Switcher: Show Desktop & Shift+CTRL+END (or Home)
Hi All,
Switching and LOVE it thus far. A couple of quick questions:
1. Is there anyway to "show Desktop", as you can on XP?
2. I was working on an Excel:Mac sheet today and needed to do a Shift+CTRL+END (like on PC) ... what's the key combo on a Mac?
Thanks very much!
DevotedDad
Switching and LOVE it thus far. A couple of quick questions:
1. Is there anyway to "show Desktop", as you can on XP?
2. I was working on an Excel:Mac sheet today and needed to do a Shift+CTRL+END (like on PC) ... what's the key combo on a Mac?
Thanks very much!
DevotedDad
Comments
2. I would assume command-shift-end should do it
Hi All,
Switching and LOVE it thus far. A couple of quick questions:
1. Is there anyway to "show Desktop", as you can on XP?
2. I was working on an Excel:Mac sheet today and needed to do a Shift+CTRL+END (like on PC) ... what's the key combo on a Mac?
Thanks very much!
DevotedDad
I just set an active corner for my "Desktop", upper right works best for me, and all I have to do is swing my mouse pointer to the upper right and all panes move out of the way and I see my desktop.
1. Is there anyway to "show Desktop", as you can on XP?
You need to discover the wonders of Exposé!
Exposé does one of three things:
1.) Show you all open windows
2.) Show you all open windows of the front-most application only
3.) Show the desktop
I'm pretty sure that Exposé is turned on by default: F9 does 1.), F10 does 2.), and F11 does 3.)
You can do some pretty cool stuff with Exposé. Taking 1.) as an example: press F9 once, and all of your windows will move in an elegant flowing manner, tiling themselves so that you can see all of them. Press F9 again, and everything will go back to where is was.
Instead of pressing F9 the second time, you can point your mouse at one of the windows, and click. This will result in everything going back to how it was, except the window you just clicked will now be front-most.
You can also use Exposé in combination with drag and drop. Let's say you're composing a message in Mail, and want to attach a picture from a webpage. So, you command-tab to switch to your web browser, and then start to click and drag the image in question. Keeping the mouse button held down, press F9 to show all windows, move your mouse over the Mail message window, press F9 again (or wait a couple of seconds), and the Mail message will become front-most and you can release the mouse button. Image attached.
If you launch system preferences and click onto "Dashboard & Exposé", you'll see that you can set "hot corners" for Exposé. This can be useful with drag & drop, as it can make the whole "drag, Exposé, drop" process an all-mouse process (drag file up to appropriate hot corner, Expose activates, drag to appropriate window, hover, drop).
Don't be afraid to play around with it, you should find it very powerful once you're used to it.
Lastly, if you want to show off, press and hold "shift" whilst pressing F9.
You need to discover the wonders of Exposé!
Exposé does one of three things:
1.) Show you all open windows
2.) Show you all open windows of the front-most application only
3.) Show the desktop
I'm pretty sure that Exposé is turned on by default: F9 does 1.), F10 does 2.), and F11 does 3.)
You can do some pretty cool stuff with Exposé. Taking 1.) as an example: press F9 once, and all of your windows will move in an elegant flowing manner, tiling themselves so that you can see all of them. Press F9 again, and everything will go back to where is was.
Instead of pressing F9 the second time, you can point your mouse at one of the windows, and click. This will result in everything going back to how it was, except the window you just clicked will now be front-most.
You can also use Exposé in combination with drag and drop. Let's say you're composing a message in Mail, and want to attach a picture from a webpage. So, you command-tab to switch to your web browser, and then start to click and drag the image in question. Keeping the mouse button held down, press F9 to show all windows, move your mouse over the Mail message window, press F9 again (or wait a couple of seconds), and the Mail message will become front-most and you can release the mouse button. Image attached.
If you launch system preferences and click onto "Dashboard & Exposé", you'll see that you can set "hot corners" for Exposé. This can be useful with drag & drop, as it can make the whole "drag, Exposé, drop" process an all-mouse process (drag file up to appropriate hot corner, Expose activates, drag to appropriate window, hover, drop).
Don't be afraid to play around with it, you should find it very powerful once you're used to it.
Lastly, if you want to show off, press and hold "shift" whilst pressing F9.
