Windows.XP.in.a.Nutshell.1002005.2Ed [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

The
window
is the basis for the graphical user interface. This style of
interface was first popularized by Apple and later by Microsoft, but
Xerox developed the
first graphical windowing operating system more than a decade before
the first Mac or Windows computer ever saw daylight.

Most windows are rectangular, but irregular shapes are allowed too.
(See "Windows Media Player" in Chapter 4 for an example.) Standard windows have a
titlebar across the top, which, in addition to identifying the window
and the currently open document (if applicable), is used as a handle
with which to move the window around the screen (see Figure 3-34). The

titlebar
also shows which window is currently active; depending on your color
settings (set through Control Panel
Display
Appearance tab
Advanced), the titlebar
of active window will typically appear darker than the others. (Small
floating toolbars in some applications ignore this rule, always
appearing either inactive or active.)

Figure 3-36. A garden-variety window, complete with title, menu, and client area

The elements commonly found on window titlebars are described below
(any or all might be missing, depending on the type of
window).

Control Menu

Click the icon on the upper-left corner of a window or press
Alt-Spacebar to display the control menu, which duplicates the


Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons
and provides Move and Resize options (see below). Double-click the
control menu icon to close the window.

Dialog boxes typically don't have control menu
icons, but the menu is still there and can be accessed with
Alt-Spacebar. The standard entries in the control menu are present to
make it possible to move, resize, minimize, maximize, and close the
window with the keyboard. For example, press Alt-Space and then S to
resize a window with the cursor keys.

Some windows have additional functions in this menu, especially if
those applications don't have full-blown menus. Good
examples are the control menus of Windows Explorer and single-folder
windows, which are the same as the context menus of the icons that
open them. Navigate to c:\My\Stuff and click the
control menu, and you'll get the same options as
though you right-clicked on the Stuff icon in the
c:\My folder. This, for example, lets you delete
a folder without having to first open its parent. You can also drag
the control menu icon to move or copy the folder as though you were
dragging the folder's icon.

If you see two control menus, one on top of the other,
you're using an application (such as a word
processor) that can have one or more document windows open
simultaneously; see the description of Multiple Document Interface
below.

Minimize

Click Minimize to hide a window so that only
its task button on the Taskbar is visible. See "Taskbar", earlier in this chapter,
for details.

Maximize/
Restore

Maximize a window to have it fill the screen. Click the maximize
button again to restore it to its free-floating position and size.
You can also double-click the titlebar to maximize and restore a
window.

Close

Close
a window. This is usually the same as selecting File
Close or File
Exit, or at least
it's supposed to be. Double-clicking the control
menu icon also closes windows, as does Alt-F4.

Most, but not all, windows can be resized by grabbing any edge with
the mouse and dragging. Some windows have an additional resize handle
on the lower-right corner, which can be a little easier to get a
purchase on than the edges.

Multiple Document
Interface (MDI) applications have windows within windows, usually
allowing multiple documents to be open simultaneously. The MDI parent
window, the container of the document windows, usually has a Window
menu, which allows you to switch to any open documents and provides
some features to arrange the documents visually (Cascade, Tile,
etc.). Some applications (Corel's
WordPerfect and
Qualcomm's Eudora, to name a few) have incorporated a
clever Taskbar for their MDI
applications, making it easy to manage several document without
having to use the somewhat awkward Window menu.

See "Taskbar", earlier in this
chapter, for more information on MDI applications and how some newer
Microsoft applications are abandoning this design.

Here are some keyboard shortcuts for working with windows:

• Alt-Tab switches between open application windows. Hold Shift to go
  in reverse.

• Ctrl-Tab (or Ctrl-F6) switches between open documents in an MDI
  application window. Again, hold Shift to go in reverse.

• Alt-Esc sends the current window to the bottom of the pile and
  activates the next one in line.

• Alt-F4 closes the current application window. Ctrl-F4 closes the
  current document in an MDI application window.

• If a window has multiple panes (such as Windows Explorer), use F6 or
  Ctrl-Tab to switch between them.

Notes

• Some more stylish (read "weird")
  windows without Taskbars can usually be moved by clicking on any
  empty area of the window.

• Technically, the Desktop is a window, although it's
  always at the bottom of the pile (called the
  Z-order).
  Conversely, some windows (and even the Taskbar) can be set to
  "
  always on top," which
  means that they're always on top of the pile and
  can't be covered by other windows (except by other
  "always on top" windows).

• Also see "Menus" and "Taskbar".