Classic Mac OS/Menus and Windows

The two constants of the Mac OS user interface are the overlapping windows and the menu bar across the top of the screen.

Anatomy of a Window

Windows in Classic Mac OS look and work much like windows in other GUI-based operating systems. The Close Window button is the small beige square at the left side of the title bar (located across the top of the window). The Window-Shade button is located at the right side of the title bar, and looks like a small beige square crossed by a horizontal line. The Resize button is located just to the left of the Window-Shade button, and looks like a small beige square containing another, smaller beige square. Some windows lack a Resize button, others lack a Window-Shade button, and some do not have either.

Windows can be moved on the screen by dragging the ridged area of their title bars, or by the thick edges of the window. Windows can be resized by dragging the rectangle at the bottom-right corner of the window. Note that most dialog boxes lack both a title bar and thick edges, which means that they cannot be moved or resized. (Some newer dialog boxes do feature a title bar, and fewer still a resizable corner.)

Scroll bars, if they appear, always fill the bottom and/or right sides of the window, just inside the thick border.

The Main Menu Bar

The main menu bar always appears across the top of the screen. At the far left of the menu bar is the menu. This menu contains the About command for the current application, as well as links to a number of applications. To the right of the menu are the menus for the current application. At the far right of the menu bar is the Application menu, and to the left of that menu are the clock and other "menu extras" that have been installed by third-party software.