1 of 4 things.
f12 is show Dashboard
Also when using f9, you don't even have to click on a window, just move your mouse over it and hit f9 again.
But yes, expose is very cool and very powerful, XP's tools for doing similar things are terrible.
f12 is show Dashboard
Exposé != Dashboard
Also when using f9, you don't even have to click on a window, just move your mouse over it and hit f9 again.
I didn't mean to imply that my post was exhaustive. There's loads of different ways of using Exposé. How about tabbing when "show all windows" is active? That's why I suggest experimenting
The Windows are still a little bit visible in the corners and they pop back for no reason.
Clearly Apple ment this as 'temporary get windows out of the way'.
Another tip; holt APPLE and ALT while clicking an icon in the dock. This application will be
opened, while all the other applications will be hidden. (something like "hide others")
The Expose show-desktop function is not what I'd like personally.
The Windows are still a little bit visible in the corners and they pop back for no reason.
Clearly Apple ment this as 'temporary get windows out of the way'.
Another tip; holt APPLE and ALT while clicking an icon in the dock. This application will be
opened, while all the other applications will be hidden. (something like "hide others")
What do you mean 'pop back for no reason' They should only do this if you click on the darker border around the screen or hit another expose key. If you do this and then open another app from the dock, make sure you don't click on the bottom part of the icon that is in this darker area.
Hi All,
Switching and LOVE it thus far. A couple of quick questions:
1. Is there anyway to "show Desktop", as you can on XP?
2. I was working on an Excel:Mac sheet today and needed to do a Shift+CTRL+END (like on PC) ... what's the key combo on a Mac?
Thanks very much!
DevotedDad
If you're using a Mighty Mouse (somewhat controversial on his site--folks hate it or love it), you can set the two side "squeeze" buttons to activate Expose. Works great for me. I use it all the time.
Good luck with your Mac.
How about holding down the APPLE and ALT key then click on any visible part of the desktop.
Great tip! Unfortunately Finder windows are not closed.
What do you mean 'pop back for no reason' They should only do this if you click on the darker border around the screen or hit another expose key. If you do this and then open another app from the dock, make sure you don't click on the bottom part of the icon that is in this darker area.
Ah I understand now that the dark borders trigger Expose putting the windows back. Why did Apple put the bottom border there?! I have a small dock... If you click an icon in the dock you have 50% chance of also hitting the dark border when Expose hides the windows... It should not 'read' this area. Most of the time you want to open a specific app or window and not trigger Expose.
I've used this program since Mac OS 10.2 and I can't live without it. When Exposé first came out I thought it would do the same thing but it doesn't.
A nice idea but implementation could be better. First off all, all my windows are minimized...a dozen of slow genie effects at the same time...And when clicking the 'hide desktop' button again, it would be nice to see all the stuff that was hidden, show again.
Ah I understand now that the dark borders trigger Expose putting the windows back. Why did Apple put the bottom border there?! I have a small dock... If you click an icon in the dock you have 50% chance of also hitting the dark border when Expose hides the windows... It should not 'read' this area. Most of the time you want to open a specific app or window and not trigger Expose.
I'm pretty sure that launching an application will bring the windows back anyway. Expose's "Show Desktop" feature is really great if you need to drag something to / from the Desktop. It sounds like you're trying to de-clutter your desktop by hiding windows you're not interested in. If you want to open a specific window (and by open, I'm assuming you mean, focus on or bring to front) then you want to use the F9 (show all windows) or F10 (show windows from this application) button. If you want to launch an application... well, just do it. I don't understand why you need to see the desktop to do that, but to each his own.
A nice idea but implementation could be better. First off all, all my windows are minimized...a dozen of slow genie effects at the same time...And when clicking the 'hide desktop' button again, it would be nice to see all the stuff that was hidden, show again.
The genie effect is used to show you where the window went. If it didn't exist and windows just disappeared from the desktop and reappeared in the Dock, it would be pretty confusing. A genie effect to nowhere would also be pretty confusing.
The genie effect is used to show you where the window went. If it didn't exist and windows just disappeared from the desktop and reappeared in the Dock, it would be pretty confusing. A genie effect to nowhere would also be pretty confusing.
true. Although I hoped that simply pressing the hotkey of Expose triggered it back, not the borders itself :-)