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I found a "Hidden" Exposé Feature!

T

TigerPRO

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 27, 2003
414
0
Wisconsin
Apple thinks of everything. The way they design applications should amaze us. All the possible interactions between OS features they have thought of. Like off-screen windows sliding into view when your dragging files to them. This is just another example of total coolness...

If your in Exposé ("show all windows" or "show an apps windows") you can use a Command-Tab to switch between showing different applications' windows. Anyone else notice this?
 
I hadn't read the details about how Exposé was supposed to work. I just tired it. I have it set to trigger when I move the cursor to the bottom left corner, and I thought you had to click on a window once you decided which one you wanted. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could also move the cursor back to the corner to cancel my operation. Very nice, Apple.
 
Open a movie in QT Pro in fullscreen mode. set it to loop.
F11 Expose to show the desktop.
Command-tab to the finder.
F11 again.
your desktop will now be a movie, over which you can use other applications.
 
Originally posted by snickelfritz
Open a movie in QT Pro in fullscreen mode. set it to loop.
F11 Expose to show the desktop.
Command-tab to the finder.
F11 again.
your desktop will now be a movie, over which you can use other applications.
Click to expand...

oooooh, I jsut tried that, it sure is cool.

more, more more

aethier
 
Actually, you only have to press tab to switch between applications when using Expose.
 
Originally posted by Macco
Actually, you only have to press tab to switch between applications when using Expose.
Click to expand...

oh this is very good. its alot easier to tab to your destination then to command+tab. i'm sure the command+tab is used during expose to simply highlight the app that you wish to get back to. which, is actually even more simple if you just use command+tab instead of Expose.:confused:
 
My exposé still doesn't darken the background applications when using exposé in Application mode.

I can get it to shade if I use all-windows and immediately move to application windows, but it won't shade itself.

Nobody knows how to fix it.
 
I know another exposé feature...

Put a revealing picture of a very attractive woman on your desktop...

Clutter your screen with lots of open windows...

Press the "show desktop" screen when you need some excitement in your work day...

It truly makes exposé exposé...

:D ;) :cool:
 
Originally posted by snickelfritz
Open a movie in QT Pro in fullscreen mode. set it to loop.
F11 Expose to show the desktop.
Command-tab to the finder.
F11 again.
your desktop will now be a movie, over which you can use other applications.
Click to expand...
I've got a great idea how to use this feature. Watching a lot of motion behind your windows would make it hard to work in your other applications (too distracting), but if you make a video with only occasional motion, you could not only work but really surprise somebody. For example, you could make it look like your desktop pattern was a photo of your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse/child, but he/she could wink once in a while!
 
Originally posted by snickelfritz
Open a movie in QT Pro in fullscreen mode. set it to loop.
F11 Expose to show the desktop.
Command-tab to the finder.
F11 again.
your desktop will now be a movie, over which you can use other applications.
Click to expand...

this is really neat! its kinda tricky, but you can do this with the dvd player too! ugh. unfortunately i can't figure out how i did it. its not full screen anymmore:mad:
 
I was really hoping this trick would be the answer to my "iTunes Visualizer on Desktop" quest, but alas, it doesn't seem to work with the fullscreen mode of iTunes. :(

Guess I'll keep dreaming for now...
 
DoctorQ;
That is an excellent idea, especially for April fools day jokes.

BTW, anyone ever do the "upside-down-unresponsive-desktop" joke?
Take a screenshot of the desktop, open it in Photoshop, flip it over, turn off rulers, set Photoshop to fullscreen mode, and hit TAB.
Takes about 10 seconds, and it's hilarious to watch the victim struggle with it. (Although Expose will undoubtedly be the first thing the victim tries, and will expose what you did.)
 
You don't have to be in expose to use this feature. Just Command-Tab to switch between open apps. It's just like Alt-Tab on Windoze.
 
i didn't realize it at first but you can use the arrow keys to select the window you want when using expose.
 
Did anyone notice that you can do "spring-loaded windows" with Exposé?
Let all windows diappear, drag a file from Finder, look at all windows, mouse over and wait a moment or press space, and it is brought to the front...
 
Originally posted by Macco
Actually, you only have to press tab to switch between applications when using Expose.
Click to expand...

That's awesome! Have like 8 apps open, hit expose, and then just stat hitting tab as fast as you can!! LOL, very cool.
 
My favorite is that when you assign it to a keyboard key, you can grab a file, click the key, drag the file over your destination, and then released to key and it pulls up right where you want it. Very slick, all I need to do is just move my mouse around and suddenly all of my applications are perfectly accessible! Not even a click!
 
I love using expose with my 3rd (to desktop) and 4th (all applications) mouse buttons. Also, if you only have a couple of windows open, you can just leave it up to monitor downloads, chats, etc.

Alia
 
one thing i noticed with expose... (rather Real Player)

Real Player window is not recognized by expose... i imagine this is due to the way Real used unconventional UI calls to render the window or something. another reason to hate that company...
 
I think Real is a very good "Fall from grace" story.

In like 1995, RealAudio was about the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Imagine, playing audio without actually downloading the audio! My brain imagined all kinds of neat possibilities, like internet radio stations...

Then, everything went downhill, presumably due to the love of money, versus the love of technology. Real Player started soaking up all this bloat, like Channels and goofy interfaces, and the whole thing nearly caved in on itself. The only reason it didn't was the enormous amount of wealth supporting it, and the remaining momentum from the early days when the company was truly revolutionary. On the PC, every time you closed the damn thing, you got sent to another window with all kinds of "news". It's just a pain, and needs to go away, since common bandwidth these days allows for streaming MP3 and shoutcast.
 
Originally posted by snickelfritz
BTW, anyone ever do the "upside-down-unresponsive-desktop" joke?
Take a screenshot of the desktop, open it in Photoshop, flip it over, turn off rulers, set Photoshop to fullscreen mode, and hit TAB.
Takes about 10 seconds, and it's hilarious to watch the victim struggle with it. (Although Expose will undoubtedly be the first thing the victim tries, and will expose what you did.)
Click to expand...
I've left a screenshot of the desktop as someone's desktop pattern. You can leave some items on the desktop and put others away. That way, they get mighty confused when some icons can't be selected and dragging others seems to be creating duplicates. Ho ho ho.
 
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