Working with windows
Table of Contents
If you have not already done so, start an application using the menu; say, .
Well, usually people work inside windows, but sometimes you may want to manipulate windows. Here's a quick overview of some of the most common window related functions:
Drag the window's title bar, or hold the Alt key down and drag anywhere in the window.
Drag the window's border, or hold the Alt key down and drag with the mouse button anywhere in the window.
Click the maximize button in the titlebar (in the default decoration it is the square, next to the X) to make the window fill the screen, or if the window is already maximized, to shrink it back to its original size. Clicking with the mouse button maximizes the window vertically, and with the mouse button, horizontally.
Click the iconify button in the titlebar (next to Maximize) to hide the window. Restore it by clicking on the window's icon in the taskbar.
Aside from the usual mouse click to switch to another window, you can use Alt+Tab to switch windows. See below for more techniques.
KDE windows have some pretty standard buttons on their title bars which give you fast access to some common operations. The default button layout looks like this:
On the left side:
A menu button. This usually shows a mini icon for the application. Click on it to get a window operations menu. Shortcut: Alt+F3 opens the window menu.
Optionally a sticky button. What the heck is this? Stay tuned!
On the right side:
An iconify button.
A maximize button.
A close button. This closes the window. Shortcut: Alt+F4.
Now that we know how to deal with windows, we encourage you to open some other windows using the panel, since we will now discuss how to switch between different windows. Since this is such a common activity, KDE offers several ways to do it; pick your favorite!
Many window systems require you to click the mouse in another window to begin using it. This is KDE's default behavior, termed “Click To Focus” focus policy. But you can also configure your desktop in a way that moving the mouse pointer on to a window will activate it. This is called “Focus Follows Mouse”. If you select this policy using the KDE Control Center, the window under the mouse pointer is always the active one. It doesn't necessarily come to the front automatically, but you can still click on to the titlebar or the border of a window or, a KDE special, you can use the Alt key and click the mouse button anywhere on the window to raise it.
Here are some other methods to switch windows:
Pick a window from the window list menu. To open the menu, click the mouse button on an empty area of the desktop, or click the icon with several windows on the panel, or finally click the up arrow at the left hand end of the taskbar in the panel.
Hold down the Alt key and press Tab to cycle through the windows.
Use the taskbar (see below).
