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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Applications > Idea: cmd-tab between windows within apps

Idea: cmd-tab between windows within apps
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Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Manchester, UK
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Feb 28, 2004, 02:52 PM
 
I have become used to the command-tab method of moving between applications in Panther, and it really suits my method of working. I would really like something similar for moving between windows within applications. A similar combination of keystrokes would be great, maybe option-tab.

I don't think there is anything out there which quite does this?
     
Mac Elite
Join Date: Feb 2001
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Feb 28, 2004, 03:03 PM
 
Command-` and Command-Shift-` (aka Command-~) are built into the OS and work for all Cocoa and many Carbon apps.
Rick Roe
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philm  (op)
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Feb 28, 2004, 03:28 PM
 
Such a good idea it's already been done. Cheers for that.
     
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Join Date: Jan 2004
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Feb 28, 2004, 07:27 PM
 
I agree that its nice to have this feature in almost all applications, but I think that it should be a bigger feature! My partner and I are currently working on an application that will offer this kind of functionality. Basically taking the cmd-tab feature and design, and applying the same application independent feature that will list ALL WINDOWS... I am not sure why Apple hasn't started looking at the fact that most applications now do not just have 1 window.. ie. AIM, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator... and 20% of your time is switching between documents, not just applications.
     
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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Feb 28, 2004, 08:52 PM
 
Hit F12 or whatever you've set Exposé up to show all windows... now you can use the cursor keys to get quickly to the window you want. That way you can at least switch between all open windows of all non-hidden apps.
     
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Feb 28, 2004, 10:23 PM
 
There is actually a keyboard command that you can use to cycle through windows in a global fashion. Go into the Keyboard preference pane in System Preferences and look in the keyboard shortcuts tab. One of the items there is "Focus on Window", and its default command key is control-F4. It doesn't put up a list like command-tab does for applications, but it will cycle through all the windows in all your applications, and you can of course change the key to use there in the preferences.
     
TC
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Feb 29, 2004, 06:38 AM
 
I really like how you can interact with the application switcher you bring up with cmd-TAB. It allows you to hide + quit applications and you can even use the scroller on your mouse to move around the applications.
I wish they would make Exposè a bit easier to use with the mouse in this way. When Exposè is activated you can move through the open Applications using the TAB key, I wish you could do this with the scroller on the mouse. That way I would set up my middle mouse button to act like F10 and then use the scroller to quickly move through the Apps. If you overshoot it is easier to go back with the scroller than it is to use Shift+TAB.
I'm not a huge fan of the F9 view as I always have too many windows open.
Did you know that when Exposè is active you can use CMD+TAB to choose which application's windows you are looking at instead of just tabbing through all of them.

Finally, I wish they would give us some way to get to a particular window through the application switcher. Maybe they could allow us to right click on an app in the switcher to get a list of all its windows, this could work kind of like the dock menu. Or even better they should show the Window view in the same way as minimized windows are shown in the dock (or like the tab view used by OmniWeb).
Nothing to see, move along.
     
   
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