Please Help: OS X Desktop Productivity

Hi
I switched to Mac a couple of months back after being a PC user for many years, and I need some help regarding organizing my desktop and way of working with mutiple windows / applications.
I haven't taken the time to RTFM (read the f...... manual) yet but have just been feeling my way through Tiger. It's all great except for this:
I often work with as many 10-15 windows open at the same time. Whatever I'm working on, I like it to fill the screen completely so I can focus on that and that only. (Sometimes I will have mutiple applications open (on screen) at the same time and then sizing them to fit next to each other is fine, but mainly I like to have a cleanly organized screen and look at one thing at a time.)
And I also like to easily and quickly jump around between the various windows / applications that I have open.
In Microsoft Windows this was easy, I would maximise each window with a single click when I started it - and then it would fill the whole screen exactly. And evey application window that was running would have a corresponding tab at the bottom of the screen, so I could always directly jump from one application to another by clicking on the tab.
I can't seem to get this working well in Tiger. When I maximize a window (clicking on the "+") the window's open to randomly different sizes - depending on which application is being used. I then have to drag and re-size that window to fill the screen.
Then, if I've opened many windows on top of each other, and I want to jump from the one I'm working on to another one, I have to minimize, minimize, minimize, window after window to find the one I'm looking for.
This is driving me mad. My productivity has dropped significantly because I'm constantly dragging, resizing, minimizing and re-opening application windows and generally shifting stuff around
I hope I have simply overlooked an easy way to accomlish these 2 things, and would appreciate any assistance that anyone has.
Thanks
g4 powerbook   Mac OS X (10.4.4)  

Hi, gobler.
In addition to Mike's advice re: Zoom and Exposé:
• Command-Tab, aka the Application Switcher, will allow you to quickly jump between open apps.
• Since you have a PowerBook, see also "Mac OS X: Portables - Using Function keys with Exposé, applications, games".
• The Dock is also your friend. See "About the Dock (Mac OS X)" and the many items concerning the Dock you can find in Mac Help (Finder > Help > Mac Help, search for dock>, or online here.
• Your productivity will increase immensely if you take a little time to educate yourself on Mac OS X. My "Learning About Mac OS X" FAQ has a number of resources that you will find helpful including books, online trainging, and more.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

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