[nyarlaho]

I was trying to find an app that let's me use keyboard combinations for window shade and hide current application. It was next to impossible!

I checked an app called Doubletouch, nicely documented in poor English, but it didn't work well with (for instance) Entourage. Also, it's an app so it has to run all the time.

Quickeys I also tried--but I kept having conflicts with other keycombinations. And I only need windowshade and hide current app, not gazzillions of shortcuts.

Are you peeps using keyboard combinations for these actions? What is good software that enables me to do that? Thanks for any info!

nyarlaho

[Storyboy]

Originally posted by nyarlaho:
<STRONG>Are you peeps using keyboard combinations for these actions? What is good software that enables me to do that? Thanks for any info!
nyarlaho</STRONG>

There's a program (control panel) called LiteSwitch. It allows you to use a keyboard combo to switch, quit, or hide all open apps. Simple, easy to use and, best of all, it's FREE.

I found it at VersionTracker.

There is also something out there called Program Switcher, though I've not used it.

Good Luck.

[waffffffle]

try key quencer lite

[phobos]

If you want to switch between applications then you won't have to use any shareware the apple key +tab will do the job.But for the hitding I'm sorry but yo have to rside on the top right section of your screen...

[nyarlaho]

Thanks for the replies, I will try the suggestions.

I know that COMMAND + TAB let's you switch applications, but it doesn't work so smooth in my opinion. For instance, if you wanna switch from app 1 to app 3, then you cannot prevent app 2 from popping up in the mean-time. That's annoying. Also, you can use COMMAND + SHIFT + TAB to browse through the open apps in the opposite direction, but there's no visual feedback mechanism to tell you what order they're in (except when you have a floating current apps window).

I know there's some programs that let you switch apps in a more economical way--hopefully they also allow HIDE CURRENT APP. And hopefully also WINDOWSHADE (with keyboard combinations, that is).

[nyarlaho]

update

KeyQuencer
pro: Allows you do customize lots of keyboard shortcuts.
con: It doesn't seem to support switching apps, nor does it do windowshade.

Liteswitch
pro: Small, nice working app. Switching between apps, and closing and hiding apps becomes very easy. Free.
con: Doesn't do hide current app, doesn't do windowshade.

Program Switcher
pro: The same as Liteswitch, but with a little more features.
con: Costs money. Not worth the extra dough. Not hide current app, no windowshade either.

Quickeys
pro: Similar to Keyquencer. Allows you to program gazzilions of keycombo's. It does windowshade! Not sure about switching apps, or hide current.
con: Not very userfriedly. conflicts with some other key combinations. Costs dough too.

DoubleTouch
pro: it does windowshade.
con: that's all it does. It's an app, so runs all the time. Doesn't seem to work with any Office 2001 programs. Weird.

Winner: Liteswitch.

[Patrick]

Originally posted by nyarlaho:
<STRONG>
Liteswitch
pro: Small, nice working app. Switching between apps, and closing and hiding apps becomes very easy. Free.
con: Doesn't do hide current app, doesn't do windowshade.
</STRONG>

Actually, you can use it to hide the current app. Just tab over the application's icon and hit W to hide it, then switch to whatever other app you want. And quit an app, do the same with the Q key.

I use this too, and I think it rocks.

There is a key combo built into the Finder to hide the current application. Hold down option and click in the window of a background application (or the desktop). I use it all the time.

[Rainy Day]

Originally posted by nyarlaho:
<STRONG>I was trying to find an app that let's me use keyboard combinations for window shade and hide current application. It was next to impossible!
</STRONG>

It might be helpful to know why you want to do this? For example, did you know that you can hide the current application by holding down the option key while switching to another application? (e.g. by clicking on another app's window, selecting it from the application menu, by clicking an Application Switcher icon, clicking on the desktop, etc.) That might be all you want, then again you might have other reasons for wanting to do this.

Also, application hiding is AppleScritable, as is windowshading from many applications (e.g. Finder, Tex-Edit). I wrote an AppleScript applet which hides all applications and collapses all windows in the Finder. I run the script on boot-up, or whenever things get too busy on the screen.

Also there was one utility which no one seems to have mentioned: One Click. I stopped using it years ago when it caused system instability on my 68K Mac, but that was version 1.0 and it's up to 2.x now. Presumably it's more stable by now.