i have had numerous tabs open and wanted to minimise them to the systems panel. however, when i click on the - in the top right corner, the entire window closes. i know how to make the -+x disappear by pressing F11, but that is not what i want done. any help would be very appreciative!

Hello and Welcome to LinuxQuestions,

I don't understand what you mean at all. What distro and version (Ubuntu 11.04, Debian 6.0, Fedora 15, ...) are you using, which desktop environment (Gnome, KDE, Xfce, ...), in which application are you trying to minimize tabs, ... Those are the basics you need to mention if you want us to help you solve a problem you encounter with Linux. Please post as much info as possible regarding your issue.

Looking forward to your participation in the forums. Have fun with Linux.

Kind regards,

Eric