Or, Option-click one of the minimized window thumbnails in Mission Control to open all the windows for the application.Ĩ.
Option-click a minimized window in the Dock to retrieve all the minimized windows for its application. Retrieve all windows for an applicationĪdding the Option key can also change some of the ways you retrieve a minimized window into a “retrieve all” operation. Or, Option-double-click a window’s title bar if you’ve turned on that capability as described in the first tip.ħ. Option-click a window’s yellow Minimize button. When you have a bunch of windows open in an application and want to minimize all of them at once, add the Option key to any of the methods for minimizing a single window. A blue frame shows the currently selected window, which can be opened with a click or by pressing Return. In Mission Control’s Application Windows view, an application’s minimized windows are shown as thumbnails beneath its other windows. Or, use the down-arrow key to move from the large windows to the minimized thumbnails, and then the right and left arrow keys to select one press Return to retrieve it. When you go to Mission Control’s Application Windows view with your shortcut, you’ll see the app’s open windows as large icons and the minimized apps as miniature icons, or thumbnails, in a row along the bottom of the screen. Click the More Gestures tab in this pane, check the App Exposé option to turn it on, and then click the menu below it to select a swipe option. Trackpad pane: My favorite way to access Mission Control’s Application Windows view is a trackpad swipe. To change the default keyboard shortcut, click Application windows to select it (checking it doesn’t actually select it) click the current shortcut to make it editable, and then press the shortcut you want. Click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, click Mission Control on the left, and then check the Application windows checkbox on the right to activate it. Keyboard pane: If the shortcuts offered by the Mission Control pane aren’t to your liking, invent your own. (Minimized windows are marked with a diamond in both icon menus and an app’s Window menu.) Even if you don’t minimize windows into their app icons, they’ll be listed in the icon’s menu. Menu choices are often more convenient to use when you have multiple windows minimized, because you can scan their names quickly. Or, if the app has a Window menu, choose the window from there. Control-click the app’s Dock icon and select the window from the menu that appears. So once you’ve minimized a window, what’s the best way to get it back? You have three basic choices.
Minimized windows are marked with a diamond. Retrieve a minimized window Control-click an app’s Dock icon for a menu that includes its open windows.
A window will zoom “into” its app’s icon instead of seeking its own spot in the Dock.Ĥ.
Prevent minimized windows from crowding the Dockĭoes a Dock full of tiny, impossible-to-identify windows strike you as a waste of space? Go to the System Preferences Dock pane and select Minimize windows into application icon. Pressing Command lets you drag a background window around without bringing it forward, so pressing Command while double-clicking a background window’s title bar minimizes the window without activating it.ģ. Go back to the “Sory by” drop-down menu and select “Snap to grid,” then right-click the desktop itself and select “Clean Up.You can even use the title-bar double-click trick described above to shrink a background window if you combine it with another window-handling trick. Prefer to sort your desktop items yourself, but still want everything all nice and neat? Still, the ability to sort desktop files and folders by, say, Date Modified or Date Created could be a powerful feature for anyone who’s sifting through dozens of photos, text files, or other documents.
Note that no matter which automatic sorting option you choose, your Mac will group your icons by type-meaning internal hard drives come first, then shared and external drives, and finally your folders and files. Next, click the drop-down menu that’s labeled “Sort by” and pick an option, from Name and Size to Date Created and Date Last Opened. (If you’re fond of keyboard shortcuts, you can also hit Command-J after clicking the desktop.) Just right-click your desktop, then select Show View Options. Here’s your secret weapon for cleaning up your desktop: the “View Options” menu.