I hate this computer predicament - the window I am working in has somehow gotten moved so that the handle area at the top of the window is barely off the top of the screen, so I can’t grab it to drag it back down onto the screen. How do I move it down?
Right now, I’m using OS X Mountain Lion on a Mac, but I sometimes have the same problem on Windows 7 and Windows XP. Something about my work flow or habits causes this, I guess, but I don’t recognize what it is.
In general how are users expected to move windows around once the top of the window is outside the visible screen area?
If that happens, it’s probably because your display is actually too tall (off the screen). See what you can do with display resolution settings. If the display is properly sized, that shouldn’t happen at all.
No familiar with OS/X, but in Windows you can click on the program icon and one option is “Move” - in which case the arrow keys will allow you to move the window down. I suspect Macs allow some similar keyboard movement option, maybe under “accessibility.”
I know this hassle well, running an array of large monitors with varying aspect ratios. Grrr.
First of all, ML has a “full screen” mode. In this mode, the menubar disappears. To exit full-screen mode, hover the mouse in the upper-right-hand corner of the screen, and click the icon with the two arrow when it appears.
If you lose the titlebar of a window under the menubar, just use the monitors System Preference pane and change the monitor resolution to something lower. This will force the windows to re-draw, and should allow you to get the titlebar back. Also, you can look for a menu item that controls window size (some programs have a menu item that tiles windows, or makes them full-screen).
In Windows, you should be able to press Alt+Space, which will activate the window control menu top-right, then select Move. Failing that, you can right-click on the Taskbar and select Cascade Windows or Show Windows Stacked or Show Windows Side-by-side.
If this happens to you a lot, and they have not changed System Preferences a great deal (I use 10.5), you can assign a keyboard shortcut to the Zoom function. Then, when you hit that shortcut, the window will center itself at max size on the screen. I am not on my Mac right now so I cannot tell you where in System Prefs to do the shortcut assignment.
More specifically, in most versions of Windows to way back, push Alt THEN Space THEN “M”. I.e. don’t hit more than one key at a time. Once you do that, use the arrow keys (presumably Down) to move it.
You can also do Alt THEN Space THEN X to maximize, then resize from there. Also, in Windows 7 (maybe in 8 too?) you can use WinKey+Arrows (same time) to move windows. You may need to push it several times, but e.g. it will shift between docking and maximizing/minimizing.
Actually, hold down Alt, press Space, release Alt, press M. Then use arrow keys and press Enter when it’s where you want it. In XP, for instance, releasing Alt before pressing Space won’t work.
No, you can’t drag the borders of a maximized window in XP, at least. You can maximize it to see the whole thing, but if you want to make it smaller you have to Restore if it’s maximized, then Move, as above.
In XP, you can also right-click on the program’s taskbar icon and select Move from the menu there. Then use arrow keys as above.
Press ALT+Space (simultaneously)? Or one after the other?
It could possibly work either way, or not. For the benefit of one-handed users, Winders has a “Sticky key” mode that can be turned on or off. Where you would normally press a modifier key and hold it while you press another key, in sticky mode you press the modifier key, then let go, then press another key.
I think if you press and release the Shift Key rapidly several times in a row (3? 5?) it will toggle this mode.
(My knowledge comes from Winders 98 and XP. But this seems like the kind of specs they would probably not change much.)
I know very little about how any of this might work on any Mac, except I’ve noted that a great many Winders commands (using ALT or Ctrl) have analagous or similar functions using the Command key.
ETA: I saw a case where the Winders Explorer window had somehow gotten moved completely off the screen, so that no part of it was visible. The user had been living without Explorer for a long time, having no idea how to fix that. Turned out, even in that case, ALT+Space followed by M followed by arrow keys, still works to move the window, completely with keyboard commands.
As a test of this, if I move the pointer to the top edge of the screen, if my display settings are wrong, the pointer should be able to go above the visible edge, right?
I have two displays (it just occurred to me that I should have said this before, as I don’t know if it might matter). This is an iMac which has the display and the rest of the computer hardware built into a single unit, and it has a second display plugged in. I have never messed with the resolution of the primary display as it has always been an integral part of the system. BOTH displays let the pointer go up to the top visible edge and no further.
I think this means there’s no display setting that incorrectly lets there be virtual display beyond the physically visible edges, right?
It seems you figured out, but just to clarify, you hold down Alt, push Space, and then let go of both. Once both are up, THEN you push M, then let go of M. Then use the arrow keys to move the window around until you find it again.
Your settings are probably fine. Windows actually gets pretty buggy with two displays and sometimes programs will disappear into the ether in this setup, resulting in the situation you have. This happens especially often if you ever turn one display off before the other. It’s one of the nice things about Windows 7/8 in that it lets you quickly fling windows from one screen to another using Windows key + left/right arrow.
Yes to both, but you are in the Mac world, which is beyond my knowledge. I’ve never seen a problem like the OP described in the PC world that couldn’t be fixed by adjusting the screen resolution (or a setting on old CRTs).
As of Lion (and maybe even Snow Leopard) you can move windows by grabbing the bar at the bottom. You’re not limited to using the bottom right corner to resize windows anymore, either.
Some windows won’t change that way, though, like those of full-screen movies or freebie texters like Bean. But changing the resolution is silly. The Escape key does it in a split-second.