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Brent Simmons asks an interesting question, 'Do you minimize, hide, or close your windows?' Thanks to the wonders of the Mac OS we have more choices than ever when controlling our windows (though gone are the days of collapsing the window into the title bar, unless you use a haxie).Reply in the Mail.app with a specific quote.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dadn said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I never use anything but expose`
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DCE said 11:54AM on 11-25-2005
If I'm not working in an application directly, I hide it by option-clicking the desktop. To bring it back again I tab into the application switcher.
I've been option-clicking the desktop for years, long before OS X existed. It's one of those habits that have become absolutely automatic.
Which is perhaps why I've never taken to expose. I almost never have multiple windows and/or multiple applications on the desktop at the same time.
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Dean Shan said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I always use hide. Apple 'H' is never far from my fingers.
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Dan Siercks said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I'm with Dadn, I use Expose primarily, and almost never minimize windows. I do however switch between windows of the active application using (apple/command)-(`/~) often, and generally find that much more usefull then (apple/command)-tab.
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nomaded said 4:14PM on 9-21-2005
I use a combination of Expose and CodeTek Virtual Desktop. I never hide any apps, unless I don't ever plan on interacting with them, such as Keychain Access.app. But I do minimize some windows, from time to time, but typically, I just keep various windows open in various virtual desktops, and organize apps/windows by tasks.
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Rafe H. said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I use Desktop Manager as a virtual desktop, an elegant "hack" that comes in at 1/5 the size of CodeTek's, is free, and has sweeeet transitions.
Anyway, as a result I rarely hide/minimize/close.
Except now I learned about option-clicking on the Desktop. Holy crap...
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Brett said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I choose "none of the aboce." I am a BIG Expose user, and have assigned the fn key to be the one that resizes all of my open windows so I can easily see which one I want.
http://randomtruth.blogspot.com/
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Joshua McFarren said 11:34AM on 10-12-2005
Minimizing never worked well for me unless I'm putting something away for a very short term. I used to mostly hide some applications and use Expos?o deal with the visible windows in which I was working on a task.
I've found something better though and it's changed the way I get things done. Desktop Manager:
http://wsmanager.sourceforge.net/
I use 4 virtual desktops and switch between them with F1 - F4. Email and my time sheet on one desktop. BBEdit with multiple files on another. ImageReady on a third, and iCal, some terminal window, etc on the last.
Desktop Manager is still an alpha version and there are some minor quirks. But I've easily adjusted to its quirkiness and it's made me work much more efficiently. I'm never looking back.
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Jonathan Horak said 6:07PM on 9-07-2005
Hider.
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Timtom said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I use a combination of Apple-H (hide) and Apple-Tab (switch apps), resorting to Expos?ery rarely (I find Expos?ot very efficient for users with a small screen, like me: 12'' PB).
Trouble is, Apple-H don't work for most Adobe app, since they use it for some sombre action I never found out about. It scares me all the time because when I mistakenly type Apple-H in an Adobe app (say, InDesign), I always notice too late that this won't do what I wanted and, even worse, there's a menu briefly flashing, telling that something did happen, but I have absolutely no clue about what it was...
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Keller said 12:20PM on 8-27-2005
I'm a hider. I have a multi-button mouse, and have one set to option-click. I just use that when I click away from one app to the next. I also have buttons set for expos?ll windows and expos?esktop, so I use those a lot too. (Its funny when people complain about apple not having a 2 button mouse - I don't know how I'd get by with any less than 7) I don't think I've ever intentionally used minimize.
I tried virtual desktops a few times, but never quite taken to them. The most recent time was the closest, when I tried Virtue. But, it slowed my computer down so much that I couldn't hang.
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iBob said 8:17AM on 6-30-2005
personally i double click the title bar to minimise things like finder windows, and always option click to hide apps.
i miss the double click to minimise to title bar, but admit it gets messy and i rarely use the traffic lights. What i really miss from OS 9 was the ability to tab a window at the bottom of the screen. i know the dock is in the way, but maybe they could implement it in the sides?
ive never found a use to tabbing through windows, because ive never used windows extensively and as a result dont find it useful, and unfortunately, the expose buttons are just too far away from where my left hand sits (hovering around the option and command buttons) to be useful.
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mikel egurra said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
desktop manager.
i never minimize. sometimes i hide. i prefer to have everything open, in 5 desktops..
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bc said 6:48PM on 7-20-2005
I hide (cmd-h) when it's something big that I won't be back to in a while (textwrangler, webbrowsers, that sort of thing) and leave everything else open and managed through expose. To get back to the hidden windows I pull the app back up with Quicksilver.
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arkowi said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
expose.
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simon said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I'm a hider -- meta-H / cmd-H.
Like timtom it's really annoying that InDesign uses this for some non-obvious command. When I accidentally type it in InDesign I wonder what I have accidentally changed in the document. Come on Adobe, at least make this a preference!
To get the app back I usually use the Dock, or occasionally alt-tab.
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Shig the Unmentionable said 11:49AM on 7-06-2005
I'm a hider. Have been since the old days. The lower-left button on my four-button trackball is set to option-click.
Occasionally I'll minimize, if I have too many windows open in an application. I sure do miss windowshades, though.
Expos?s a neat idea, but I hardly ever use it at all. Sometimes it's more of an annoyance than anything, like when I accidentally stray into one of the hot corners and have to pick the window I want from the dozens that I can't even remember opening. It's definitely not made for clutter-monkeys like me.
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Frank Patrick said 8:45AM on 7-03-2005
Leave 'em all open (except Mail and iCal, which I close) and let Expose expose 'em.
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Alexis said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I have a logitech MX 310 which has a button in the very middle of the mouse. I set Expose to use this button to shrink all windows, and then use command plus middle button to Expose show desktop. Since I almost always have my dock fidden when I am doing real work I still like "Show Desktop" http://www.everydaysoftware.net/showdesktop/index.html
I also swapped the default image for Show Desktop with one of the World of Aqua icons to make it look a little nicer.
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Alexis said 4:16PM on 6-16-2005
I also wish that tabbed windows would make their way back to OS X. Sticky windows was a nice attempt at bringing that feature back but unfortunately it just doesn't work as well. I loved being able to drag and drop items into any one of my tabbed windows in OS 9.
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