Secret Windows Tip: Improve Productivity by Tiling Windows

If you've ever worked on a computer with multiple monitors, you know what a joy it is to have two full screen documents open at once. It is easy, for example, to look at a Web page on one screen while writing an essay on the other screen. Comparing two photographs is another ideal job for such a setup. But what about times when you only have one monitor -- perhaps a public computer or a laptop, for example? Sure, you can position windows on the screen so you can see two programs at once, but it isn't very convenient. In this Secret Windows Tip I'll show you a way to get Windows to place two or more documents on the screen for you easily and automatically.

When Windows places several applications in such a way that you can see them all at once, it is known as "Tiling." Suppose you have a Microsoft Word Document open and a Web page in Internet Explorer. Tiling these two applications can take two forms: Horizontal tiling will split the screen from left to right, placing one program in the top half and another in the bottom. Vertical tiling, on the other hand, will split the screen up and down, leaving a program on the left and another one on the right.

The secret is simple. Down at the bottom of your screen (unless you've moved it) is a task bar with icons for each program you are running. The currently active program's icon looks as though it is "pressed down". To tile our example programs, you'd first make sure the Word document was selected in the task bar. Next you'll press and hold the Control key while clicking on the Internet Explorer's task bar icon. When you do this, you'll notice that both icons appear pressed down now. You can then release the Control key.

Once both icons have the depressed look, you can right click the mouse on either icon in the task bar. This will bring up a context menu with several choices including "Tile Vertically" and "Tile Horizontally." Pick which layout you prefer and, you'll be able to see both programs at once.

If you like you can Control click more than just one extra icon, and Windows will distribute the screen between the selected programs. Of course, recent versions of Windows "stack" similar icons on the task bar. In other words, you may have 5 open Word documents that show as a single icon on the task bar. If you want to tile multiple documents that are in the same "stack" you'll have trouble -- Windows will try to tile the entire stack. If this is the case, consider right clicking on an empty area of the task bar and selecting "Properties" from the resulting menu. Turn off the "Group similar taskbar buttons" check box and press OK. Now icons won't group.

A related tip: if you do turn off taskbar grouping, and you find you'd like more space on the task bar, you can resize the task bar to be taller. Just let your mouse float over the edge of the taskbar (you need to make sure the taskbar is not locked -- you can do that from the same properties menu item you used to change the grouping preference). When the mouse cursor changes to a vertical line with two arrows, you can drag the task bar to be a new height. I almost always keep mine set to show two rows of icons at once which is plenty of room.

So to summarize:

1. Click on a program's task bar icon

2. Control+Click on another program's task bar icon

3. Right Click on one of the icons

4. Select one of the tile options and enjoy!