Everyone needs to know how to manipulate the program windows we use on a computer. There are Maximized windows, minimized windows and down-sized windows. Most computer programs start in the down-sized window, This is a window that is not covering your full computer screen in this condition you should be able to see some of your desktop as seen in the picture below.


As you can see the WordPad program windows is in a down-sized state
( it is smaller than the desk top). In this condition you can move this window anywhere you would like. Move your mouse to the blue border at the top of the window. Left click and hold and then drag your mouse up, down, right and left so you can see where you can drag this window to. When your finished release the Mouse button.

In this down-sized state of the program windows you can also make this window any size you want. Look at the bottom right hand corner of the window you will see six small dots like the picture below.

These points indicate to you a grab point. Move your mouse over the points as you do you will notice your pointer changes. If your rite on the corner your mouse pointer will change to two arrows pointing diagonally. Left click and hold now drag your mouse up, down, right or left to size the window accordingly.

When it is the size you want let go of the mouse button. If you move your mouse to only the side or bottom of the windows your mouse will change to either a left and right arrow or an up and down arrow used to size your window only in those directions.

One more thing about this down-sized state look in the top right hand corner of the window you will see three buttons like the picture below.
These buttons are known as control buttons, the first button is your minimize button, if you click on this button your program windows will go to the taskbar.

Push it now your window dissapears and an icon appears in the taskbar. To restore the program windows click on the icon in the taskbar. The next button is known as your maximize/ downsize button If your program is downsized like above this button will appear as it does now a square.

This is telling you that if you click this button you will maximize the window. Try it now the window should fill your entire screen. Notice the button, it changed how it looks right? Now it looks like two windows one over the other. This is telling you that if you click this button you will make the program window down-sized. click on it and make the window downsized and your back where we began.

The next button is a red "X" clicking on this button closes the program windows immediately and it does not save your work before it does. So before using this button make sure you have saved your work. File> Save or Save All.

The next window state is Maximized the maximized window is the full size of your computer screen or desktop. You can see nothing else but the current window like the picture below.


The next program windows state is the minimized state as stated above the minimized state closes the window to the taskbar. It should look something like the picture below.


see it? It shows an icon for WordPad and gives the filename. Here is the first place I want to discuss Internet Safety for all of us parents.

Chances are your taskbar is always visible so no matter what your doing you can always see the task bar. You can make this taskbar disappear, it only becomes visible when you move your mouse to the bottom of the screen and then it will pop up.

Children or teens that do not want their parents to see what they are doing will often make this taskbar disappear or auto hide. If you do not see this taskbar on the screen when your children are on the computer you may want to investigate further.