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Help: Interlaced program windows

superninjagoat

superninjagoat

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 23, 2004
325
0
Apex, N.C
In OS 9 and below, when an application was selected, all of it's application windows came to the foreground. OS X allows application windows to be interlaced.

I much prefer the OS 9 behavior, and I'd like to make OS X work that way.

I vaguely remember a setting that could be changed via command line that would restore this behavior. I think I read it on these pages, but I may have seen it elsewhere. Regardless, I couldn't find it when I searched the forums.

Anyone remember this trick and how to do it? Also, does it still work with Panther (I'm running 10.3.5)? I think I saw the trick in the 10.1.X days.

Any help would be appreciated. s.n.goat

__NOTE__
What I really want is to be able to click on my desktop and bring all finder windows to the foreground. Perhaps I can change the behavior of the Finder w/0 changing other programs?
 
Sex, lies and Macintosh

Sorry for the misleading title. I previously posted with a less sexy thread title "interlaced program window" or some such, but I received a dozen or so views and no responces. Perhaps this time I'll get an answer ...

In OS 9 and below, when an application was selected, all of it's application windows came to the foreground. OS X allows application windows to be interlaced.

I much prefer the OS 9 behavior, and I'd like to make OS X work that way.

I vaguely remember a setting that could be changed via command line that would restore this behavior. I think I read it on these pages, but I may have seen it elsewhere. Regardless, I couldn't find it when I searched the forums.

Anyone remember this trick and how to do it? Also, does it still work with Panther (I'm running 10.3.5)? I think I saw the trick in the 10.1.X days.

Any help would be appreciated. s.n.goat

__NOTE__
What I really want is to be able to click on my desktop and bring all finder windows to the foreground. Perhaps I can change the behavior of the Finder w/0 changing other programs?

[From Doctor Q: I don't like the precedent of using purposely misleading thread titles, so I merged the threads. In the meantime, I think you got your answer.]
 
I will respond but its useless in my opinon (my reply that is).

I dont know. Last OS i used before this one (OSX) was the one that was around like 10 years ago and i dont remmber anything, so cant offer you anything.
 
Somewhat inelegant, but if you select an application, then use Exposé to display all windows, which will bring them all to the front.

Clicking on any of them will leave them all in the front.

Edit: Beaten to it!
 
I think the quickest is to apple+tab to the program you want to bring to the front. (App switcher)
 
the reason OS 9 did that was because of it's poor multitasking.

It's a feature in OS X that not all the app's windows need to be in the foreground.
 
ryan42 said:
the reason OS 9 did that was because of it's poor multitasking.

It's a feature in OS X that not all the app's windows need to be in the foreground.
Click to expand...

One man's feature is another man's annoyance. I've been using the "click the Finder icon" solution thus far. But I keep my dock extremely small, and aiming for it takes more effort that clicking on some exposed portion of the desktop. Plus (and this is my main problem with this solution) depending on how many items are in the dock, the finder icon moves ever-so-slightly. So much for muscle memory.

ALL: I know there's a solution to this somewhere. It was a command-line setting …
 
REPEAT- screw going to the dock- apple+tab to it. Takes a fraction of a second.
 
decksnap said:
REPEAT- screw going to the dock- apple+tab to it. Takes a fraction of a second.
Click to expand...

OK, you win. That's actually quicker that what I was doing before. Funny enough, I use Ap Switcher to quit programs frequently, but until today, I've not actually used it for – get ready – switching applications.

Thanks for knocking some sense in me. s.n.goat
 
The old utility ASM, although its main purpose was to bring back the App Switcher Menu in the top right (hence its name), had a feature to enable this behavior (both "all app windows stay together" and "desktop clicking brings all Finder windows to front"). It went from freeware to $15 shareware, and development seems to have stopped, but it apparently still works fine under 10.3.5.

I enjoyed using ASM myself through 10.2.something, but somewhere in there I just started dock-clicking instead, and have started to enjoy the window interlacing in a lot of cases now--I can keep a dozen windows open in an app and still use one of them without having all the inactive windows overwhelm everything else on the screen.

Some comments on VersionTracker suggest trying Butler for similar functionality, but I'm not familiar with that app.
 
...hmmmm...thread titles getting "sexed up", whatever next...
dogeyes.gif
...
 
Makosuke said:
The old utility ASM, although its main purpose was to bring back the App Switcher Menu in the top right (hence its name), had a feature to enable this behavior (both "all app windows stay together" and "desktop clicking brings all Finder windows to front"). It went from freeware to $15 shareware, and development seems to have stopped, but it apparently still works fine under 10.3.5.

I enjoyed using ASM myself through 10.2.something, but somewhere in there I just started dock-clicking instead, and have started to enjoy the window interlacing in a lot of cases now--I can keep a dozen windows open in an app and still use one of them without having all the inactive windows overwhelm everything else on the screen.

Some comments on VersionTracker suggest trying Butler for similar functionality, but I'm not familiar with that app.
Click to expand...

Thanks. The menu items sound familiar. I believe that was the "fix" I remembered. s.n.goat
 
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