MINIMIZE,  A  WINDOW

To minimize a window means to hide it. You will find yourself using a window's Minimize button when the desktop becomes cluttered with windows and you either cannot see a certain window (because it is hidden/covered by another window or has been minimized already) or a certain window is partially hidden (as shown in Fig 1.1).


Fig 1.1  The desktop filling up with windows

In Fig 1.1 I first opened the Documents folder (window), then Microsoft Excel 2007 and then Internet Explorer. Hence why the first window opened (Documents) is always at the back and the last window opened (Internet Explorer) is always at the front.

To go back and forth from one window to the next you have four options - although you might not use all of them.



Fig 1.2  Click on a window's Title Bar to make it the front (top) most window

The first option is to click on any blank part of a window (i.e inside its Display Area), but preferably on its Title Bar (Fig 1.2 above), to make that window the Front (Top) most window. When ever a new window is opened, or an existing one is clicked on, it becomes the Front most window. Hence why the Internet Explorer window above, which was opened last, became the Front most window. If I click on the Documents window (folder) the order will be as follows. Microsoft Excel 2007 at the back. Internet Explorer in the middle and Documents at the front. If all the windows are of the same size and in the same position (overlapping each other) this option cannot be performed, as you would not be able to click on any window that is behind the front most window.

The second option is to minimize all the other windows that are obstructing the window you want to use. So to get to the Documents window you would click on the minimize button of the Internet Explorr window and then click on the minimize button of the Microsoft Excel 2007 window. However. This option is not ideal if you have more than five windows open simply because you would be spending all your time minimizing the other windows.



Fig 1.3  Click on a window's Minimize button to minimize that window

When a window is maximized (at its full size) the minimize button will be black , to match its Maximized Window colour scheme of black, and when a window is at a custom size it will be blue (as in Fig 1.3 above) to match the Custom Window colour scheme.

The third option is a balance between options 1 and 2. First you need to click on the Show Desktop button, located on the Quick Launch Toolbar of the desktop. It will automatically minimize all your windows and then show you the desktop only. All you need to do then is click on the taskbar icon of the window you want shown. In this example, the taskbar icon with "Documents" written on it. This will restore the Documents window back to the size it was before it was minimized. So if that size was maximized it will be shown as a full window, otherwise it will be shown at its custom size. To restore another window just click on its taskbar icon.



Fig 1.4  Click on a minimized window's Taskbar icon to restore that window back to its original size

When you hover over a window's taskbar icon Windows Vista automatically previews that window, as shown in Fig 1.4 above, so that you can distinguish between two identical folders or webpages for example.

The final option is the same as option 3 except you do not use the Show Desktop button. You simply switch between windows instead by clicking on a window's taskbar icon, to either minimize or restore that window.

The taskbar icon of the, not minimized, active window will always have a black icon (Fig 1.5) with all other windows, minimized or not, having a gray-ish icon. And when all of the windows are minimized, including the active window, each window's taskbar icon is gray-ish (Fig 1.6).



Fig 1.5  The taskbar icon of the, not minimized, active window is always black.




Fig 1.6  When every window is minimized each taskbar icon is gray-ish

One thing to note is that the taskbar icons become active in the order you active each window. So if you active the Documents window, Microsoft Excel 2007 window and then the Internet Explorer window (so that Internet Explorer is the active window) and then minimize the Internet Explorer window, the Microsoft Excel 2007 window becomes the active window. In other words, each time you minimize a window the window that was active before it becomes the active window again.



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