to switch from one to another, and how to see all three at once. This document is largely based on that conversation.

The Graphical User Interface

The whole purpose of a graphical user interface (GUI), like Windows, is that you can have more than one program (application) running at the same time, and switch from one to another as needed. To refresh your memory, look again at the parts of a window:

Of particular interest right now are the three buttons at the far right of the title bar: Minimize, Maximize/Restore, Close, and the Control Box, which is at the far left of the title bar.

Remember:

  1. Minimize the program means make it vanish from the screen without closing it - it's still running in the background;
  2. Maximize the program means make it's window fill the whole screen;
  3. Close the program means shut it down;
  4. If the centre box has two overlapping boxes within it, then the application window is already as big as it can get - clicking it Restores the window to whatever size it was before maximizing.

The Control Box menu has the same options, as well as two others, Move and Size:

The difference is that the Control Box of any program can be accessed without using the mouse: press and hold the Alt key, and tap the Space Bar; the Control Box menu opens. To close it (or any menu, for that matter), tap the Alt key.

Move and Size are for moving and resizing windows using the arrow keys, as opposed to the mouse (more later).

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Switching between running programs (applications)

Now, time to experiment:

  1. Open any program.
  2. Click on the minimize button. There will now be a box on the task bar with the program's icon and the name of the program.
  3. Open any another program, and do the same (click the minimize button); it will also now have a box on the task bar with its icon and name.

There are several ways to switch from one program to another. One way is to minimize the program you are using, then click the other's box on the task bar. There is, however, an easier way:

  1. Press and hold the Alt key, and do not let go of it.
  2. Tap the Tab key once (do not release the Alt key yet!); a small window pops up in the middle of the screen, containing the icons of all currently running programs. There will be a box around the icon of the last program you were using. Across the bottom of that window will be some text which may be simply the name of the program, the name of the file currently open in that program, or both (that depends on the program).
  3. Tap the Tab key again, or several times, and watch the box move from one icon to another.

Alt+Tab is the easiest way to switch between running programs. Press and hold the Alt key, then tap the Tab key until the box is around the program you want to switch to, then release the Alt key. If you have more than two programs running, a quick Alt+Tab switches you to the last program you were using.

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Moving and Re-sizing windows

The above advice is most useful for when you have two or more programs running at full-screen size. Sometimes it will be more convenient to have two or more program windows visible at the same time.

Moving windows with the mouse

Resizing windows with the mouse


Note: You can change the height and width at the same time. Position the mouse pointer over one of the corners of a window; it turns into a double-sided arrow on a slant. Press and hold the left mouse button (as usual), drag the window border, and watch what happens.

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Windows within windows

Many programs allow you to have more than one file open at once. Each open file has its own window within the main program window, but none can exceed the borders of that program's window. For users of Windows 3.x, the obvious example is Program Manager - many Group windows can be open at once. Other examples are word processors (you can have several documents open at once), databases, and spreadsheets. Windows within windows can be moved, resized, and arranged in other ways just like single windows on the screen. You can arrange them yourself, or choose certain options to have them arranged for you. The latter options are found in the Window menu. The available options vary depending on the program.

Here is a database program, with four different files open:

It looks rather cluttered now. Luckily, this program has a Window menu item with several options to automatically arrange the open windows:



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Tiling the windows looks like this:

Cascading them looks like this:

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Notice that in each case, one file window's Title Bar (above, AGECHRT.WKS) is a different colour than the others (dark blue, in the example above). This is the current, or active file window. Anything you do at the keyboard or with the mouse will be done to that file in that window. For example, if you click File, then Print or Close, the file in the active window is printed or closed. The other files will not be affected. The colour of the Title Bar of active and inactive windows depends on the colour scheme presently in use.

You can switch from one file to another by clicking once anywhere in that file's window; it will be pulled to the front, and its title bar will take on the colour of the active window (whatever that happens to be).

Note: You can also tile or cascade the windows of all open programs on the desktop. Right-click somewhere on the taskbar (not on a box with the name of a file or program); a menu appears. Choose Cascade, Tile Horizontally, or Tile Vertically, as you wish.

You can use the boxes at the far right of each window's Title Bar to minimize, maximize, close, or restore that window. When you maximize a file's window, it fills the entire program's window, like this:

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Notice two things:


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Common Keyboard Shortcuts

There are other keystrokes common to many programs, which perform basic file management and cut-and-paste operations. These are not universal; check the on-line help or documentation of individual programs to be sure. Here are a few.

Ctrl+N = create a new, blank file (word processor document, spreadsheet, database, etc.). This is the same as clicking New on the File menu, or the New button on the button bar (if present).

Ctrl+O = Open another existing file. This is the same as clicking Open on the File menu, or the Open button on the button bar (if present). The Open File dialogue box appears, so you can choose a file to open.

Ctrl+P = Prints the current file. This may be the same as clicking Print on the File menu, and it may or may not be the same as clicking the Print button on the button bar (if present). You may not be prompted to define paper size, orientation, which pages to print, etc. Use with caution, or you might end up wasting a lot of paper.

Ctrl+S = Save the current file. This is the same as clicking Save on the File menu, or the Save button on the button bar (if present). You are not asked whether or not you want to over-write the older (i.e. existing) version of that file; it is saved with any changes you have made since opening it or last saving it, and the older version is lost forever (unless you have another copy somewhere). Note: you can use Ctrl+S in some programs to save a file that you have just created and not saved before - the Save As dialogue box will appear.

Ctrl+C = Copies the currently selected (or highlighted) text, image, etc. to the Clipboard. This is the same as clicking Copy in the Edit menu (after selecting some text, etc.).

Ctrl+V = Pastes the last copied or cut text, image, etc. to the cursor position of the currently active file. This is the same as clicking Paste in the Edit menu.

Ctrl+X = Cuts the currently selected text, image, etc. and sends it to the Clipboard.

Cutting vs Copying: cutting something removes it from wherever it was, copying does not; as the word implies, copying simply makes a copy and has no effect on what was copied. Every time you Cut or Copy something, that information is stored in a place in memory, and whatever was there before (i.e., the last Cut or Copy operation) is wiped out. The Clipboard or Clipboard Viewer is a program which displays what is stored in that memory location. It does not have to be running in order for you to perform Cut, Copy, or Paste operations.

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Copyright © Michael Ward 1999 - 2009