Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard tip: Minimize to icon
The more we use Snow Leopard the more niceties we uncover. This week I found a simple little check box that has made my life infinitely more awesome. Yes, my entire life.First, a bit of background. When Mac OS 10.0 was released in September of 2001, we all went crazy with the genie effect, watching windows slip in and out of the newly-introduced Dock with silky smoothness.* Window after window slid into place.
The problem was this: minimized windows moved neighboring icons aside, making everything a bit smaller and harder to identify. Eventually the whole mess became unusable. Sure, you could mouse over or check the identifying icon but ancient eyes like mine aren't meant for such strain.
Snow Leopard has come to the rescue. Now you can minimize windows "behind" their parent app's icon. Here's how. First. launch System Preferences and click "Dock." Then, select "Minimize windows into application icon." As Jeff Goldblum said, "There's no step three." Now, minimized windows scoot behind your Dock icons and there's no more crowding.
*OK, jaggy, halting smoothness. Still, it was cool. Mostly.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
me said 6:09PM on 9-21-2009
A big downside I see here, though, is that it's a lot harder to find your minimized windows. Although the new Expose here does help. ("Aha!")
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Nate said 8:01PM on 9-21-2009
Exactly... there's no way to identify when you have minimized windows. The dock needs to provide some indication... even just making the icons transparent like it used to do with hidden applications.
I feel like hiding and minimizing has become sort of confusing in this update... not much difference between the two.
Roberto said 8:12PM on 9-21-2009
SL, now more Windows-like than ever!
Roberto said 8:14PM on 9-21-2009
@ Nate
Keep your mouse button depressed until the expose function kicks in. The minimized windows appear in the bottom row.
SimonSharks said 3:42AM on 9-22-2009
This is a flaw in the design of the dock rather than the new minimise to dock function. The dock tells you nothing. You can't tell how many windows are open, which space they are in, whether there are minimised windows.
Luckily the new expose fixes most of these problems.
Mystic said 6:13PM on 9-21-2009
I've never understood the appeal of minimize. I just hide my applications. (command-h) and then (command-tab) to bring them back up.
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Darren said 6:28PM on 9-21-2009
Minimizing a window takes it out of the Command-` rotation, so it's very effective at de-cluttering your work flow.
I usually use it with Terminal and Safari, where I may have windows that I'm not currently working with but need to remain open. Minimizing them puts them out of the way.
Information Central said 7:25PM on 9-21-2009
That's actually a defect (assuming you mean Command-Tab). After you minimize an app, Command-Tabbing back to it doesn't restore its window. It remains useless and minimized in the Dock, pretty much defeating the purpose of tabbing back to it.
scarletapricot said 12:07AM on 9-22-2009
You can't minimize an application. You minimize windows. If you have two windows open in Safari, and one of them is minimized, cmd-tab will bring you to the open one while the minimized one stays tucked away in the dock.
Personally, I never minimize things, I keep everything open and use Spaces and Exposé to move around. And thanks to tabs in browsers and several other apps, I really don't have that many windows anyway (plus, I hide apps I'm not actually using).
hmlong said 1:43AM on 9-22-2009
Unfortunately part of the behavior is broken. Minimize a window to the dock and it will also remember the space it was in. Click the minimized icon and the window will relaunch back exactly where it was originally. Both in size, position, and space.
Under SL, however, click a minimized-to-app window and it restores then and there, forgetting its previous location (space).
Jordan said 6:18PM on 9-21-2009
It only took 6 releases to add that?
I still find the dock difficult to use as far as window management goes.
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Tacoman said 6:22PM on 9-21-2009
Hold shift when you minimize and watch some slow motion genie effects. (0_0)
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smcassara said 6:35PM on 9-21-2009
hah! pretty nifty... i guess it's the simple things
Jordan said 8:22PM on 9-21-2009
Pretty pointless...
Ryan Trevisol said 8:27PM on 9-21-2009
Anyone else prefer the "suck" minimize method? You can activate it if you get secrets (http://secrets.blacktree.com/) . . . I find it much more slick than genie.
gerdozain said 8:45AM on 9-22-2009
Old trick, but cool nonerheless. It also works with dashboard.
Sjan said 6:27PM on 9-21-2009
Sweet! Makes testing web pages less painful (7 native browsers, 2 Parallels VMs along with all the Windows browsers adding their own icons, and minimized terminal, etc etc) - minimizing anything made my left side task bar outrageous.
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Michael Johnson said 6:44PM on 9-21-2009
Great feature, been using it for a while. Only complain on it, is if you have multiple instances of a program open. I wish if you moused over the "Parent" it would stack the open windows for you and choose which one you want back. Expose is nice, but would be better if it would stack. Otherwise I LOVE the new feature.
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bill cant fart said 7:27PM on 9-21-2009
That sounds a lot like a Windows 7 taskbar...
Jordan said 7:53PM on 9-21-2009
No way man, Microsoft stole that from Apple even thought OSX can't do that yet