The Window Menu

Documentation / Contents - Window Manager

• Overview of the Window Manager
• Desks: Your Virtual Desktops
  • Switching Desks
  • Moving a Window to Another Desk
• How Windows Get the Keyboard: Focus
  • The Three Focus Policies
• Moving, Resizing, and Minimizing Windows
  • Moving a Window
  • Resizing a Window
  • Minimizing a Window
  • Maximizing a Window
• The Window Menu
  • The Commands
  • Close Versus Exit
• Tiling Windows Into a Mosaic
  • Turning Tiling On

Other cards

• Copyright Information

The Window Menu

Every framed window has a window menu. Open it by clicking the menu button at the left end of the title bar. It holds the commands that act on that one window, each with a keyboard shortcut you can use without opening the menu.

The Commands

Restore    Alt+F5    return a maximized or minimized window to its old size
Move       Alt+F7    move the window with the keyboard or pointer
Size       Alt+F8    resize the window with the keyboard or pointer
Minimize   Alt+F9    shrink the window to an icon
Maximize   Alt+F10   grow the window to fill the screen
Raise      Alt+F1    bring the window in front of the others
Lower      Alt+F3    send the window behind the others
Close      Alt+F4    ask the application to close this window
Exit       Alt+F12   force the application to quit

Close Versus Exit

Close asks the application to close the window politely, so it can prompt you to save any unsaved work first. Exit is the blunt instrument: it forces the application to quit, and it is best kept for a window that has stopped responding.

See Moving, Resizing, and Minimizing Windows for what these actions do in detail.