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cpac · Jan 9, 2004, 11:41 AM

When expose came out, I thought "wow! that'll be useful." But I never seemed to get the ol' F9 into my work habits - relying instead on command-tab and command-` to do window navigation.

Well then the other day I thought I'd add in a gesture making the top right corner a hot-corner for the all window expose (I rarely if ever click on the clock which is my top, rightmost item)

All I can say is wow - this works for me, and once you've found a method of easily using expose, it rocks! hard to imagine using OS X without it.

Anybody have similar experiences?

quadgrande · Jan 9, 2004, 11:44 AM

I use the middle mouse button, and I agree, it's fully integrated into my workflow.

SOLIDAge · Jan 9, 2004, 12:08 PM

Originally posted by quadgrande:
I use the middle mouse button, and I agree, it's fully integrated into my workflow.

ditto
and right click on the side of the mouse =desktop view.

andreas_g4 · Jan 9, 2004, 12:19 PM

Originally posted by cpac:
When expose came out, I thought "wow! that'll be useful." But I never seemed to get the ol' F9 into my work habits - relying instead on command-tab and command-` to do window navigation.

Well then the other day I thought I'd add in a gesture making the top right corner a hot-corner for the all window expose (I rarely if ever click on the clock which is my top, rightmost item)

All I can say is wow - this works for me, and once you've found a method of easily using expose, it rocks! hard to imagine using OS X without it.

Anybody have similar experiences?

I have exactly the same experience. My top-left corner is F9, my top right corner is F11. Expos� is a BIG DEAL for me. I love it.

DavideMac · Jan 9, 2004, 12:31 PM

quadgrande, I can't thank you enough. I never noticed that you could incorporate the buttons on the mouse for use with Expose. I'm using the middle button for F9 and it's absolutely awesome. I'm finally going to get some good use out of Expose. I think I'm going to start shopping around for a 5 or 7 button mouse.

Thank you!!

Nonsuch · Jan 9, 2004, 12:52 PM

Upper-right hot corner would be perfect for me�except I still use Outlook in classic, and end up triggering Expos� when going up to the Classic app switcher. For this petty reason, and because Classic windows don't appear in Expos� anyway, I wish there was a control to disable Expos� while in Classic. But I don't suppose a lot of folks have problems like mine.

I use ctrl-right click for Expos� now; so far it seems to suit me.

andreas_g4 · Jan 9, 2004, 01:45 PM

Originally posted by Nonsuch:
Upper-right hot corner would be perfect for me�except I still use Outlook in classic, and end up triggering Expos� when going up to the Classic app switcher. For this petty reason, and because Classic windows don't appear in Expos� anyway, I wish there was a control to disable Expos� while in Classic. But I don't suppose a lot of folks have problems like mine.

I use ctrl-right click for Expos� now; so far it seems to suit me.

Is there a specific reason why you still run outlook? Are the alternatives not suitable for you?

[APi]TheMan · Jan 9, 2004, 01:50 PM

Originally posted by cpac:
When expose came out, I thought "wow! that'll be useful." But I never seemed to get the ol' F9 into my work habits - relying instead on command-tab and command-` to do window navigation.

So true. I think Expos� is sweet but I haven't worked it into my routine yet. I know I really don't have a need for the windowing features (F9 and F10) of Expos�, mainly due to the fact that as long as I've been using Macs I've learned to hold down option while I switch applications, so I never really have too many windows or too much clutter on my screen.

I was at the MacWorld expo a few days ago and I was watching a Panther demonstration by some Apple guy. One of the things that caught my attention was things like dragging and dropping files that are on your desktop into other windows or applications. I never really understood this feature of the "Show Desktop" Expos� button but it makes life a lot easier.

His example was dragging a picture that was on his desktop into a new e-mail in Mail.app. The screen was cluttered with Mail.app's windows and the desktop was effectively hidden. He hit F11 and then grabbed his file, and while still holding the file, hit F11 again and Mail.app zoomed back to the center and he dropped the file on there. Wow.

I'm sold.

rphtechnology · Jan 9, 2004, 02:01 PM

I have also found that it increases productivity. No longer does one need to double click or drag open windows to get them out of the way. I have an M$ Intelli Explorer and using the buttons on the side as well as the scroll button works wonders with Expose (it really throws users off who haven't seen it before and have a tendency to accidently click one of the side buttons!) Cheers to Apple for such a well implemented idea.

Nonsuch · Jan 9, 2004, 03:30 PM

Originally posted by andreas_g4:
Is there a specific reason why you still run outlook? Are the alternatives not suitable for you?

It's the only thing that works with our Exchange setup here. Believe me, nothing I'd like more than to junk Classic ...

ShotgunEd · Jan 9, 2004, 03:50 PM

Hopefully MS Office 2004 will have an updated Entourage that'll let you connect to the Exchange server.

[APi]TheMan · Jan 9, 2004, 04:09 PM

Originally posted by ShotgunEd:
Hopefully MS Office 2004 will have an updated Entourage that'll let you connect to the Exchange server.

Well Microsoft released an Office X update about 2 months ago that allows for Entourage connectivity to Exchange servers (I believe it was version 10.1.4), but Entourage for OS X is horrible in my opinion.

