Word Won't Start Right

WordTips subscriber Heather Shelton Ollis recently wrote that she was having a problem starting Word correctly on her mom's computer. When she stated it, Word would always begin in a "minimized" condition on the Task bar--even though the shortcuts were set to open Word in a normal window. Right-clicking on the task and choosing Restore didn't work, either. The only thing that would work is right-clicking and choosing maximize.

Actually, the final sentence provided the necessary clues to many of the WordTips super-sleuths. Restore didn't work because the Word program window was already restored! The problem wasn't that the window was minimized, but that the normal window was entirely off the visible portion of the screen.

What many people don't realize is that, irrespective of the screen resolution setting (i.e., 640 x 480 or 800x600), the total screen area that Windows actually works with is vastly larger than the portion you can see. The position of an application window on the screen is set according to the application's current 'Left' and 'Top' setting. For instance, if the settings are Top = 0 and Left = 0, then the top-left corner of the application window is positioned at the very top and left of the visible area on-screen. If the settings were Top = 300 and Left = 400, then the application's top left corner will be in the middle of the screen when using a 800 x 600 resolution but much closer to the bottom-right corner when using a 640 x 480 resolution.

Windows will happily accept negative Top and Left settings which would hide a chunk of the top and left portions (or all) of the application's window off the top left of the screen. Also, it will accept Top and Left settings much greater than the left-most and bottom-most lines of pixels. So, with a resolution of, say, 800 x 600, if Top = 610 and Left = 810, then the whole application window will be off the bottom right of the screen. It will be there, but you can't see any of it because it's all outside the visible portion.

The solution is quite simple:

1. Open Word and some other program, such as Notepad. (These should be the only two tasks visible on the Task bar.)
2. Right-click on a blank spot on the Task bar. Windows displays a Context menu.
3. On the Context menu, choose Cascade Windows. Word's program window (along with Notepad's) should now appear on your screen.
4. Adjust the size and position of Word's program window, as desired.
5. Close Word and the other program you opened in step 1.