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richard13

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 1, 2008
1,118
988
Odessa, FL
One of the things I haven't gotten used to in OS X is this odd way that applications behave when they lose focus. Admittedly, they are odd to me, and maybe not to everyone else. I'm hoping maybe someone could help explain why?

For instance, when using Preview, if I close the last window and then click on the desktop the app icon disappears from the dock and the menu is gone. It looks like Preview just exited but a quick look at Activity Monitor shows it's still running. However, there doesn't seem to be a way of getting back to Preview. I can't alt-Tab back to it or anything. The only thing I can do is launch it again.

Other apps like TextEdit do the same thing. Why?

Similarly, if I minimize Mail and then try to alt-Tab back to it, the window doesn't come back into focus. I have to click on the icon in the dock to get it back.

Why would it work this way? Is this useful?

Thanks for your help!
 
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