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How can I make the selection of window easier?

F

feyn-man

macrumors regular
Original poster
As we know, lots of UI (MS windows, gnome or KDE of linux) can minimize(or even not be minimized) the window to menu bar. To do this, one can see how many window is running at anytime. And they can select one of them by just one click. I think this is a good feature.

To leopard, of course, you can see how many app you have open in the dock. But if an app have more than one window, such as MSN, you will never know about that.
If you want to switch to another window, you have to press F3 key and then click the window you want. That is more action than in windows I think. Of cause you can use :apple:+TAB to switch. But you cannot switch between different window of one app by that way.

Does anybody know some method to solve that? I just want switch window by only one click and by only my right hand.
 
I might be overlooking your problem, but have you tried expose? (F9, or if you have a mighty mouse, click on the scroll ball). You can also hit F10 which shows you just the windows in that program.
 
DeaconGraves said:
I might be overlooking your problem, but have you tried expose? (F9, or if you have a mighty mouse, click on the scroll ball). You can also hit F10 which shows you just the windows in that program.
Click to expand...

I said that is more action than in windows. In windows you can see what you want without doing anything, just look.
 
you could use application windows exposé. this shows the windows for the application in focus. for my keyboard this is F10 but it looks like youve got the new imac keyboard so its either command, option or control + F3 i think.
 
Another option would be if you minimize your windows they show up on the left side of the dock, which would fulfill your "look and click request" but you probably won't like that either since it would require the extra click to minimize the window in the first place.

As a previous windows switcher i don't miss the taskbar that much. Seeing that I don't have to run everything full screen in OS X the two clicks it takes to use expose doesn't feel like a wast of time. 🙄
 
richthomas said:
you could use application windows exposé. this shows the windows for the application in focus. for my keyboard this is F10 but it looks like youve got the new imac keyboard so its either command, option or control + F3 i think.
Click to expand...

Yes, I know that. I just feel that is not as convenient as I want.
 
DeaconGraves said:
Another option would be if you minimize your windows they show up on the left side of the dock, which would fulfill your "look and click request" but you probably won't like that either since it would require the extra click to minimize the window in the first place.

As a previous windows switcher i don't miss the taskbar that much. Seeing that I don't have to run everything full screen in OS X the two clicks it takes to use expose doesn't feel like a wast of time. 🙄
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. But sometime that's really not so good.
Look, if you are chatting with several person. If you have not spend extra time to layout these window, you will never know which one has given you a new message. And you have to continuously press F3 to switch between them. That's boring.
 
feyn-man said:
I know what you mean. But sometime that's really not so good.
Look, if you are chatting with several person. If you have not spend extra time to layout these window, you will never know which one has given you a new message. And you have to continuously press F3 to switch between them. That's boring.
Click to expand...

Then you need Adium. Tabbed messaging. Supports MSN.

Adiumx.com
 
When you have many windows from the same application, XP groups them on the task bar. In that case, you also need to do two clicks to go from one window to another one (and move the mouse more than in Leopard using expose btw).
 
PJM said:
When you have many windows from the same application, XP groups them on the task bar. In that case, you also need to do two clicks to go from one window to another one (and move the mouse more than in Leopard using expose btw).
Click to expand...

No, XP has the option to not group them.
 
1. get adium

2. if for some reason you don't, go to system prefs>expose and set one of your corners to expose. Then you can just sweep the mouse into the corner and select which window you want. i love it. just switched to mac 2 month ago, and now when I'm using MS Windows, I keep moving the mouse into the corner and it's really disappointing... 🙂
 
feyn-man said:
No, XP has the option to not group them.
Click to expand...

Just how large was your taskbar/ just how few programs did you have open at once? I almost always ran out of room on my taskbar in Windows, grouped or no.

As others have said, either F10 (or whatever it is on the new keyboards) to tile just the windows of a given application, or Command+~ to 'Alt+Tab' between them a la Windows.

Frankly, Expose is faster than scanning the taskbar, at least to everyone I have ever talked to it is.

Also, do you fullscreen your windows? That might be the first thing. For example, very few webpages are resolution independent, and full screening them when you have a resolution greater than say... 1024*768 is silly since then you just have tons of wasted space. OS X is built for multi-tasking. As one review I saw put it 'Contrary to its name, Windows really does a poor job of handling lots of windows.'
 
feyn-man said:
No, XP has the option to not group them.
Click to expand...

If you use the option "do not group them" and have many windows, it is even worse. You will not see the full window titles and will have to scan one by one until finding the right window.
 
Stop trying to make OSX behave like Windows. It won't. A lot of people are trying to help you do what you want in an easier way. Don't be so close-minded and just try something different. If you don't like it, go back to Windows.
 
feyn-man said:
I said that is more action than in windows. In windows you can see what you want without doing anything, just look.
Click to expand...

Expose is how it's done in OSX.
The comparison to Windows is pointless drivel, unless you are doing a feature/function comparison during the process of choosing a platform.
 
This is just one of those cases where the Windows UI is better. They each have their strengths. Apple, in general, has pursued the more complex, but "shinier" solution to every interface challenge recently.

Can I has my OS9 Finder back pleeze?
 
snickelfritz said:
Expose is how it's done in OSX.
The comparison to Windows is pointless drivel, unless you are doing a feature/function comparison during the process of choosing a platform.
Click to expand...

In fact, that is not a comparison of windows. Linux can also realize what I said. It's just different way of working. If you have to switch between two window 6-7 times every 10 seconds, then how to do it with Mac?
 
feyn-man said:
In fact, that is not a comparison of windows. Linux can also realize what I said. It's just different way of working. If you have to switch between two window 6-7 times every 10 seconds, then how to do it with Mac?
Click to expand...

What type of mac do you have? What's your screen resolution and are your apps fullscreen?

On all the macs I have, my apps never take the full screen. I always have two apps side by side, one in the back and the other in front. I just click back and forth to switch between apps.

It's to the point to where when I'm at work on a Windows machine, I bump my resolution on my 17" screen as high as possible use small windows to see everything I'm doing. I really try to make my work Windows machine very mac-like. I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything, but you may want to try find a different way of working.
 
Drag the windows into side by side spaces.
I tried it; it works for switching quickly between two windows. (control-arrow)
 
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