Filed under: OS, Software, How-tos, Tips and tricks, TUAW Tips
TUAW Tip: Quit applications using Application Switcher
One of the key combinations that I use most on my Mac is Command Tab, which brings up the Application Switcher, as seen above (in most versions of OS X that is). This allows me to switch from one application to another just by hitting the Tab key to cycle through the running applications.
You're saying, 'We know this already, Scott, what a lame tip!' Well, did you know that you can quit an application without leaving the Application Switcher? It is true. Simply hit Command Tab to bring up the Application Switcher and Tab to the application you want to quit. Once it is highlighted, without lifting your finger off of the Command button, hit the Q. Poof! The application quits (assuming that there are no unsaved documents currently in the application).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
recrudesce said 11:10AM on 1-30-2006
i've been doing this for ages !
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GS3 said 11:11AM on 1-30-2006
You can also hide an application by doing the same thing, except instead of depressing the 'Q' key, depress the 'H' key. This will hide the selected application in the application switcher. This comes in handy when working with MS Remote Desktop in full screen mode. I can easily hide the MS Remote Desktop to toggle back to OS X with the application switcher. It keeps 2 worlds from colliding, we all know how messy that can be.
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Paul said 11:12AM on 1-30-2006
news to me, thanks!
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emutree said 11:14AM on 1-30-2006
This is how I quit apps 95% of the time. I love it.
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jonathan Wilson Jr. said 11:17AM on 1-30-2006
wow this is a old one, you can also scroll through the apps using the mouse scroll wheel or trackpad...if you have a scrolling trackpad.
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iomatic said 11:24AM on 1-30-2006
Weird that you're publishing this; I just figured this out yesterday!
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Chris Meisenzahl said 11:25AM on 1-30-2006
Very cool, thanks. I had no idea this functionality existed. I swear not a week goes by that I don't learn another usful OS X key combo.
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portorikan said 11:27AM on 1-30-2006
News to me as well, thanks! That's a neat little tip.
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fra said 11:27AM on 1-30-2006
I worked that one out when I switched to mac, same goes for the dock harddrive menu you told us about... twice
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timothy said 11:28AM on 1-30-2006
Good for you recrudesce! Not everyone is as almighty and wonderful as you! I hate people that feel the need to jump into every article and scream, "That's old!" "I've been doing this for ages!". Guess what, regardless of what your ego thinks, they aren't written to only you, there are other people out there that may not have heard of this. I've been using Macs since 1984, Os X since 10.0, and I've upgraded to every version since then and I didn't know about this. Lot's of people probably didn't know about this. So good article TUAW, thanks for the tip.
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xrissley said 11:30AM on 1-30-2006
On foreign keyboards, weirdly, the Q key doesn't work, it is the key that is occupying the same position as the Q key on US keyboard... (on French keyboards, you'd press A )
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colcam said 11:30AM on 1-30-2006
Maybe I'm the only long-time Mac user in the universe to NOT know this - so thanks, it's a great tip, even if it was only aimed at one person. Me!
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graham said 11:33AM on 1-30-2006
Thats one great Tip Scott, thanks
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Tom Robinson said 11:42AM on 1-30-2006
I love these tips because unlike a lot of the folks on this site, i just got my first Mac one month ago (one moth ago today, actually now that i think about it, and i love it of course). Keep the tips coming!
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Arnaud said 11:43AM on 1-30-2006
For non-qwerty keyboards, the shortcut is not localized, so you have to hit Q as if you had a qwerty keyboard. ('A' in my case, with an azerty keyboard)
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Oliver Otway said 12:03PM on 1-30-2006
Also worth noting,
after pressing command+tab and then releasing tab whilst holding command you can;
1) Use the ARROW KEYS to naviagte left and right, or just point and click :P
2) by HOLD SHIFT down, then TAP TAB key to cycle apps backwards
3) tap Q to quit or H to hide
(I'm looking for more, be back later if successful)
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Brent Todd said 12:05PM on 1-30-2006
I have known about this for a long time and I show this to every mac user because they probably do not know about it. This is a much better tip than that "Put your applications wherever you want".
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Chris Baily said 12:12PM on 1-30-2006
What programm is that G5 Icon?
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Loki Capret said 12:26PM on 1-30-2006
You can also hold shift once the app switcher is active to scroll the opposite way or hit the ~(tilda) to scroll backwards.
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dalton said 12:26PM on 1-30-2006
That's totally awesome. I'm going to use this one every day.
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