Close a window without losing your work
Which button hides a window and which one shuts it.
Every program sits inside a rectangle called a window. Several can be open at once, like sheets of paper on a desk.
Three small controls sit in one corner. Not one of them can lose your work.
It helps to know why. Minimizing does not stop the program — it is still running, still holding everything you typed, just not taking up any of the screen. That is the whole difference between hiding a window and finishing with it, and it is why the wrong button is never a disaster.
Key points
- Minimize hides a window; the program keeps running
- Close puts the program away, asking about unsaved work first
- Maximize only ever changes the size
What to remember
- Minimize hides, Maximize resizes, Close asks. Only Close ends anything.
- Minimize means “not now”. Close means “finished with this”.
Try this
Minimize a window on your own computer, then bring it back from the bar along the bottom.
Practice: Close a window without losing your work. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.