Moving windows around (sometimes get under menu bar)
 

I sometimes get a problem, when I'm quickly moving a window around that I end up pushing the title bar up under the menu bar at the top of the screen, so then I can't get to it to close it around or move it. (hope that makes sense).

How can get access back to that area so I can access the buttons to close the window?

Have you tried using the Command-M shortcut to minimize the window (it will then appear in the Dock) and then clicking on it in the Dock to show it again? I think this will fix that.

Many apps have a "Window" menu where the "Minimize" and "Zoom" commands appear. Choosing "Zoom" should also fix this problem.

What system hacks (to change the appearance or behavior of your operating system) are you running?

Trevor

Absolutely none.

It's just that sometimes when I move a window quickly (literally throw it to another part of the screen) I've ended up throwing the window to high up. The only way I've been able to get it out is by quitting the programme. IIRC, I think it's only Firefox I may have done this with.

Trying to duplicate it, I can't! :(

I've seen this happen
 

and I'm not quite sure how it happens, either. If you are not running your video at its maximum resolution, one option is to change to a higher resolution, which should then allow you to access the grab bar of the window and move it back to a more normal position, then switch back to your preferred resolution. Naturally, that won't work if you are already running at the highest resolution.

Joe VanZandt

Yup I'm currently at the highest res 1680 x ?? - I've got the 20" iMac G5.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Just a bump.... has anyone else ever experienced this?

Why are you so concerned about this if you can't even reproduce the problem?
If you have reproduced the problem, did you try what I suggested in post #2 ?

I'm not concerned, I'm curious, you got a problem with that? Sorry for asking and thanks for your help. :rolleyes:

WindowDragon will let you click on a window anywhere to move it, not just the title bar. NOTE: requires Unsanity's APE.

Too bad Unsanity seems to merit its name.......
 

They seem to have some great ideas; I wish they'd find someway to implement them that didn't require such a dicey hack. It's hard to count the number of instances where problems reported on these forums trace back to one of their products.

Joe VanZandt

Use Geekbind
 

Use Geekbind, it will do the trick. Use can set a hotkey to replace windows in screen. When you invoke the hotkey, it will move all windows within the bounds of the screen and menubar.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/geekbind

thx
RLC

I have had the problem and it still shows up sometimes....

I've been using Unsanity haxies since the heyday of MacOS 10.1 and have had exactly one whole problem with it: installing Skype was less than fun.

I am cautious — I generate a fresh bootable backup of my hard disk that I could restore from before doing any Security or point-version updates, and I have a separate admin account that's relatively pristine plus another entire copy of the OS on an external FW drive that's absolutely virginal.

But Unsanity's haxies have a reputation that's probably far worse than they deserve. They disable themselves right after an upgrade, if you don't do it yourself, and they come with a master switch that disables them for one logon session to troubleshoot and see whether or not APE haxies are causing a problem you're experiencing.

In the time since Panther made its debut, I've found OS X to be about as fragile as an anvil and as crash-prone as a helium balloon, even with Unsanity and many other modifications always running.

Your mileage, of course, may vary. As always.

I should definitely clarify that I have NEVER actually used any of Unsanity's products, so my remarks follow only from other comments made in this forum, where it has been generally pretty well trashed. But it was probably wrong of me to add to that, having had no real experience, much less problems, with their products. If everyone were as fastidious about their usage as what your describe as your practice, probably others would have fewer problems as well.

With regrets for speaking out of ignorance,

Joe VanZandt

ShatteredGlass,

My advice is to post a bug to http://www.apple.com - I have had the same issue from time-to-time using extended desktop on my PowerBook G4, OS X 10.4.7 going back and forth between extended and single.

Me thinks this is an GUI issue. Leopard will no doubt fix this.

This is a known bug with Firefox. Are you running the most recent version?

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=306276

I've done this accidentally several times. The window will be so far off of the screen that it's not easily grabbed on any part of the window. Try going to the menu bar and choose Window>zoom. This should force the window back into a better position for you to grab and move around. Sometimes you can just grab the bottom or the side of the window instead.

Some apps have the same Arrange, Tile, Cascade commands that you find under the Window menu in Windows. Those commands can get a window out from under the menu bar. The commands are standard in Windows, but on the Mac they aren't so it's more likely you'll get stuck. Microsoft and Adobe apps do include those commands for our convenience (and presumably for their cross-platform consistency).

How to stop windows from being movable under the menu bar
 

You can stop windows from being movable under the menu bar, by changing screen resolution in the Displays prefpane; then you can change resolution back to where you had it. Maybe this resets something about OS X's knowledge of where the bottom of the menu bar is located. The problem can return, probably if you change screen resolution again, but it's fixable (until the next time it happens) by changing resolution again. This is similar to what JDV describes above, but it doesn't require changing resolution to the highest setting--all you need to do is temporarily select some resolution other than the one you're currently seeing the problem in. But if you already have a window that's far up, under the menu bar and the top of the screen, and doesn't have any other grab area than the title bar, then some of the other methods here might allow you to get to that window.

This also makes one re-ask the old question: why do most windows under OS X lack a grabbable area all around the window? Finder windows have this, and though it makes them look a little clunky, at least it's functional. You can get a grab area at the bottom of Safari windows by selecting View: Show Status Bar, but I don't know of anything like that in any other app. I suppose having the grab area just in a window's title bar is meant to make the windows look clean, and to avoid wasted screen space, and because OS X (at least 10.3 and later--maybe 10.2 and later?) isn't supposed to let you drag a window up so far as to hide its title bar, except for this occasional bug that lets you.

Actually, since I have using Tiger 10.4.9, I haven't notice this problem as of late.