Quick Guide: 6. Moving Windows

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You can move windows by left-dragging on their title bar.

More About Windows

The window controls (window furniture) are named as shown in the illustration below:

The table below summarises the functions performed by each of the window controls:

Icon	Name	Functions
	Back	Left-click Push to back Right-click Pull to front Shift-left-click Push back by one window Shift-right-click Pull forward by one window
	Close	Left-click Close window Right-click Close window and open/front parent Shift-left-click Iconise the window Shift-right-click Open/front parent window Ctrl-Alt-left-click Close all windows
	Title bar	Left-click Pull to front Left-drag Pull to front and move window Right-drag Move window without changing window order
	Iconise	Left-click Iconise the window Right-click Iconise the window Ctrl-Alt-left-click Iconise all windows
	Toggle size	Left-click Toggle between full size and last size Right-click Toggle between full size and last size
	Scroll up	Left-click Scroll up small amount (one line) Right-click Scroll down small amount (one line)
	Scrollbar well	Left-click Scroll up larger amount (one page) Right-click Scroll down larger amount (one page)
	Scrollbar slider	Left-drag Scroll window up or down Right-drag Scroll window up, down, left and right
	Resize	Left-click Pull to front Left-drag Pull to front and adjust size Right-drag Adjust size without changing window order

Left-dragging a window doesn’t just move it around the screen; it also brings the window to the front. If you right-drag instead, you can move a window around keeping it in the same place in the window stack (e.g. while it is behind other windows).

Closing a window with the right button has the handy side-effect of opening the parent window to the front of the stack. This is especially useful for browsing filer windows but often also works for document windows in editors (and a shift-right-click on the close icon opens the parent window without closing the window).

The scroll bars work much like on any other desktop with a couple of useful extras. If you right-drag a scroll bar, you can move the windows contents in both directions at once (side-to-side and up-and-down).

If you right-click on the scroll arrows, the window scrolls back in the opposite direction. The same goes for clicking in the “well” of the scroll bar (the bit around the draggable bit) – this is handy if you click one time too many and just want to scroll back a bit!

The “resize” icon on the bottom-right of windows is used to adjust the visible size and shape of a window. Dragging (or clicking) with the left mouse button will also bring the window to the front of the stack, whereas the right mouse button will keep the window in the same place relative to other windows in the stack (so you can resize a window that’s behind another one without it jumping to the front).

See also

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