5.2. The "Heads-Up" Program Switcher Only one program can be in front, or active , at a time. To make a different program active, you could simply repeat the technique you used to launch the program initially. Click its Dock icon, double-click a document icon, or whatever. You can also switch to a different program by clicking its icon in the Dock. Doing so makes the program, along with any of its open windows and toolbars , pop to the front. But there's a faster, more direct program-switching featurefaster, because you perform it entirely from the keyboard. Just hold down the  key and begin tapping the Tab key (Figure 5-3).  | Figure 5-3. Apple calls this Windows-like row of open program icons a "heads-up display," partly because it's translucent (like the projected "heads-up display" data screens on a Navy jet windshield ) and partly because you don't have to look down to the Dock to see what you're doing. (Shown here superimposed on another window to illustrate its translucence.) | |
You can use this feature in three different ways, which are well worth learning: -
If you keep the key pressed, each press of the Tab key highlights the Dock icon of another program, in left-to-right Dock order. Release both keys when you reach the one you want. Mac OS X brings the corresponding program to the front. (To move backward through the open programs, press Shift - -Tab.) -
If you leave the key pressed, you can choose a program by clicking its icon with your mouse. -
(A single press of -Tab takes you to the program you used most recently , and another press returns you to the program you started in. Imagine that, for example, you're doing a lot of switching between two programsyour Web browser and your email program, for example. If you have five other programs open, you don't waste your time -Tabbing your way through all open programs just to "get back" to your Web browser. |
