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Does the red X in safari close all open tabs?

D

douggnz

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 26, 2011
9
0
Or am I going crazy? New to OS X Mavericks and thought that pressing the red X in Safari didn't close the tabs, but just minimised the program? Or has it been closing the tabs all along and I just haven't noticed haha?

I'm still trying to get used to how random the red X is as each program acts differently kinda negating the minimise button!
 
douggnz said:
Or am I going crazy? New to OS X Mavericks and thought that pressing the red X in Safari didn't close the tabs, but just minimised the program? Or has it been closing the tabs all along and I just haven't noticed haha?

I'm still trying to get used to how random the red X is as each program acts differently kinda negating the minimise button!
Click to expand...
As it always has, the red button closes the window, including all tabs on that window. The yellow button minimizes the window. On a single-window app such as Photo Booth or Contacts or Reminders, the red button that closes the window also quits the app. On a multi-window app such as Safari, Word/Excel/Powerpoint, Pages/Numbers/Keynote or Mail, the red button closes the window but leaves the app running.
 
You can always try learning the shortcuts to the different tasks. For example:

- ⌘ + Q does quit the current program
- ⌘ + W does quit the current tab in Safari

Most of the time the red X doesn't act like shutting down a program but instead just closing it while still being active.
 
douggnz said:
... used to how random the red X is as each program acts differently kinda negating the minimise button!
Click to expand...

Not really. There are two behaviors: it quits the program (rare) or it closes the active window and leaves the program running (most of the time). The rare ones are applications that cannot have two or more windows open at the same time.
 
Gregg2 said:
Not really. There are two behaviors: it quits the program (rare) or it closes the active window and leaves the program running (most of the time). The rare ones are applications that cannot have two or more windows open at the same time.
Click to expand...

iMessage doesn't quit with the red X and can't have more than one window? Spotify doesn't close with the X and can't have more than one window? It is indeed random and appears that a lot of devs make the minimise and close buttons do the same thing - the only difference is you don't see the minimise animation!

Would be a lot easier if they just removed the red button and had minimise and zoom. At least then it would be consistent. It's the one thing I'm finding very strange about Mac OS X coming from Linux. I can see what OS X is trying to do, but why not remove the X like they do with Gnome 3?
 
douggnz said:
iMessage doesn't quit with the red X and can't have more than one window? Spotify doesn't close with the X and can't have more than one window? It is indeed random and appears that a lot of devs make the minimise and close buttons do the same thing - the only difference is you don't see the minimise animation!
Click to expand...



You'll figure it out with time. The apps you cited are of the variety that tend to run in the background. They would, for example, have a system tray icon if you were running Windows.


As you use different apps that work with individual documents, you will come to see that the red X button serves a vital function in the Mac OS. It's not there arbitrarily. It has always served to close the document that is open in the currently selected window.
 
douggnz said:
iMessage doesn't quit with the red X and can't have more than one window?
Click to expand...
I can't speak for Spotify, since I don't use it, but Messages can, indeed, have multiple windows, such as Messages, Buddies, File Transfers. Just click the Window item on the Messages toolbar to see. It doesn't matter if you only have one window open. It's whether or not the app is capable of having multiple windows, as Messages clearly is.
douggnz said:
It is indeed random and appears that a lot of devs make the minimise and close buttons do the same thing - the only difference is you don't see the minimise animation!
Click to expand...
No, it's not random. Minimize is never the same as close. Minimize hides the window but does not close it.
 
A little advice to douggnz:

If you want to avoid confusion about when a window is closed and when it is only minimized, make sure you have your preferences set to not minimize windows into the app's dock icon.

That way, all your minimized windows will be placed separately on the right side of the dock, next to the trash.
 
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