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In its day, the concept of overlapping windows on the screen was brilliant , innovative, and extremely effective. (Apple borrowed this idea from a research lab called Xerox PARC.) In that era before digital cameras , MP3 files, and the Web, managing your windows was easy this way; after all, you had only about three of them. These days, however, managing all the open windows in all the open programs can be like herding cats. Off you go, burrowing through the microscopic pop-up menus of your taskbar buttons (Windows XP) or the Dock (Mac OS X 10.4), trying to find the window you want. And heaven help you if you need to duck back to the desktopto find a newly downloaded file, for example, or eject a disk. You'll have to fight your way through 50,000 other windows on your way to the bottom of the "deck." Expos represents the first fresh look at this problem in decades. The concept is delicious : With the press of the F9 key, Mac OS X shrinks all windows in all programs to a size that fits on the screen (Figure 5-4), like index cards on a bulletin board. You click the one you want, and you're there. It's fast, efficient, animated, and a lot of fun. 5.3.1. More Ways to ExposThat business about finding a buried window on your screen is probably the way you'll use Expos the most often. But it's actually only one of three Expos functions. The other ways: 5.3.1.1. Find one window in the current programA second Expos keystroke is designed to help you find a certain window only in the program you're using a feature you'll probably find the most useful when you're Web browsing or word processing. When you tap F10 (the factory setting), all of the windows in the frontmost program spread out and shrink, if necessary, so that you can see all of them simultaneously , in fulland so that you can click the one you want (see Figure 5-5, top). And now, tips:
5.3.1.2. Return to the desktopThe third keystroke (F11 is the factory setting) may be the most useful of all. It sends all windows in all programs cowering to the edges of your screen, revealing the desktop beneath in all its uncluttered splendor (Figure 5-5, bottom). There they remain forever, or until you tap F11 again, click a visible window edge, double-click an icon, or take some other window-selection step. This is a spectacular opportunity to save headache and hassle in situations like these:
In essence, Apple has finally realized that the desktop really isn't "just another program." If the layer of open programs is the atmosphere, the Finder is the earth belowand the ability to teleport you back and forth is a huge time saver. Tip: You can switch among the three Expos modes (F9, F10, or F11), even after you've triggered one. For example, if you press F10 to shrink only one program's windows, you can then press F11 to see the desktop, and then press F9 to shrink all programs' windows. 5.3.1.3. Another way to ExposMost of the time, you'll probably use Expos in two steps. You'll tap the function key once to get the windows out of the way, and tap it again to bring them back (if, indeed, you haven't clicked a window to bring them back). In some cases, though, you may find it easier to hold down the relevant key. For example, hold down F11 to see if a file is finished downloading to the desktop, then release the key to bring back all of the windows. For quick window-clearing situations, that method saves you the step of having to press the key a second time to turn off Expos. 5.3.2. Three Triggers for ExposExpos is wonderful and all, but the standard keys for triggering its three functionsF9 to expose all windows, F10 for current-application windows, F11 for show-me-the-desktopmay leave something to be desired. For one thing, they may already be "taken" by other functions in your programs (like Microsoft Word) or even by your computer (like certain PowerBook G4 models, whose F9 and F10 keys adjust the keyboard illumination ). For another thing, those keys are at the top of the keyboard where your typing fingers aren't used to going, and you may have to hunt to make sure you're pressing the right one. Fortunately, you can reassign the Expos functions to a huge range of other keys, with or without modifiers like Shift, Control, and Option. To view your options, choose System Preferences and then click the Dashboard & Expos icon (Figure 5-6).
Here, you'll discover that you can trigger Expos's functions in any of three ways: 5.3.2.1. Screen cornersThe four pop-up menus (Figure 5-6) represent the four corners of your screen. Using these menus, you can assign an Expos trigger to each corner; for example, if you choose Desktop from the first pop-up menu, when your pointer hits the upper-left corner of the screen, you'll hide all windows and expose the desktop. (To make the windows come back, click any visible edge of a window, or twitch the cursor back into the same corner.) Depending on the size of your screen, this option can feel awkward at first. But if you've run out of keystrokes that aren't assigned to other functions, be glad that Apple offers you this alternative. Note: In previous versions of Mac OS X, of course, whipping the pointer into a corner was one good way to turn on your screen saver . Apple hasn't forgotten about that, which is why you'll also find commands called Start Screen Saver and Disable Screen Saver in the pop-up menus. Apple wanted to make sure that you don't get confused and assign two different functions to the same corner. 5.3.2.2. KeystrokesAlso in the Dashboard & Expos preferences, you'll find three pop-up menus"All windows," "Application windows," and "Desktop"that correspond to the three functions of Expos as described above. (The fourth pop-up menu, Dashboard, is described at the end of this chapter.) You can't assign any old keystroke to Expos, but you have far more options than the puny F9, F10, and F11 keys. Within each pop-up menu, for example, you'll discover that all of your F-keys are available as triggers: F1, F2, F3, and so on. If, while the pop-up menu is open, you press one or more of your modifier keys (Shift, Option, Control, or ), all of these F-key choices change to reflect the key you're pressing; now the pop-up menu says Shift-F1, Shift-F2, Shift-F3, and so on. That's how you can make Shift -F1 trigger the hide-all-windows function, for example. These pop-up menus also contain choices like Left Shift, which refers to the Shift key on the left side of your keyboard. That is, instead of pressing F9 to make all your windows shrink, you could simply tap the Shift key. (This is only an example. Repeat: This is only an example. Actually using the Shift key to shrink all your windows is a terrible, terrible idea, as you'll quickly discover the next time you try to type a capital letter. This feature is intended exclusively for hunt-and-peck typists who never use the Shift key on one side.) If you have a laptop, you'll also find out that the Fn key (the neglected key in the lower-left corner of your keyboard) is also available for Exposand this time, it's a great choice, because Fn otherwise has very little direction in life. 5.3.2.3. Multiple-button mouse clicksIf you've equipped your Mac with a replacement mouse that has more than one button, you see a second column of pop-up menus in System Preferences. Each pop-up menu offers choices like Right Mouse Button, Middle Mouse Button, and so on. Use these pop-up menus to assign the three Expos modes (or Dashboard) to the various clickers on your mouse: right-click to hide all windows, left-side click to reveal the desktop, and so on. |
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