having two windows on the screen at the same time.

[marg23styron]

Hi everyone. I'm a new member as of two minutes ago. My question-which will probably show you all what a novice I am- is this: when I am brousing the internet using google or on flickr for example is it possible to have two windows open at the same time on my computer screen? And if so, could you please tell me how I do this? Please be careful to tell me every stage carefully and clearly because I am a total novice at much of this. Thanks! Hope someone out there can help me.

[Budfred]

At the moment I have 3 windows open, though that is on two screens... However, it would be quite possible to have all three on one screen along with a dozen or even quite a bit more... The number of windows you can open depends more on your computer capability than anything else... If you are running an advanced computer with a lot of RAM and in 64 bit mode, it is likely that you could open way more windows than you would ever want at one time...

In addition to having 3 windows, I also have 3 tabs open in my browser... A few minutes ago, I had more like 10 tabs open, but I got done with them and closed them... I use Firefox as a browser, but Internet Explorer also can use tabs now... Tabs are easier to use because they tend to be less cluttered... If I open 30 tabs in my browser, it will just move some off the screen to the right and I can either work my way to them, closing others as I go or I can scroll to them... If I had them open as windows, they would be tightly packed on my task bar and it would be hard to know what was open... As it is, I can open as many tabs as I want in my browser and still keep only 3 programs in the Task Bar...

The Task Bar is the bar, usually at the bottom of the screen, that has your Windows Start button and other icons indicating running programs and open windows... If I want to check my mail program, I only need to click on the program listing on the Task Bar to see it... My tabs are listed near the top of my browser window, but that can be different based on how you set it up... In Firefox, there are dozens of tools available to change how you see tabs -- I tend to just mostly use the defaults...

If you are talking about viewing 2 windows at the same time, that would depend on whether you have room to fit both of them on the screen at the same time... For example, if you want to watch a U-tube video while doing a Google search on the person posting the video, you can re-size each window so that they run next to each other (or in any other configuration you would like)... However, if you are using a netbook with a 9 inch screen, they will be pretty small... I am on a 22 inch wide-screen, so it would be easy for me to do that...

To re-size each window, put your cursor in the upper left hand corner of the window so that the cursor becomes a arrow pointing in two directions, to the diagonal... Click and hold your mouse as you drag the windows down at a diagonal to make the window whatever size you want... Once it is the correct size, release the button and put the cursor on the top of the window at a spot where there is no text and click/hold the mouse button again to move the smaller windows wherever you want it on the screen... Do the same with the second window to get them side by side or however you want them... You can do this with as many windows as you can fit on your screen, though they become less useful the more you get...

You can select any window by clicking on it or by clicking on the reference for it on the Task Bar... Keep in mind that the one you click on will be active and you won't be able to do anything with one that isn't active... For example, I can type in this window, but if I check my mail click on my mail window to check it, any typing I do will not go in this window until I click on this one again... On the other hand, if I am running a video in this one, it will still run even though I go to another window, so I could be searching Google while watching a video if they are both visible on the screen...

Hopefully this answers your question...

[marg23styron]

Thanks for your help Budfred. Much appreciated! Best wishes.

[Bob Carruth]

Hopefully this answers your question...

I would think so; completely, concisely, and with no geek speak!

If you are not a teacher you should be.

[Budfred]

Thanks... I teach malware fighting skills at SpywareInfoForums and much of that is teaching how to communicate clearly... It is nice to know that I am able to do what I teach others to do...

[Bob Carruth]

Thanks... I teach malware fighting skills at SpywareInfoForums and much of that is teaching how to communicate clearly... It is nice to know that I am able to do what I teach others to do...

Lucky students!

[Paul Komski]

Whilst one can have many Windows open simultaneously only one of them can be "active" at any one moment in time. Depending on your Operating System there are various options to help you view more than one Window simultaneously. RClicking on the Taskbar is likely to give you options such as Cascade, Tile Vertically and Tile Horizontally to help you access all open Windows in different ways. The other option "Show the Desktop" can be equally useful in minimizing and thus effectively hiding all open Windows.

There is Windows XP tool that some find useful; the PowerToy deskman.exe aka Virtual Desktop Manager which can manage four separate "Desktops" from the taskbar. Such a feature is commonplace on many Linux boxes and it is of particular use if you want to keep, say a Database or Spreadsheet nicely laid out on one Desktop but have a quickly accessible different layout, say a Browser and Text edior, on another one; and so on.

Finally there are two very useful keyboard shortcuts that can help you manage open Windows: ALT+F4 will close the current Active Window and holding down ALT and then pressing and releasing the TAB key will scroll through all available Windows. Last tip is that double clicking the Title Bar at the top will toggle between a Maximised and a Restored Windows Size.

[ErnieK]

If you want to view 2 (or more) web pages side by side try Opera found at the following link.
http://www.opera.com/download/

Once installed open a page (any page) and then Right Click on the TAB and select DUPLICATE.

By doing this you can see 2 copies of the same page at one time which is handy for answering question in a forum for example. (Allows you to see the question and your answer at the same time)

You can also use (any) one page to move away from the original page for researching answers etc whilst the original is still sitting there. You can of course enlarge any one page to fil the desktop and to see other page(s) jut click there tabs. To re-enable side by side (or top - bottom) viewing just click onto the TILE buttong at top of pages.

[PieceOfMadness]

Speaking of the two screens, and I haven't tried this with Office 2007 yet because I don't have it at work, sometimes I'd like to have one spreadsheet on one monitor and another on my second monitor, but Excel won't let me do that, nor will PowerPoint. Does anyone know if this works in Office 2007, or with Vista and/or 7?

[Paul Komski]

It has never been possible to open more than one separate instance of Excel (even though that instance can contain more than one open spreadsheet at a time) and I doubt that it's any different with Office 2007, etc.

You could however migrate to Open Office which can allow more than one completely separate Window to be open simultaneously in their own right or as an adjunct to a lone Excel instance. OO can also open or save as MS Excel documents if needed.

Other spreadsheets such as Works or a Google Document would be other workarounds that might or might not be of value.