Working with windows

Working with windows

A window is a rectangular section on the screen that is used to display information and other programs. Each program that you open is opened in its own window. Most windows have the same basic parts:-

Title bar: This displays the name of the window which indicates which program is running.

Minimize, Maximize, and Close buttons: These buttons reduce the window to a button on the task bar, enlarge it to fill the whole screen, and close it, respectively

Menu bar: This contains several items that that you can click to make choices in a program.

Scroll bar: This lets you scroll the contents of the window to see information that is currently out of view.

Borders and corners: You can drag these with your mouse pointer to change the size of the window.

To make the desktop more workable, you can move and size windows. Using the buttons in the Title Bar you can minimize the window, maximize the window to its largest size, restore the window to the original size or close a window.

You can change the size of the window by pointing to the border of the window with your mouse and dragging to make it smaller or bigger. Dragging a corner changes the height and width simultaneously.

Moving a Window: To move a window, point to the title bar and drag the window to the new location on the desktop.

When there is more information in a window than can be viewed on the screen, scroll bars appear on the window. There are two types of scroll bars Vertical and Horizontal. To scroll you can either click the arrow of the scroll bar or you can drag the scroll box to move the content within the window.

You can also have the windows on your desktop automatically arranged. To choose an arrangement, right-click on an empty area of the taskbar, then choose one of the options “Cascade Windows”, “Show Windows Stacked”, or “Show Windows Side by Side”.

A dialog box is a special type of window that asks you a question, allows you to select options to perform a task, or provides you with information. Data may be entered using push buttons, option Most windows have “controls” that allow you to select commands, change settings, or perform other actions related to the working of the window. Let us have a look at some of them.

Menus: To keep the screen free of unnecessary items, menus are hidden until you click their titles in the “menu bar”. To choose a command listed in a menu, click on it. If a command is shown in gray, it is unavailable and cannot be clicked.

Some menu controls are shown by an arrow next to a word or picture.buttons, check boxes, text boxes, list boxes, combo boxes and other such controls.

A command button performs an action when you click it. Command buttons may also appear as small icons without any text.

Split buttons: These buttons change into two parts when you point to them. Clicking the main part of the button performs a command, whereas clicking the arrow opens a menu with more options.

Option buttons: Option buttons enable you to make one choice among multiple options. They are also called “radio buttons”.

Check boxes: Check boxes enable you to select one or more independent options. Unlike option buttons, which allow you to choose a single option only, you can choose multiple options at the same time using check boxes.

Sliders: A slider enables you to adjust a setting along a range of values by dragging the slider toward the value that you want.

Text boxes: A text box is used to type textual information. This is the most commonly used windows control.

Drop-down lists: These are similar to menus. Here, options are available for selection instead of commands to be executed. A drop-down list shows only the currently selected option when it is closed. The other options are displayed when you click the control.

List boxes: A list box displays a list of options that you can select from. Unlike a drop-down list, some or all of the options are displayed without having to open the list.

In some dialog boxes, information is displayed on multiple tabs. The currently selected tab appears at the front. You can switch to a different tab by clicking on it.