One of the things that is very different from one computer to another is how big the display is. As such, every Windows user has the ability to customize their computer to show windows and text at the size that is easiest for them to read. I’ve seen folks with small monitors, large text and relatively small windows, and I’ve seen others with very large monitors with small windows. The choice is up to the user.
But how do you change the size of a window? And while we’re at it, what are those two buttons in the top right of my window (the one that looks like an underscore (“_”) and the one that looks like a little square)? Let’s take a look.
Window size is a drag away
If you’ve been following this column, you’ll have recognized that a common gesture we do with the mouse is to drag things around the screen and drop them where we want them. As a definition, a drag gesture consists of moving the mouse pointer to the item to be dragged, clicking the primary mouse button (usually the left one), holding it down and moving the mouse until the thing being dragged is in the correct location. Letting go of the button is the drop.
To change window sizes, the approach is similar. If you move your mouse pointer over the border of the window to be resized, note that the mouse pointer changes. To see this in action, do it now: move your mouse to the right of the browser window you’re reading this column in and notice the cursor change. The familiar arrow pointer turns into a dual arrow pointing in an East/West direction. Go to the top or bottom border and the cursor changes to a dual arrow pointing North/South. Now head to a corner. Depending upon which corner you go to, you’ll get a NE/SW or NW/SE arrow pointing diagonally. These cursor changes are designed to give you a visual hint of what will happen if you click and drag.
With your mouse pointer hovering over the right border, press the primary mouse button and hold it. Sliding left to right will change the size of the window. Moving it to the bottom or top and repeating the process will change the overall height of the window. And of course, the corners change both height and width at the same time.
Note that there are some windows that cannot be resized. You’ll know a window cannot be resized if you hover over a window border and the cursor doesn’t change.
Now you see it…now you don’t
In the last tip I teased that I’d tell you about the other two buttons in the top right corner of most windows. Well, now is the time for disclosure. Recall the following screen shot:
In the top right corner of most windows are three buttons. As we discussed last time around, the red “X” is the window Close button, and will thus try to close the window if you click it.
A window has three “states”. The normal state for a window is “restored”. When a window is restored, it is floating on the desktop. The application’s icon appears in the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen.
To get more working space in your running application, you can click the middle button with the square, also known as the Maximize button. When a window is maximized, it takes up the entire screen leaving the Task Bar visible at the bottom. To restore the window to "restored” state, click the middle button again.
When you maximize a window, the middle icon in the top right corner changes.
Normally it appears as a small white box: 
When maximized, the middle button changes to two boxes: 
I should mention a shortcut here: in addition to being able to maximize and restore a window by clicking on the Maximize button, you can also double-click the title bar to accomplish the same end. Double-click it a second time to restore the window.
The third state for a window is “minimized” where the window is not visible and is only represented by an icon entry in the Task Bar. You click the Minimize button to hide the window. To restore a minimized application, click the icon entry in the Task Bar. The next image shows what this looks like.
At the risk of overloading you with too many fun facts about Windows, I’ll close this tip off by telling you that these options (Restore, Minimize, Maximize) are available by right-clicking the application icon on the Task Bar (note that even the menu icons are consistent). Minimize is grayed (disabled) because this window is already minimized. So we could restore it by clicking the Restore menu item, or we could maximize it by clicking the Maximize menu item.
I hope you have a better idea about how to control the size and appearance of your windows. When you have more than two or three windows open, your resizing skills should help keep your windows organized and convenient.
Next time we’ll take another look at the keyboard and talk about the modifier keys. See you then…
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