OSX Dock questions - from a switcher

I used Active Screen Corners and have the bottom right set to show "All Windows" with I move the cursor there.

Have you thought about using a full IM client like Adium? Its dock icon notification system keeps a little bubble count of unread messages.

 

That's exactly what I do, and now I find it far more efficient than the Windows taskbar method.

 

It's the same thing. I prefer a mouse over a trackpad, and it's extremely simple to move the pointer to a corner for Exposé or Dashboard or the Desktop.

 

Simple: go to System Preferences, then Dock, uncheck "Minimize windows into application icon"; then any minimized window will have its own icon on the right side of the dock à la 10.5.

 

or just option click on the app in the dock so that it shows the windows in the sub-menu

 

Accessible Windows is NOT 1 click under windows 7. If you multi-task (with various programs and windows open), windows in xp or vista are no longer 1 click accessible either, as they get grouped together and requires 2 clicks.

On the Mac, just click on the app to go back to your top window.

If you want alerts, install Growl. Most Mac users think it's ANNOYING.

 

I use spaces to immediately select a program I want and then cmd + ~ to switch between windows.

If there are ever too many windows to quickly sift through I'll just use expose and I can easily see whatever I am looking for (having used spaces enough I normally only have one or two applications per space open at at time).

I do not even use my dock much unless I am working with one hand.

I also use a laptop w/o a mouse for most of the time.

 

May be you are better off going back to windows since you have trouble adapting to OS X workflow. OS X is great if you like or can adapt it's way of doing things. If not it is incredibly annoying. I don't know if you are using all application windows in full screen. Mac users dont do that usually.

 

Unfortunately it will always remain a two step process in OS X.

And OS X is migrating to full screen apps (in Lion), so forget it! I use the 4 finger gesture (down for expose, right for all open apps) and then mouse click.

As far as notifications, growl is the way to go, and it is annoying, as are bouncing icons in the dock which I now keep hidden.

 

I hate to say this and it it not a common thing to say but i think you should go back to windows.

 

That would be Windows 98, maybe even 2000 because Windows XP and later will group the windows on the taskbar. Windows 7 even has a dock-like taskbar. You can access the windows by hoovering over them, like dock expose (click and hold on the dock icon; use the arrow keys when using the app switcher (=cmd-tab); hit F10; you can tab through the apps). Someone has ported that functionality to the dock in OS X and it's called HyperDock. However, like ls1dreams already said you can still tell Windows 7 to use a button for every little window and dialog. Using a lot of windows/dialogs will cause usability problems because the buttons will be to small to differentiate or click easily. Window management in OS X will be better in this area and so will the new Windows 7 dock-style window management.