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Window Appearance

A window consists of window-frame areas and a window body. The window-frame areas include the title bar, the toolbar, and the bottom bar (note that in Mac OS X v10.5 and later, the toolbar is not visually distinct from the title bar). The window body is the main content area that extends from the bottom edge of the title bar (or toolbar, if present) to the bottom edge of the window, not including the bottom bar, if one is present. The toolbar and the bottom bar are optional elements that not all windows have. Figure 14-2 shows examples of these areas in different windows.

In Mac OS X v10.5 and later, no window-frame surface is visible on the sides of windows; the window-body area, the toolbar, and the bottom bar stretch from the left edge to the right edge. Users can drag a window from any window-frame area, including a bottom bar.

All window-frame areas have a gray gradient surface. In the window body, content views (such as text or column views) display a white background by default; the surrounding window-body background is a shade of light gray.

Figure 14-3 shows the Address Book application’s transition from brushed metal to the Leopard look. Notice the removal of all window-frame surface on the sides, the use of appropriate toolbar and bottom-bar controls, and the adoption of the “zero-width” splitters that are standard in Mac OS X v10.5 (for more information about this control, see “Split Views”).

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