Manipulating Windows with Motif

The window which X displays for you is officially an ``X client'' served by the X Window System. As you study Figure 4.2 note that the Motif Window Manager puts a frame around all X clients for good looks as well as for ease in moving, resizing, iconifying, and closing them. To see what we mean, grab your mouse and:            

• Open a new window, possibly by clicking on the terminal, high function terminal (hft), or the shell button on the menu.
• Notice that as you move the mouse from the screen background into an X Window, the pointer changes and the window outline brightens. This is more than cute since the changes denote different functions that have become possible; for example, you can output into any window but input only into the bright window.
• When the mouse is placed ``on'' the window frame but not yet ``in'' the window, the mouse pointer becomes a small arrow up against a stop, . The direction of the arrow and the form of the stop varies for different parts of the frame (flat stop at sides, right angle stop in the corners).
• Move the mouse onto a window frame until the new arrow and its stop appears. Hold down the leftmost mouse button now and move the mouse. The window changes dimensions. This is known as dragging out the corner or side. You can stretch each side or corner in the direction the arrow is pointing.  
• Move the mouse to the wide horizontal bar on the top of the window, but not quite into the narrow frame above it. This is called the title bar. The pointer now changes to a heavier arrow without any arrow stop. Notice that the title bar has four parts, or buttons. Dragging the long central part where the window's title is written moves the window.   
• Move the mouse onto the title bar, hold down the left mouse button, and then drag the mouse until the window slides into to a good viewing position for you.
• On the right-hand side of the window's top (see Figure 4.2) are two buttons (we'll discuss the single, right-side button soon). The left-most of the two right buttons has a big square on it; the one to the right of it has a small square. Click the left button with the left mouse button and notice that this causes the window to completely fill the screen.
• Click the left mouse button again while the mouse is on the left-most of the two right buttons on the top, and notice that the window now shrinks back down.
• The button on the top right of the window with the small square is both cute and useful. Again using the left button of your mouse, push the top left button of the window and notice that the window shrinks into an icon (small symbol) which positions itself in some out of the way place, possibly even hidden under an existing window which you'll have to move to uncover the icon.
• When you locate that icon, hold the mouse over the icon and quickly click the left button twice. If you get this right, the icon will be converted back into a working window.

   
  Figure: A Motif window menu.
  Click on figure to view larger image. 
  

• Now move the mouse pointer to the left of the title bar and hold the left mouse button down. Notice that a menu of window operations similar to that in Figure 4.3 pops up. To get rid of the menu, move your mouse (with the left button still depressed) into some other region of the window or background and then release the button. (Or you may release the mouse button and the menu will remain until you click your left mouse button on the background.) Clicking the mouse on a menu item is your way of ordering the item.
• Some of the functions you can see on the menu, such as Move, Size, Maximize, and Minimize, are the same ones you can accomplish with mouse strokes. Others, such as Lower and Close are new. Lowering a window causes other open windows to appear on top of the current window. Raising a window causes that window to appear on top of other open windows. In contrast, closing a window is not cosmetic; it removes the window from the screen and kills any programs running in the window. You can raise a lowered window from the background, but not a closed one from the dead.
• Select a menu function such as Lower by holding down the left mouse button and moving the mouse over to this item. Release the button to select the item currently under the mouse. To actually activate the command, you may also have to also click in the window you want to lower.
• Now raise the window you have just lowered by choosing Raise from the menu. You may also have to click in the window you want to raise (or lower some on top). In twm there is a list of open windows kept in the corner of your screen and you can activate them from there.
• Next bring the menu up and then make it disappear without selecting any menu item. Just move the mouse off the menu and release the left button. If the menu still remains on the screen, click the mouse button again in any window and the menu will disappear (see § 4.2, Menus, for more details).

 
Figure: The window manager's root menu.
Click on figure to view larger image. 

Notice that there are keys (often function keys) listed to the right of each menu item in Figure 4.3. Typing a key is equivalent to selecting the menu item. This may be faster than using the mouse once your hands are on the keyboard.