Mac OS X Power Hound, Second Edition

Window Tricks

What would the Mac be without its glorious, overlapping, drop-shadowed windows?

Unix, that’s what.

In any case, mastering the many wonders of the Mac OS X window is a key survival skill.

Docking Multiple Windows

Minimizing windows is one of OS X’s more compelling visual tricks. With a simple click of the yellow button, the active window shrinks down and places itself in your dock, ready for future use with the click of a mouse.

But what if you’ve minimized 15 different Safari windows to the Dock, and decide you want them all back? It’s rather annoying to click 15 times just to get your windows back.

Luckily, there’s a fast way out: just hold down the Option key before you click any of the minimized windows, and they’ll all expand into a nicely organized bunch on your desktop.

Note

Unfortunately, this great timesaver generally works only for Cocoa applications such as Mail, Safari, TextEdit, and OmniWeb. Carbon programs (like the Finder and Office 2004) won’t even unminimize a single window if you have the Option key held down.

Insta-Closing Multiple Windows

When you find yourself with several open windows in one program, especially in the Finder, don’t waste time trying to close them individually. Instead, Option-click the red close button at the top left of any open window. Presto! All windows close at once. (That is, except in Word 2004; Microsoft marches to a different drummer.)

Moving Background Windows

Suppose you’re writing a training manual about a piece of software. ...