Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Something was downloaded to my computer while I was away this week. (My husband probably thought it was ok.) Now when I open an email thru Outlook it's huge - it goes way off the screen to the right. I don't know how to resize this or fix this.
Can you please tell me in simple one and two syllable words just what to do?
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Oh, those husbands. Can't leave 'em alone for a minute, much less a week.
The too-wide window could be the result of a download, but it's also possible that it's not his fault. Even though it's not supposed to, sometimes it can happen for other reasons. Fortunately, it's fairly easy to fix.
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Normally, of course, you can resize a window by using the mouse and clicking on and dragging the border of the window. In a case like this, though, the border is off the screen, and there's no way to move the mouse over to click on it. The result is that we have to use the keyboard interface.
When you're in one of those too-wide windows, do the following.
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Type ALT+spacebar: this should pop up a menu at the upper left of the window that should look something like this:
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Click on Size (or just type s): the cursor should change to a 4-pointed compass
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Press the right arrow key (or the key that "points to" the window border that is off the screen): the cursor should jump to that window border - which of course you can't see right now, since it's off the screen.
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Press the left arrow key (or the opposite of whatever key you pressed in the previous step) to resize the window: the edge of the window should move in the direction you've chosen.
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Press Enter when done resizing.
I believe it's still the case that while a mouse is technically listed as a requirement for Windows, there is a keyboard interface for everything. (Sadly, while Windows meets this criteria, not all applications do.) It's not always elegant, and sometimes downright cumbersome, but in cases like this it can be quite handy to at least have some familiarity with it.
Article C2627 - April 20, 2006
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
my window is surnk on both sides and i dont know how to et it back o full size
Posted by: paul at January 21, 2012 1:26 PMHey leo! Thank you for your wisdom. Heres a new one! I have same problem, but the Alt +Spacebar and up down arrows will get me to the place where i can resize the window, however when i touch the screen with the mouse ANYWHERE it automatically puts the mouse to the center of the window at the top and i cant see the bottom anymore. I have XP and a small 8.9" screen. No other programs are doing this just one called Mixxx (Dj sofware) HELP!
Posted by: Chris at February 3, 2012 9:06 AMwhen i open itunes the screen is to big i have windows xp
Posted by: eduardo at March 6, 2012 1:07 PMThanks Leo, this cured my problem which was really annoying me for the last few days.
Posted by: David at March 31, 2012 1:12 PMThe post from Brendon fixed my problem, someone had changed my zoom level in the bottom right corner of my page in Internet Explorer. Thanks Brendon
Posted by: Cristine at May 14, 2012 1:22 PM