Expose


Expos

The most exciting new feature of OS 10.3 is a window control system Apple’s Francophile marketing people have named Expos . Now that you know how to create Finder windows and open documents, your screen has the potential to become a cluttered mess. Through using the Window menu you can manage some of the clutter, or you can minimize the items into the Dock with the Minimize button, but it’s all too slow! Expos makes its all instant with the click

of one of three buttons. Please note that part of the beauty of this product is the animated nature of the action. To see it in action is much more impressive than these screenshots can convey! Figure 3-36 shows a typical screen after a few hours of working, Web surfing, and iTunes-ing.

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Figure 3-36: Window Clutter!

Show all windows

When there are two or more applications and multiple documents open, the screen will get cluttered very quickly. Expos ’s first command is the All Windows command. Click the F9 key, and all the open windows shrink and rearrange themselves spread around the screen (accompanied by an impressive animation) so all windows can be visible at once. Hover your mouse over any of the reduced windows, and the window is highlighted and reveals the application’s name. (Documents and Web pages reveal their name, rather than the application.) Clicking on any of these reduced windows brings that window to the foreground. If you don’t want to change your active window, clicking F9 again returns all windows to full size and restores the previous active window to the foreground. Figure 3-37 shows the results of Expos ’s All Windows command.

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Figure 3-37: Expos is a very easy way to switch between applications and any open windows.

Show active application’s windows

Many applications support multiple windows. Web browsers for example often have multiple Web pages open at once. For example, consider when a user who reviews a rare car part for their car (a 1968 Dodge Charger, let’s say) on eBay, checks a local mechanic’s Web page to determine the street value of the part, compares that price to a Dodge Charger enthusiast organization’s notes on their Web page. It would be easy to get lost switching between just those three windows, much less any other applications that may be open. Expos ’s first command works, but when a user just wants to find a window within the current active application, the Application Windows command is the solution. With a click of F10, all the user’s open Web pages shrink and align themselves (while dimming all other application windows). Moving the pointer over a window shows the Web page’s name, making it easy to pick which window is desired. Clicking the desired window causes all windows to restore to normal size and make the clicked window active in the foreground. Pressing F-10 again restores all application windows to their previous position, restoring the previous active window to the foreground. Figure 3-38 shows the results of the Active Application Windows command.

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Figure 3-38: Within one application, many windows can be open at once, Expos makes finding a desired window within a particular application easy to find.

Show desktop

Even with ten windows open, there may be a need to open more documents. Getting to your desktop or opening your hard drive to open a particular document or folder can be troublesome with so many windows already open. Expos ’s third command, the Desktop command, makes it easy. Click F11, and all open windows retreat to the beyond the edges of the screen, leaving only a small bit remaining, and thus revealing the desktop. Disks and folders can be opened and searched for the desired document, all without restoring the clutter. After a document or application is opened, the windows return to their original position, with your newly opened item as the active window. Alternatively, clicking on the visible edges of the retracted applications (or pressing F11 again) restores them to their original positions. Figure 3-39 shows the results of the Show Desktop command.

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Figure 3-39: A very helpful way to carve through the clutter to open an item hidden on the desktop.

Cross Reference

You can enhance and adjust your Expos experience. Customization of the Expos controls is covered in Chapter 4.




Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
ISBN: 0764543997
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 290

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