Window Docking & Expanding

A Goldenseal window has disappeared! Where did it go?

The Windows system software has buttons on each window, which will change the position of the window. They can be confusing if you are not used to them!

There are three control buttons at the upper right corner of every Windows window:

  • Minimize-- changes the window into a button at the bottom of the window.
  • Maximize-- blows the window up to full screen
  • Close-- closes the window

NOTE-- These controls are on every window in Microsoft Windows, not just Goldenseal accounting software! They will look slightly different if you use an older version of Windows, but they still act the same.

The Goldenseal program has one large window, which usually fills up the full screen. This window has a picture of a tree at the upper left corner, and a plain green background in its interior.

Inside the main Goldenseal window, there will be smaller windows for each type of Goldenseal records. Those windows have a piece of paper and a pencil at the upper left corner of their window, and they'll have a colored background with different fields showing.

For example, you might have several different windows open at the same time, to look at Customer accounts, Estimates, and Material Purchases.

HINT-- If you want to get your computer to look like this illustration, choose Customers from the Accounts menu, then choose Estimates from the Income menu, then choose Material Purchases from the Costs menu. You may need to click on the blue bars at the top of each window and drag them sideways, so you can see each window.

When you click on each window, it will become "active", and you'll be able to work with those records.

HINT-- If a window is not visible, choose its name from the Accounts, Income or Costs menu. That will open the window for that type of records, or bring it to the front if it is already open.

Minimizing Windows

The Minimize button is the first of the three buttons at the upper right corner of every window. It shrinks windows down so they "disappear" temporarily.

HINT-- If you can't see the buttons on a window, it may be because the window was moved sideways, so the control buttons are off-screen. In that case, click on the blue bar at the top of the window, and drag it to the left until you see the control buttons again.

If you click the Minimize button for the main Goldenseal window, the entire Goldenseal window will disappear onto the Taskbar (the blue bar at the very bottom of the screen). To return Goldenseal to its original position, click on the Goldenseal tab that appears on the Taskbar.

If you click the Minimize button for an inner Goldenseal window, it will turn into a button near the bottom left corner of the main Goldenseal window.

Click the first button in the blue "docked" area, to restore that inner window to its original position.

Maximizing Windows

The Maximize button is the second of the three buttons at the upper right corner of every window. It expands windows so they take up the full screen.

The main Goldenseal window starts out maximized. If you click the Maximize button, the main Goldenseal window will shrink, so it only takes up part of the screen. Click the Maximize button again to expand it to full screen size.

If you click the Maximize button for an inner Goldenseal window, it will expand that window so it fills up the entire main Goldenseal window.

After you do that, there will be two sets of controls at the upper right corner (this can be very confusing).

The buttons in the blue bar will change the main Goldenseal window, and the smaller gray buttons underneath it will change the inner window. Click the middle button in the second row, to return the inner window to its original position.

Closing Windows

The Close button is the third of the three buttons at the upper right corner of every window (the red X). It closes windows so they disappear completely.

If you click the Close button for the main Goldenseal window, it will close the Goldenseal program completely. This is the same as choosing Exit from the File menu.

If you click the Minimize button for an inner Goldenseal window, it will close that window. If you want to re-open that window, choose its menu command from the menu bar near the top of the screen (for example, to re-open the Estimates window, choose Estimates from the Income menu).

Click here to return to Windows software topics.