Filed under: Mac 101
Mac 101: Active Screen Corners
New to the Mac? Welcome back to our Mac 101 series, which explores the basics of Mac OS X, provides tips and tricks, and dives into key features of Apple's bundled tools.
If you've ever had a panicked moment at work when you need to clear your screen quickly (because you're working on a colleague's birthday card, of course!), Active Screen Corners are for you. They can also activate your screen saver, and help you manage Spaces and Exposé.
To use Active Screen Corners, first open System Preferences (by selecting it from the Apple Menu). Then, click the "Exposé & Spaces" icon.
In the Exposé tab, you'll see there are four corners that you can activate. To use an Active Screen Corner, just move your mouse all the way into that corner. To reverse the action, just move your mouse out of, and then back into, the same corner.
For each corner, there are several handy options. Read on to see what you can do with your Active Screen Corners.
- All Windows shows you every open window in the current Space.
- Application Windows shows you just the windows from the application you're using now.
- Desktop temporarily hides your windows, and shows you your desktop.
- Dashboard shows your Dashboard, obviously.
- Spaces shows you all the Spaces you have configured (which you can do in the Spaces tab, if you haven't already).
- Start Screen Saver will activate your screen saver, naturally.
- Disable Screen Saver will prevent your screen saver from appearing. This can be helpful, for example, if you're monitoring a long file copy, or making a presentation.
- Sleep Display puts your display to sleep, as you might imagine.
- – simply disables that Active Screen Corner.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kennyboy said 2:30PM on 11-10-2008
Help! I am getting e-mail attachments, some are movies, some are not. When I try to open them, a drop menu comes down showing what looks to be decripted stuff. Do I need to load up some program to help me or what?....Kennyboy
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Level 5 said 1:07PM on 11-10-2008
Can you assing a keystroke to the Desktop command? Similar to the Win+D desktop comman in Windows?
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Robert Palmer said 1:11PM on 11-10-2008
There sure is! In that same preference pane, underneath the Active Screen Corners section is a section to assign key commands to Expose actions. You can select a key for Show Desktop using the third drop-down box in that section.
Hope that helps!
iCaci said 1:33PM on 11-10-2008
On recent Apple keyboards by default:
F3 = Expose (All Windows)
Cmd+F3 = Desktop
Ctrl+F3 = Application Windows
If you also hold Shift while typing any of the above combinations you get the slow animation mode.
Option+F3 = "Expose & Spaces" preferences pane
Level 5 said 1:08PM on 11-10-2008
Whoops, that's supposed to be assign. ;)
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balls said 1:16PM on 11-10-2008
I love Expose and Spaces.
I use the top left for Expose, and bottom right for Spaces.
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Peyton said 1:20PM on 11-10-2008
Thanks for posting these tips. One problem I have is that if I use the "Sleep Display" hot corner, it doesn't lock my computer instantly, like the "Screen saver" function does. Is there something that I am missing to make this so?
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toypaj said 1:58PM on 11-10-2008
Bottom Left = Screen Sleep
Bottom Right = Screensaver
I had a Macbook before I had an iMac so:
F9 = Expose
F10 = Open windows of current App
F11 = Desktop
F12 = Dashboard
F19 = Spaces (also CTRL and Arrows)
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brandon said 2:25PM on 11-10-2008
This is a great video tutorial about expose and active screen tutorials http://tinyurl.com/6me2ep
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esposimi said 2:28PM on 11-10-2008
I remember when the old Systems 7 and 8 used to do this, as well as Mac OS 9. If you move the mouse cursor to the upper right of the screen, the screen saver would activate. I'm glad they carried this over into Leopard.
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burger said 2:58PM on 11-10-2008
hmmm... i was hoping this article would contain some sort of convincing argument for using screen corners over good old fashioned keyboard commands. i have never met a single person who doesn't find this feature to be overwhelmingly obnoxious.
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Dorv said 5:18PM on 11-10-2008
Hi, my name is Dorv.
Now you have :)
Michael Jones said 8:27PM on 11-10-2008
@Dorv: lol
@burger: It can be an obnoxious feature at times, but it's just that: a feature. You aren't forced to use it, so if it bothers you, turn it off :-)
In my experience, I've found some corners are better than others. For instance, I never use the top left corner because it always activates when I go to hit the apple menu, nor the bottom right as my mouse often rests there if it slides or I bump it.
Dorv said 9:51PM on 11-10-2008
:). Glad you thought it was funny instead of calling me an ass. Definitely meant to be funny.
Aaron said 3:09PM on 11-10-2008
I wouldn't mind screen corners if there was just some way to control the sensitivity of them. When I'm using the track pad it isn't much of a problem, but when I'm using an external mouse I'm constantly setting them off on accident which means I end up not using the top corners (the worst offenders for my setup). I've searched high and low for a solution to this, but have found nothing.
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Michael Jones said 4:17PM on 11-10-2008
I know at least in 10.4, you could set modifier keys to the hot corners (i.e. you would hold shift and move your mouse to the corner to activate it, instead of just moving your mouse.) To set it up, you just held down shift, control, command or option (or any combination of them) while selecting the corner action in the preferences.
There is also a 3rd party option, called QuickSilver (http://docs.blacktree.com/quicksilver/what_is_quicksilver), that lets you do a number of things, including setting actions to hot corners with a configurable delay.
Hope this helps!
cmuska902 said 5:15PM on 11-10-2008
This has been one of my favorite things about Mac OS since I discovered it. It's an absolutely key feature to excellent productivity for us artists.
Top Left = Screensaver
Top Right = Desktop
Bottom Right = Spaces
Bottom Left = All Windows
Only negative to these is that if someone else is using your computer and they accidentally venture into one of the corners, they have no idea what is happening.
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Dorv said 5:18PM on 11-10-2008
Is there something that might get in the way of active corners?
I've got the 'clear all windows' tied to a corner, and sometimes it just doesn't (I locked it to two of the corners, and neither will work when there's a problem).
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sockatume said 5:51PM on 11-10-2008
I'm incredibly jealous of these, I've got to say. Back in Win98, you had an active corners feature where you could, for example, assign one corner as a "disable screensaver" area if you just wanted to sit back and stare at the screen. And then MS took it away.
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Michael Jones said 8:28PM on 11-10-2008
I think it's still available if you buy the Microsoft Plus! add-on pack.