Mac 101: Drag and drop in the Application Switcher
We've talked previously about the wonders of the Application Switcher, the translucent bar that comes up when you hit ?-Tab. However, thanks to Macworld I realized today that the Leopard version adds a great feature that should have been there a long time ago: drag and drop. In Leopard the application icons in the Application Switcher are live. This means you can grab a file in the Finder, hit ?-Tab, and drop the file on the running application of your choice. So, for instance, you can easily drop a plist on a text editor instead of using the default plist editor. In previous versions of OS X you needed LiteSwitch X ($14.95) to achieve the same thing (though it's true that LiteSwitch X still has a few tricks up its sleeve that the default Application Switcher is missing).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
J Hall said 2:56AM on 2-04-2008
Doesn't work Leopard 10.5.1 (24inch Intel Core2Duo iMac) - get up App switcher Command+tab - Can stop on app icon I want by lifting finger off tab key. Dragging .doc to Word icon in app switcher just brings Word to the front but doesn't open .doc.
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Michaël said 10:18AM on 11-27-2007
Very good feature. Thanks !
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Saxon said 10:22AM on 11-27-2007
Why not just save yourself a keystroke and drag it to the application icon on the dock?
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Danny said 10:32AM on 11-27-2007
@ #2
was asking myself the very same question.
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jopari said 11:09AM on 11-27-2007
Umm, I'm pretty sure I did this in Tiger. It's still a great tip though.
@ 2+3: It may not make sense to you, but I cannot count the times I have used this method. Also, if you keep your Dock hidden, it's a lot quicker than waiting for the Dock to pop up.
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Luigi said 11:14AM on 11-27-2007
Thats not a new feature, I used it back in tiger Im pretty sure.. any1 still has tiger that can confirm?
Luigi
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Suj said 10:08AM on 12-02-2007
Just tried it, I can't get it working.
terry said 11:22AM on 11-27-2007
However, Leopard has taken one feature away from the Application Switcher, compared to Tiger. In Tiger, once invoked, you were able to cycle through the apps with ⌘-Arrow left or right, and when you got to the end it would jump round to the other end. Now, it sticks on the end. True, ⌘-Tab still cycles and jumps, but to reverse direction is Shift-⌘-Tab, an awkward key combination.
Can't imagine why they took away something that was useful, that was ingrained in some peoples' work pattern, and didn't get in the way of anything else that night be happening. A pointless, retrograde step.
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Stef said 4:41AM on 12-24-2007
Yep, really stupid that they took that feature away. I always scroll through the apps using the arrow key. And now suddenly it stops at the end... So basic. So useful. So unnecessary to kill it...
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DrWho said 11:44AM on 11-27-2007
@ 2+3
Because to get to the dock you have to move to the bottom of the screen, sometimes the task switcher is closer.
Plus what 4 said
Plus choice is good
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Max Williams said 11:55AM on 11-27-2007
It doesn't work like that in Tiger. You can grab a file, command-tab to switch application and then drop it into the application (like, into an open window), but you can't simply release it on the application icon to open it in that app.
If Leopard adds the feature to let you drop it straight onto the icon, that sounds useful to me.
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Ebika said 12:04PM on 11-27-2007
This is an interesting tip. Now I know I have a choice of dragging a file to the dock or the task switcher.
By the way, what application goes with that heart icon in the screenshot?
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Mat Lu said 12:07PM on 11-27-2007
@9: It's Skitch
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Mat Lu said 12:08PM on 11-27-2007
@4: You can't drag and drop onto the Application Switcher icon itself in Tiger. You can drag, hold, switch and drop, however.
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paul said 12:29PM on 11-27-2007
@6 In addition to Shift+⌘+Tab, you can also use ⌘+~ to reverse the direction. It's a much simpler combination.
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kurt.tappe said 2:14PM on 11-27-2007
This does not work on my install of 10.5.1. I start dragging a file in Finder, invoke Command-Tab, and try to drag onto an icon. However, the highlight in the task switcher keeps cycling through all the icons and after about 2 seconds brings Entourage to the front, no matter what other icon I was hovering over. This is 100% repeatable.
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kurt.tappe said 2:17PM on 11-27-2007
I'd like to add that I see this exact same "cycling" behavior in another completely fresh copy of Leopard too. That implies to me that it's endemic to all copies of Leopard and that this tip is fundamentally flawed.
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valthewu said 4:36PM on 11-27-2007
can't do that "Shift+⌘+Tab, you can also use ⌘+~" on german keyboard! stupid or another key combination.
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Brian said 1:38AM on 1-20-2008
Is there a way to change the color of the background on the application switcher?
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