Section 4. Control an Application from the Dock


4. Control an Application from the Dock

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

2 Find, Launch, and Quit an Application

3 Add an Application to the Dock


SEE ALSO

5 Minimize and Restore a Window

106 Change the Dock's Position and Behavior


The Dock gives you the ability to control certain basic behaviors of all applications, whether they're running or not. Some applications are designed so that you can control more specific functions from the Dock without even needing to switch active applications.

1.
Show an Application in the Finder

Although having an application icon in the Dock is convenient , the icon is just a shortcut to the original application. Sometimes you have to access the original item, for instance if you want to view the Get Info panel for the application to find information such as its version number. Fortunately, any application in the Dockwhether it's running or notcan be traced back to its original location.

Click and hold the icon in the Dock, or Control +click or right-click it. A contextual menu pops up. Every contextual menu for items in the Dock has, at the very least, a Show In Finder option. Select this option, and a Finder window appears showing the original item in the folder where it resides.

2.
Select from an Application's Open Windows

Some applications allow you to have more than one document window open at once. When this is the case, you can switch from one window to another using the Dock.

Click and hold, Control +click, or right-click the application icon in the Dock to open the contextual menu. At the top of the contextual menu, for any running application, is a list (by name ) of all the open windows for that application. Select the window you want, and that window will come to the foreground.

TIP

You can switch between applications using the and key combinations, which rotate respectively forward and backward through your open applications. When you use either of these keystrokes, the icons of the open applications appear floating in the middle of your screen, and remain there as long as you hold down the Command key. Press Tab or Shift+Tab repeatedly to select the application you want.

4. Control an Application from the Dock


3.
Access Specialized Functions

Some applications, such as iTunes and Mail, allow you to perform certain specialized actions without bringing the applications to the foreground. This can be very useful when you want to perform an action in the background while you continue to work on something else.

Open the contextual menu for the application; under the list of open windows are any special functions that the application has available. iTunes, for instance, has controls that allow you to play or pause the music, skip forward or backward, or toggle Shuffle mode. Simply select from the menu to perform these functions.

4.
Hide a Running Application

Any running application can be hiddenin other words, all its windows can be made invisible. Hiding an application can be useful if you want to keep an application open but also want to clean up your work environment.

Open the contextual menu and select Hide from the bottom area of the list of options. All the application's windows will disappear; if the application is currently active, the previously active application becomes active.

TIP

With the application's contextual menu open, press the Option key. The Hide option turns into Hide Others . Selecting this option allows you to hide all applications except the application you're controlling.

5.
Quit a Running Application

Quitting an application terminates its execution, closing all its windows and removing it from memory. You can do this by switching to the application and choosing Quit from the application menu; you can also quit using the Dock's contextual menu. Open the contextual menu and select Quit from the bottom of the list. The black triangle disappears from under the application icon in the Dock as the application quits.

TIP

If you press the Option key while the contextual menu is open, the Quit option turns into Force Quit . If an application is misbehaving or not responding, the Dock's contextual menu will have a note to that effect at the top, and the Force Quit option will be available at the bottom.




MAC OS X Tiger in a Snap
Mac OS X Tiger in a Snap
ISBN: 0672327066
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 212
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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