Section 6. Grab the Window You Want


6. Grab the Window You Want

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

2 Find, Launch, and Quit an Application

5 Minimize and Restore a Window


SEE ALSO

104 Select a Screen Saver

94 Access Your Desk Accessories (Dashboard)


Expos is an innovative feature, unique to Mac OS X, that allows you to instantly and temporarily "tile" all your open windows across your screensmoothly shrunk so that they all fitand select the one you want to work with, without having to shuffle through hidden applications and windows piled on top of each other. Instead of painstakingly resizing or moving your windows around, you can simply press a key to see all open windows at once, pick a window with a click, and get right back to work; none of your windows ' sizes, shapes , or positions are affected. Expos is set up by default so that certain function keys invoke it, but it can be configured to use other keys or even simple mouse gestures. After a few days using Expos , you'll wonder how you ever got along without it.

TIP

In most Mac OS X applications, you can cycle between all the application's open windows by repeatedly pressing (backquote). Cycle through your running applications by pressing .


Expos has three modes:

  • All Windows . All the currently open windows scoot out from underneath each other and tile across the screen so you can visually pick the application or document you want.

  • Application Windows . All the open windows in your current application, such as all open images in Photoshop, are tiled; windows belonging to other applications fade into the background.

  • Desktop . All the windows slide off the screen so you can see your Desktop and access the files on it.

For the first example, let's look at a usage case where you want to place all your relevant windows side by side so you can pick the one you're interested in.

6. Grab the Window You Want


1.
Invoke Expos ° to See All Your Windows

Press the F9 ("All Windows") key. This key is set up by default to tile all the open windows in the system, no matter which applications they belong to.

Press the F10 ("Application Windows") key to tile only the windows that belong to the current application.

TIP

If you've accidentally invoked Expos when you didn't want to, or you want to cancel it, press Escape or press the function key you pressed to invoke Expos ( F9, F10 , or F11 ).

2.
Select the Window You Want

Hover the mouse over each tiled window to dim the window with the window title superimposed over it. Use this approach to help you choose which window you want; then click the desired window. The selected window jumps to the foreground, and all the rest of the windows return to their original positions.

3.
Invoke Expos to Move All Your Windows Aside

Suppose that you want to embed a picture file in a document you're writing in TextEdit. The picture you want is on the Desktop, but there are so many windows open that you can't see it. Expos allows you to brush all the open windows out of the way instantly, grab the file, bring all the windows back, and drop the file into TextEditall without having to minimize or hide any applications or disrupt your working window layout.

Press F11 to move all the windows offscreen and show the Desktop, and all its icons, free of window clutter.

4.
Find and Drag the Icon You Want

Find the picture file on the Desktop that you want to embed in the TextEdit document. Click and hold the picture file icon, as though you're going to drag it.

5.
Move the Windows Back

Without releasing the mouse button, press F11 again to recall all the offscreen windows back into place. Your mouse pointer should still be dragging the picture file's icon.

TIPS

Briefly tap one of the function keys ( F9, F10 , or F11 ) to tile the windows and leave them tiled until you select the window you want; press and hold a function key to tile the windows only for as long as you hold down the key, so that they snap back to position as soon as you release the key.

Expos 's tiled windows are "spring-loaded," in much the same way that folders in the Finder behave. If you're dragging a file icon when you invoke Expos , you can hold the mouse on top of a tiled window until the window flashes and springs to the front. Use this method, for example, to drag a document from a Finder window into Mail or TextEdit.

6.
Drop the File into Your Document

Drag the graphic file icon to wherever in the TextEdit document you want to embed the file, and release the mouse button.

7.
Set Up Hot Corners

If you don't like using the F9, F10 , and F11 keys to access the Expos tiling modes, select System Preferences from the Apple menu, then open the Expos pane. Here, you can choose different trigger keys for the various tiling modes. See 94 Access Your Desk Accessories (Dashboard) for information on Dashboard, the new Expos - related system for accessing desk accessories in Mac OS X Tiger.

Furthermore, you can configure the four corners of the screen to trigger Expos using "mouse gestures." In other words, you might configure the upper-left corner of your screen so that if you move the mouse into that corner, all the windows will tile; you can specify that if you move the mouse into the lower-right corner of the screen, all the windows will move offscreen.

TIP

Use the menus in the Keyboard section to choose different function keys or key combinations to invoke the three Expos modes, if you find them easier than the default settings. For instance, if you want to invoke "Desktop" mode using Control+Shift+F3 , simply hold down Control and Shift while opening the menu for Desktop mode.

Similarly, if you have a multibutton mouse connected to your Mac, you can configure special mouse clicks to invoke Expos with almost no physical effort. For example, hold down Option while choosing the Middle Mouse Button option from the All Windows menu in the Mouse section to make Option +clicking the middle mouse button invoke Expos 's "All Windows" mode. If you don't have a multibutton mouse connected, the Mouse section does not appear.




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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