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This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Pocket GuideMac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Pocket Guide

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This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Pocket GuideMac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Pocket Guide

Learn More Buy

Switch Between Applications

Mac OS X can juggle more than one running application at a time, but can you? Here are ways to switch between active programs.

  • Click an icon in the Dock to bring it forward.
  • Click an open document window to bring its application to the front.

  • Press Command-Tab to display running applications as a row of large icons in the middle of the screen. Continue pressing the Tab key until the application you want is highlighted, then release the keys to bring that application to the front.

    You can also keep the keys pressed to cycle through the icons. Or, after you press Command-Tab, move the pointer to select the program you want. Or (yes, there's one more), press the left and right arrow keys while the icons are visible.

TIP

With the onscreen switcher visible and the Command key still pressed, highlight an icon and press Q to quit or H to hide (or show if already hidden) that application.

Show and hide applications

As you open more applications, their windows overlap one another, leading to a visual mess. Any application can be hidden from view when you're not using it. From the application menu, choose Hide application name, or press Command-H. You can also choose the Hide command located on the contextual menu that appears when you Control-click an icon in the Dock.

The program continues to run in the background—it's just out of the way. You can quickly see if a program is running by looking for the white dot beside its icon in the Dock.

NOTE

When you switch applications using the Dock or Command-Tab, all windows of that application come forward (except those that are minimized, of course).

Closing Documents vs. Quitting an Application

Here's something I see all the time. A person is finished with a document, let's say it's a Microsoft Word document, and so they click the red Close button in the upper-left corner of the document window. They then switch to another program and assume they quit Word. The problem is, Word is still running in the background; some programs consume a fair amount of system resources even when not active, which reduces performance in other applications.

Apple doesn't make this situation easier, as some of its software (like iMovie) quits when you close its one application window. Getting around this interface confusion is simple: be sure to quit an application when you're done with it. If you need it again, it will launch faster than the first time because Mac OS X keeps some vital information for starting up programs in its cache on disk.

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