Remember talking about minimizing, maximizing, and restoring Windows when we discussed the Taskbar?  No?  Well, let's go through it then.

In the upper right corner of every Window, and I do mean every, window you'll have three little buttons.  They look like this:

In this particular picture you see two rows of the cute little things.  The top row controls the program window while the bottom row controls the document window.   An important distinction.  You'll learn that quick enough when you end up closing the wrong window enough times!

Minimize Button

The button on the left is the minimize button.  Click on it and the window shrinks to a mere button on the Taskbar.  The program or data file  isn't closed altogether and is readily available with a simple click of the mouse from the Taskbar.  It's just the window for that program or file that's out of your way yet readily and quickly available when you want it.

Close Button

The button on the very right is the Close button.  Click on it and the document or the program closes completely.  If you want the window back, you have to go through all the hassle of opening up the document or the program - a significant time waster!  It is much faster though to click on this Close button rather than the long way of clicking on File in the Menu Bar, and then clicking on Exit.   Too many extra movements.

Maximize/Restore button

That leaves the button in the middle.  In the picture above you see the middle button that looks like two documents stuck together.  That means the button is in the restore position.  If you click on it it will restore the window to its previous size - usually smaller than the full view of the screen.  Try it on your computer now! It won't hurt anything - go ahead. 

When your window is less than the full size of the screen, the middle button changes appearances and becomes a single sheet of paper like this:

It's considered to be in the  MAXIMIZE  position now.  That is, if you click on it you'll maximize the window to the full extent of the screen.

Use these buttons to help control the window displays on your screen - especially when you are multitasking and have lots of windows open at one time. 

Dragging Windows

No, this isn't anything like draggin' cars but close! Oh, never mind.

When you have several windows open on your screen, you may want to reposition them according to your needs.  The window that you want to move must NOT be fully maximized - if it is you really don't have any place to move it to! So click the Restore button to reduce the size of your window, move your mouse pointer to the dark blue ribbon at the top of window, hold the left mouse button down, now drag your window to its new location on the screen.  As you move the window you'll see a dashed line showing you the new position of the window.

I tell ya', this computing stuff just gets easier and easier and easier.