But I do have sympathies for those still forced to use Outlook 2001 in Classic-- our University relies on the calendar and global address features of Outlook very heavily. Yuck!

kovacs · Jan 9, 2004, 04:10 PM

Yep, thanks for the tip, I'm now using one of the side buttons to show all windows, if I had more buttons I would use one to show the desktop, but since clicking the scroll wheel on my MS intellipoint explorer doesn't seem to do anything that isn't going to happen...

ShotgunEd · Jan 9, 2004, 04:38 PM

Originally posted by [APi]TheMan:
Well Microsoft released an Office X update about 2 months ago that allows for Entourage connectivity to Exchange servers (I believe it was version 10.1.4), but Entourage for OS X is horrible in my opinion.

But I do have sympathies for those still forced to use Outlook 2001 in Classic-- our University relies on the calendar and global address features of Outlook very heavily. Yuck!

Guess I missed that meeting.

philm · Jan 9, 2004, 04:46 PM

F9, F10 and F11 didn't make sense to me for Expos�. My application switching is done with my left hand (especially command-tab and command-tab with Launchbar), so jumpting across the keyboard to F9-F11 was no good. When I re-assigned the keys to F1, F2 and F3 - bingo. Now part of my workflow.

cpac · Jan 10, 2004, 01:29 PM

Originally posted by [APi]TheMan:
One of the things that caught my attention was things like dragging and dropping files that are on your desktop into other windows or applications. I never really understood this feature of the "Show Desktop" Expos� button but it makes life a lot easier.

His example was dragging a picture that was on his desktop into a new e-mail in Mail.app. The screen was cluttered with Mail.app's windows and the desktop was effectively hidden. He hit F11 and then grabbed his file, and while still holding the file, hit F11 again and Mail.app zoomed back to the center and he dropped the file on there. Wow.

I'm sold.

I'll do you one better.

I got a new HD for christmas and have been ripping all my CDs with iTunes. I've been finding cover art at Amazon.com and dragging it into my newly imported songs, but screen real-estate on my tiBook 500 is scarce and I usually operate with iTunes and my browser (omniweb) almost full screen.

normally I'd have to arrange the windows so that I could see both the image I was dragging from OmniWeb and the album art portion of iTunes at the same time, bring OW to the front, and then drag the picture over.

Now, I can just be in OW, start dragging the picture, drag it to the upper right corner (activating expose), hold it over the iTunes window (like a spring loaded folder) and then drop it on the album art space.

it's all *one* drag-n-drop motion!

osxisfun · Jan 10, 2004, 01:52 PM

scroll wheel button my my m$ mouse.

expose rules!

kovacs · Jan 10, 2004, 02:07 PM

Originally posted by osxisfun:
scroll wheel button my my m$ mouse.

expose rules!

How do you do that ? My scroll wheel is not listed as a clickable button in the Intellipoint software.. I there a new version ?

JKT · Jan 10, 2004, 02:54 PM

Originally posted by cpac:
normally I'd have to arrange the windows so that I could see both the image I was dragging from OmniWeb and the album art portion of iTunes at the same time, bring OW to the front, and then drag the picture over.

Just to be pedantic, but you didn't have to do that - you could have simply dragged the file, held the drag and then command-tabbed to the background app to bring it to the foreground, then dropped - no window rearranging required other than ensuring you had the right ones on view in the two different apps.

Expos� however, does make this action even easier and simpler than before.

darkcore · Jan 10, 2004, 03:16 PM

Originally posted by kovacs:
How do you do that ? My scroll wheel is not listed as a clickable button in the Intellipoint software.. I there a new version ?

You can do it from within the Expos� prefpane under System Preferences, you don't need to use the Intellipoint software to do this.

kovacs · Jan 10, 2004, 03:33 PM

Originally posted by darkcore:
You can do it from within the Expos� prefpane under System Preferences, you don't need to use the Intellipoint software to do this.

Nope doesn't work the scroll wheel is not listed ( as a button ) in the menu...

NeilCharter · Jan 10, 2004, 04:01 PM

Thanks for the suggestions - the middle mouse button is good one for me on my desktop machine.

However we alos have a powerbook were only f11 works. F9 & 10 are allocated for the keyboard brightness controls. This is a shame since Expose is most useful for lower resolution LCD screens.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Neil

darkcore · Jan 10, 2004, 04:40 PM

Originally posted by kovacs:
Nope doesn't work the scroll wheel is not listed ( as a button ) in the menu...

Is there a "Middle Mouse Button" in the menu? The scroll wheel button is the same as the middle mouse button

kovacs · Jan 10, 2004, 05:05 PM

Yeah hehe, no middle button, buttons are numbered from 1-5 and I've tried 'em all...

Well it's not that important anyway, I have set up one of the side keys to show all windows but would like the middle button to show the desktop...

Cadaver · Jan 10, 2004, 05:44 PM

Logitech MX-700...
I've got the "Task Switch" button set to activate Expose. Love it.

stew · Jan 10, 2004, 08:12 PM

I hardly ever use it. My iBook has only one lousy mouse button (curse you, Apple), several of my applications use the F9-F11 keys and aiming for the screen corners with a touch pad usually takes longer than pressing command-tab or command-H

Busemann · 08:44 PM

I have totally gotten used to expos�, and actually take myself in gesturing the mouse on the xp machine at work now

Hop Pocket · Jan 11, 2004, 12:45 AM

Expos� has not really changed the way I use my mac except for the Show Desktop lower right hand corner configuration. I find that insanely useful.

I am a slave to LaunchBar, which helps me manage all of my windows fairly well. Oh, that and CMD-~.