Moving a partially hidden window

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Level 1

17 points

Moving a partially hidden window

I normally run my MBP with an external monitor but the other day I used it standalone so all the windows got "shuffled" onto the MBP screen.

The problem is that the Preferences window for MSN Messenger for Mac 7 (latest version) is now stuck, paritally off the top of the screen such that the title bar and menu/tab bar are behind the OS X menu (in fact, it must be even higher than that).

As I can't see the title bar I can't move the window. I tried moving the menu bar to the external monitor but all that happened was the Prefs window moved with it.

How can I move it? In some Linux window managers (KDE I think) you can move a window by middle-clicking anywhere in the window and dragging while holding down the Alt key - is there a similar thing in OS X? I've tried every mouse button/modifier key combination I can think of.

Message was edited by: parish_chap

MacBook Pro 2.4GHz, 4GB, 160GB. iPod Touch 2G 8GB, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Oct 6, 2009 5:13 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 6, 2009 5:18 AM in response to parish_chap

Try "Zoom" in MSN Messenger's "Window" menu.

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Answer 2

parish_chap Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 6, 2009 10:05 AM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

Thanks for the suggestion Malcolm. I tried it, but it only affects the main Messenger window - in fact Zoom is greyed out when the Prefs window is up.

Also, the Prefs window disappears if I use Expose - guess because it's a modal window?

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Answer 3

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Oct 6, 2009 10:19 AM in response to parish_chap

How can I move it? In some Linux window managers (KDE I think) you can move a window by middle-clicking anywhere in the window and dragging while holding down the Alt key - is there a similar thing in OS X?

no, there is no such thing in OS X. try activating spaces and moving the window while in spaces view.

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Answer 4

parish_chap Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 6, 2009 11:05 AM in response to V.K.

Unfortunately, as with Expose, the Prefs window disappears when I activate Spaces.

I found some AppleScripts on the 'net that are supposed to move/resize windows, but they don't seem to work (quite old, so maybe for an earlier version of OS X?).

Looking at this from a different angle, where are window positions likely to be saved as the position is retained across reboots. Is it the OS that handles this, or the app itself?

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Answer 5

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Oct 6, 2009 11:12 AM in response to parish_chap

parish_chap wrote:
Unfortunately, as with Expose, the Prefs window disappears when I activate Spaces.

I don't quite understand what you mean. do you mean that the system preferences window moves off screen when you enable spaces? when you enter spaces view (F8 is the default shortcut) you should see all windows in all spaces on all monitors. is this not working?

I found some AppleScripts on the 'net that are supposed to move/resize windows, but they don't seem to work (quite old, so maybe for an earlier version of OS X?).

yes, one can cook up an apple script for that but it really should not be necessary.

Looking at this from a different angle, where are window positions likely to be saved as the position is retained across reboots. Is it the OS that handles this, or the app itself?

the window positions of an application are stored in the preference file of that application in /users/username/library/preferences. if you quit an application, delete its preference file and relaunch it then it should display on the default screen with default values. however, some apps (like Mail) keep important data in their preference files and deleting them will wipe that data.

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Answer 6

parish_chap Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 6, 2009 11:46 AM in response to V.K.

V.K. wrote:

parish_chap wrote:
Unfortunately, as with Expose, the Prefs window disappears when I activate Spaces.

I don't quite understand what you mean. do you mean that the system preferences window moves off screen when you enable spaces? when you enter spaces view (F8 is the default shortcut) you should see all windows in all spaces on all monitors. is this not working?

It isn't displayed, i.e. it disappears. Remember this is a MS app and appears to follow the semantics of modal dialogues in Windows, i.e. they aren't "real" windows. They are a PITA in Windows as it's possible to hide them with another window and they are a pain to find - they don't appear in window lists and you can't Alt-TAB to them.

Looking at this from a different angle, where are window positions likely to be saved as the position is retained across reboots. Is it the OS that handles this, or the app itself?

the window positions of an application are stored in the preference file of that application in /users/username/library/preferences. if you quit an application, delete its preference file and relaunch it then it should display on the default screen with default values. however, some apps (like Mail) keep important data in their preference files and deleting them will wipe that data.

Thanks. As you said about Mail, MSN Messenger stores all its data in their, e.g. account details, and the plist file is binary, but a quick Google revealed plutil so I converted it to XML, edited it in vi, and converted back to binary +et voilà+ it worked!!

The window position was 0, -56 so I just changed it to 0, 56

Thanks for your help!

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Answer 7

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Oct 6, 2009 12:23 PM in response to parish_chap

parish_chap wrote:

V.K. wrote:

parish_chap wrote:
Unfortunately, as with Expose, the Prefs window disappears when I activate Spaces.

I don't quite understand what you mean. do you mean that the system preferences window moves off screen when you enable spaces? when you enter spaces view (F8 is the default shortcut) you should see all windows in all spaces on all monitors. is this not working?

It isn't displayed, i.e. it disappears. Remember this is a MS app and appears to follow the semantics of modal dialogues in Windows, i.e. they aren't "real" windows. They are a PITA in Windows as it's possible to hide them with another window and they are a pain to find - they don't appear in window lists and you can't Alt-TAB to them.

oh, yes, I forgot about that. I know that MS office Spaces integration was supposed to be fixed in Snow Leopard but I guess that didn't happen with MSN messenger. that's probably also the reason those apple scripts you tried didn't work.

Looking at this from a different angle, where are window positions likely to be saved as the position is retained across reboots. Is it the OS that handles this, or the app itself?

the window positions of an application are stored in the preference file of that application in /users/username/library/preferences. if you quit an application, delete its preference file and relaunch it then it should display on the default screen with default values. however, some apps (like Mail) keep important data in their preference files and deleting them will wipe that data.

Thanks. As you said about Mail, MSN Messenger stores all its data in their, e.g. account details, and the plist file is binary, but a quick Google revealed plutil so I converted it to XML, edited it in vi, and converted back to binary +et voilà+ it worked!!

The window position was 0, -56 so I just changed it to 0, 56

that will of course, do it.

Thanks for your help!

you are welcome.

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