September 20th, 2003

When I dock my taskbar vertically, why does the word "Start" disappear?

Raymond Chen
Raymond Chen

Because the alternative is even worse.

If the taskbar is not wide enough to display the entire word “Start”, then the word “Start” is hidden. To get it back, resize the taskbar wider until the word “Start” reappears.

This behavior is by design. From a design point of view, a partial word looks very broken.

Also, there is an apocryphal story of clipping text causing embarrassment during localization. The word “Start”, after being translated into some language, and then being clipped, turned into a rude word. (As an analogy, suppose the text on the Start button said “Start button”, but it got clipped to “Start butt”. Now you have to explain to people why they have to click on the “Start butt”.)

Category
Old New Thing
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History

Author

Raymond Chen

Raymond has been involved in the evolution of Windows for more than 30 years. In 2003, he began a Web site known as The Old New Thing which has grown in popularity far beyond his wildest imagination, a development which still gives him the heebie-jeebies. The Web site spawned a book, coincidentally also titled The Old New Thing (Addison Wesley 2007). He occasionally appears on the Windows Dev Docs Twitter account to tell stories which convey no useful information.

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