Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition

Exposé

Before Mission Control, there was Exposé. It was flexible, it was novel, it was a little confusing. These days, Apple incorporated the main functions of Exposé into Mission Control—but Apple didn’t want to break all those Exposé fans’ hearts. So Exposé is still there, for the benefit of old-timers who don’t like change.

One mode shows you miniatures of all windows in just one program; and one hides all windows in all programs so you could see the desktop.

Both of these modes can be triggered using different combinations of the mouse and keyboard. The following pages will cover all of them, but of course you’re not expected to learn all that. Just find the one trigger that seems most convenient, and stick with it.

One-App Exposé

When you trigger Mission Control, you see the thumbnails of all windows in all apps.

But sometimes it’s useful to see only the windows of one app arrayed before you—the app you’re using.

That’s great when you’re Web browsing or word processing. This Exposé function makes the program’s windows spread out, and shrink if necessary, so you can click the one you want (Figure 4-17, top).

Here’s how Apple intends for most people to trigger this option:

• Swipe down on your trackpad with three fingers. You’re shown the miniatures of your current app’s windows. If you point to an icon on the Dock before you swipe, you trigger Exposé for that app instead. (There’s no equivalent on the Magic Mouse—although if you install the free BetterTouchTool, you can dream up a gesture ...