Is there a way to select the Desktop from Exposé? When I click on any part of the Desktop that shows through in between the various windows in Exposé, I am taken back to the last window that was active before Exposé was invoked. Why oh why?! Seems such a waste (I get back by pressing the Exposé-linked button/key anyway), and is totally nonintuitive.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Exposé question
- Thread starter akadmon
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That will just take you out of Exposé.
I don't know of a way to go straight to the desktop from the Exposé view, sorry.
Yes, I'm aware of F11. But there should be a way to do this with the mouse. Perhaps in Leopard...
Actually seems pretty intuitive to me, because it's sort of common practice to "escape" from something by clicking on the desktop. Menus for example function this way. If you accidentally click on a menu, you move off onto the desktop and "escape" the menu. Exposé is essentially a fancy menu. saying "hey, here are your windows, pick one" since the desktop isn't technically a window, you can't select it in this way and Exposé is assuming you want the last window you were working on (maybe as a courtesy measure for those who might accidentally invoke Exposé.
You can set up a hot corner through the Expose System Preferences, but it's just F11 as a button. You can also assign a mouse button to it. I have a Logitech with an extra button I use for Dashboard.
best setup for expose:
bottom left corner = all windows
bottom right corner = show desktop
quick flicks of the wrist, and your workflow is maaaad fast.
while in a full window app, flick to the bottom right, grab the file you need from the desktop, and drag it with a flick to the bottom left, hover over the app you need to drop this file in, and it opens and you can drop.
i think expose, is a god send.
bottom left corner = all windows
bottom right corner = show desktop
quick flicks of the wrist, and your workflow is maaaad fast.
while in a full window app, flick to the bottom right, grab the file you need from the desktop, and drag it with a flick to the bottom left, hover over the app you need to drop this file in, and it opens and you can drop.
i think expose, is a god send.
Ive set my mighty mouse up to exposé (F11 - desktop) when i press the scroll button. And dashboard pops up when i squeeze the mouse.
Can you not look into that in system prefs?
Can you not look into that in system prefs?
I've tried this before and it doesn't really work for me. My dock ribbon fills up pretty much the whole width of the screen, so too often I would invoke Exposé accidentally while trying to select the leftmost or the rightmost app in the dock (my mouse acceleration is set to high -- I hate to move it more than 1" each way). The other two corners suffer from similar problems (one is too close to the Apple menu, the other too close to Spotlight).
I know I'm nitpicking here, since there are workarounds, but really, whats the point of showing the Desktop in the background of Exposé when you can't get to it by clicking on it?
That's the why the desktop dims when Exposé is activated. The dimming gives you a clue that it is not an active "choice" to be selected.
use a mod program to put the dock on the TOP of the screen, a far better place if you ask me.
honestly, LOTS AND LOTS of programs ask you to do stuff towards the bottom of the screen...and yet the dock is there, so it pops up.
I used this for about 5 seconds before googling Dock at top, and got Transparent Dock.
I dont know WHY apple doesnt let you put the dock at the top, other than the fact that you MUST point the cursor at the 1 pixel edge of the desktop/menus to get it to appear.
my way around is a multi button mouse, with one button set to the hotkeys for dock hiding.
honestly, THIS is the fastest way to work.
click, dock pops from top, choose program, click, dock disappears.
leaving expose hot corners in their best places.
if you want to see the desktop, use expose to show the desktop. if you want the desktop to be included in the thumbs view, I dont understand why, as you can do one hotkey for the desktop, and the next for the thumbs, all the while holding something with the cursor...
What woould be even better is if you could link the Dock to a mouse button such that clicking the button would bring up the Dock right at the location of the cursor, eleminating the need to move the mouse to get to the dock.
This is an excellent setup! It took a while for me to warm to it, but now, when I'm on my windows machine, I just wish I could do the same!
It is fantastic for switching windows, and moing files from folder to folder.
Try it for a couple of days.
And don't forget u can set your side buttons of your Mighty Mouse to return to your desktop, and use the centre button (scroll wheel) to use normal expose (F9).
Cheers,
Tom
Have never used the F keys for this. I have set all four hot courners. One to 'show desktop', 'all programs', 'all windows in a program', and 'dashboard'. I then set my scroll wheel button to 'show desktop'. This setup works great for me.