Open and Close a Window

The Windows operating system gets its name from on-screen workspaces called windows. Each time you open a program or create a document the system creates a separate workspace or window for that purpose. You may have a program such as Microsoft Word open in a window. You may be working on more than one Word document each with its own window. When you are running a program and working on a document you actually have two open windows, one for the program and one for the document. You can close the document without closing the program.

In the screen image below you see an example of an open window, in this case it is the My Computer folder. Notice the window control buttons on the right side of the title bar of the My Computer window.

• Minimize button. The leftmost window control button (with the underscore character "_") reduces the size of the window so that it no longer appears on the screen. The program is still running. To restore or maximize a window that has been minimized click on the appropriate button on the taskbar.
• Maximize button. The middle window control button contains a hollow square. This button will expand the window to fill the entire screen area. Once the maximize button has been selected the middle button will change to a restore button the icon changes to a double nested square figure. Clicking the restore button will change a window back to its original size.
• Close button. The rightmost button on the title bar below contains an "X" character. Use this button to close a document, program, or window.

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Date Last Updated: 1/4/98

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