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17 Responses to "QotD: Switch Apps"

1. | Reply Questionable Intelligence
   Posted 02 Feb 2005 at 11:11pm #
   

   Cmd-tab is the way! Try this: press cmd-tab, then release the tab key while keeping cmd pressed. Move your mouse over the icons to quickly select the one you want, then release the cmd key.

   Here's another one you can use to quit applications without bringing them to the foreground: cmd-tab to highlight the app's icon, then tap the Q key while keeping cmd pressed. As long as the app doesn't need your attention (viz. to save a document) it will silently quit.

2. | Reply chris
   Posted 02 Feb 2005 at 11:33pm #
   

   I tend to app switch with Cmd-Tab. Working on both Mac and Windows, it was an easy habit to develop. Between that and LaunchBar, I'm using the mouse less often.

3. | Reply Elijah Buck
   Posted 02 Feb 2005 at 11:41pm #
   

   Expose on the mac. alt-tab in windows. Usually alt-tab in Linux too, though sometimes a use window shading to get where I want. In Linux and Windows I often find myself shooting the mouse up to the corner and being very dissapointed when nothing happens.

4. | Reply Samul Icky
   Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 1:06am #
   

   cmd-tab all the way!

   My track-pad is still under a low milage lease so I need to consverve my milage. I still can't bring my self to use Expose, it just doesn't seem to fit my habits all that well... or maybe I just don't "get it", the gee-wiz koul-ness of expose never made the leap to being useful.

5. | Reply Samuel Linde
   Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 1:26am #
   

   Definitely Exposé. 9 times out of 10.

   If the window I need isn't visible, it's more often a click in the dock than cmb-tab.

6. | Reply Nathan Sharfi
   Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 2:58am #
   

   In descending order, roughly:

   Expos� (mouse4 and mouse5)command-tabQuicksilverDock

7. | Reply Frode Danielsen
   Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 4:14am #
   

   I haven't got used to Exposé either, but being left-handed cmd-tab is neither all that comfortable for me. When I'm in BBEdit coding, I might tend to use cmd-tab as both my hands are on the keyboard and I'm usually just switching to OmniWeb or another browser.

   But moving my hand from the mouse to do cmd-tab feels awkward. Maybe I should try to find an app that let's me use a similar combo for switching apps as Adium has for switching tabs. Any tips?

8. | Reply Carlos Rivera
   Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 1:25pm #
   

   In my 12 inch powerbook I constantly use cmd-tab, but in my desktop for some reason I keep using the mouse

9. | Reply Bud Landry
   Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 1:28pm #
   

   I use Command Tab more often than Expose, keeping Command pressed down as my finger switches between tab and Q. I'm not sure what Launch Bar offers that Command Tab doesn't cover, for my needs anyway.

10. | Reply amarre
    Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 4:05pm #
    

    - Quicksilver, nothing else is needed 🙂

11. | Reply Jason M
    Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 5:10pm #
    

    CMD Tab if I have less than 5-7 things open, but Expose for when I have huge numbers of windows open. But quicksilver is the only way I launch my apps.

12. | Reply Vinay Venkatesh
    Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 7:37pm #
    

    It's all about the LaunchBar. It reduces the things I have to keep in my head about how to do things.

    Now Back to work!

13. | Reply jeff
    Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 8:14pm #
    

    i'm using Expose more and more these days... but i have a hard time remembering which function key does which. :\

    Next is visible windows and the dock, then command tab. (i mostly just use command tab when i want to kill a bunch of apps quickly.)

14. | Reply Tim Buchheim
    Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 10:45pm #
    

    I think I'm split about 50/50 between the Dock and command-tab. I generally only use Exposé if I have a lot of windows open in one app (which is not that common for me)

    Actually, most of the time I have my windows arranged so they don't overlap much anyway (I have both a 20" and 17" LCD on my primary machine) so usually I just click in the window I want.

15. | Reply Fred
    Posted 03 Feb 2005 at 11:22pm #
    

    Dual-monitor G4 Tower: I usually click on a window, followed by clicking on A-Dock (a dock supplement), followed by Cmd-Tab.

    12" iBook nearly always A-Dock.

    I don't use Expose at all (and I hate when it ambushes me after a miskey). I used to use Launch Bar but never liked it enough to register, and gave up on QuickSilver really quickly after it would max out both dual processors for about 40 minutes after each reboot *blech*.

16. | Reply Erik
    Posted 05 Feb 2005 at 11:15pm #
    

    The switching I use varies depending on .... well, I don't know, it just does. For app switching, I mostly use Command-Tab or Shift-Command-Tab, a habit that sticks mostly b/c at work I have to use Windows and the same command works there. But sometimes I do use Expose, since it's mapped to a button on my mouse. And once in a blue moon, no idea why, but I end up switching to another running app using QuickSilver (Ctrl-Space).

    For switching windows within an application -- if I have my hands on the keyboard, I always use the keyboard shortcut, Command-` or Command-~ to cycle through them. But if I have my hand on the mouse, the application-level Expose is becoming a reflex that I'm starting to miss at work -- it's much more useful than the all-applications-level Expose IMHO because there are fewer windows to choose from. Within an application.

    For launching applications, I exclusively use QuickSilver.

17. | Reply Chris
    Posted 06 Feb 2005 at 5:46pm #
    

    I'm all about cmd-tab! I've abandoned the dock for DragThing recently, and am training myself not to drop apps to the dock so I don't have to go there at all.