Windows, Title Bars, and Menus, Oh My


Windows, Title Bars, and Menus, Oh My!

Each graphical program that runs on your desktop will have certain common characteristics. Have a look at the top of your Konqueror window, and you will see something like Figure 4-10.

Figure 4-10. Most windows will have a title bar as well as a menu bar.


The Title Bar

The top bar on a running program is called the title bar. Depending on the application, it may display a program name, the name of a document you are working on, a location on the Web, or a nice description explaining what you are running. Left-clicking on the title bar and dragging it with the mouse will move the program window around on your desktop.

Quick Tip

Most modern desktops assume a fairly sizeable monitor running at least 1024x768, and a number of applications assume this to be a universal truth. This plays havoc when your monitor is smaller than this (say, 800x600) and the buttons you need to click are off screen. Clicking the title bar and dragging the window gets you only so far.

Don't despair. By pressing the <Alt> key and left-clicking on a window, you can drag it anywhere you wish, including beyond the boundaries of your desktop. This is particularly handy if you need to get at a hidden OK button.


Double-clicking on the title bar will shade your program the application will appear to roll up like a window blind. Now move your mouse pointer to the title bar, and the application unrolls. Move off the application completely, and it rolls up again. Double-click on the title bar again, and the application will unroll and stay unrolled. Doing this with a number of running applications is an interesting phenomenon that takes some getting used to, kind of like someone reading your mind.

The title bar also has a number of small icons. Pause your mouse cursor over them, and a tooltip will inform you of their functions. Starting at the left-hand corner of the title bar, there are two icons of interest. The far left one brings up a small drop-down menu that makes it possible to move the program to another virtual desktop and to minimize or maximize the application (among other things).

You may also have a pushpin (or a circle) icon beside the menu icon this makes a window sticky. Clicking it again makes it unsticky. Try this. Click on one of your other three virtual desktops. If you haven't already excitedly opened dozens of other programs on each one, you should find yourself with a nice, clean desktop. Now go back to your first virtual desktop. Click the pushpin icon. Now jump back to virtual desktop 2. Konqueror is there. Click on desktop number 3, and it is there also. In fact, if you had 10 virtual desktops, Konqueror would be waiting for you on all of them.

Here's a cool bit of information, however. You are still running only one instance of Konqueror. It's just that it is available to you on every desktop. Finally, if you stuck the window on virtual desktop 1 and you unstuck it on virtual desktop 3, it will stay on desktop 3.

Before we move on to other things, we need to look at the buttons on the right-hand side of the title bar. You use the icon that has a minus sign (it could also be a dot) in the center to minimize (or iconize) a window (remember that you can pause over the top with your mouse button to get the tooltip). The icon with a square in the center maximizes a window, causing it to take up every bit of space on your desktop except for Kicker's panel. Finally, the X does pretty much what you would expect it to. It closes a running application.

On to the Menu Bar

Directly below the title bar is the menu bar. The menu bar will generally have a number of labels (such as File, Edit, and View), each grouping the various things you can do into some kind of sensible order.

Every program will have a different set of menu options, depending on the nature of the application. Clicking on a menu label will drop down a list of your options for that function (see Figure 4-11).

Figure 4-11. Drop-down menus.




Moving to Linux(c) Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!
Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye!
ISBN: 0321159985
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 247

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