From Windows to OS X

Close, Minimize and Expand

Windows: Minimize, Maximize and Close

OS X: Close, Minimize and Expand

Ok, so what’s up with the little red, yellow and green stop light looking buttons on the upper left of every window? Do they do the same thing as the Windows buttons? Well, not exactly… let me explain.

Let’s start out with the RED button. You would think the RED button would close and quit the application. Not true. The RED button does close the window but does not “Quit” the application. The application is still running. Now I have to say that this is true 99% of the time. There are “Applications” that do not adhere to this rule. System Preferences being one that does not. Also, keep in mind that if you have an application open, like Safari, and you have a few open site tabs. If you click the RED button, the Safari window will close, Safari will continue to run but you will loose your open web pages. If you have the Safari icon in the Dock, you should see a little triangle below the icon, this tells you which app is running.

Next is the YELLOW button. Simple, this button will minimize the window to the Dock. You can then get it back by clicking its icon on the right side of the Dock.

Last is the GREEN button. When you click this button, the window will expand to fit the contents of the window. So lets take Safari as the example again. If you click the GREEN button while you have a web page open, the window will expand to fit the dimension set by the current web site.

Now, that’s not all there is to say about these buttons. You will also notice the buttons change when you place the mouse pointer over any one. It looks like this:

But that’s not all folks… there is more. This is probably one of the most useful features of these buttons. Say you’re working in iMovie… editing your next home movie and have not yet saved your changes. The RED button will display a black dot in the middle. This reminds you that your work is not saved. Nice, Right? This is how it looks:

If you click the RED button when there is un-saved work, you will be prompted to either save or discard your changes. Or you can cancel altogether.