Mac OS X Tip of the Day
January 26th, 2007
I learned this one from the Macworld Podcast, “OS X Hints at Expo.” As you probably know, you can switch between open tasks by hitting CMD+Tab. Did you know you also had full control over hiding and quitting apps from this interface as well?
CMD+Tab repeatedly to select an application in the switcher. Then simply reach over and hit either H or Q to hide or quit, respectively, the highlighted app. That’s it.
Power tip: Use in conjunction with your mouse to instantly select an application icon in the switcher without having to hit CMD+Tab repeatedly.
This is very, very helpful in two situations I encounter daily:
1) Hiding Dreamweaver. I have Dreamweaver spread out over three monitors, and it often blocks my access to other background applications or the finder when Dreamweaver is, itself, in the background. Using this tip, I hit CMD+Tab, select the Dreamweaver icon in the switcher, and hit H. This instantly hides Dreamweaver without having to activate it which, being a Rosetta app, takes some time. Of course, this would work with any app.
2) Quitting a bunch of apps quickly. Sure, you could right click (or CTRL+click) each app in the dock, but since my dock is hidden most of the time, this can be time consuming and tedious. Using this tip, I’m able to quit my apps BAM, BAM, BAM.
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