Here is the third in a series of short video tutorials that will help you learn how to unlock new abilities on your macOS. Today we cover Hiding Applications.
Watching other people use their Macs, I see minimizing used too often. It’s a great animation – watching a window slide to or from the dock. But when it’s ten separate windows? Each one at a time? Painful.
There’s something much better – It’s called Hiding. You can hide one App or every other App than the one you’re using.
You’ll find this command in the menu next to the Apple menu is the Application Menu. It’ll be whatever the name of the application you’re currently using.
In this menu is the choice to Hide – Command+H.
My keyboard mantra: I don’t memorize keys. I form a sentence and associate the command, so I know that it’ll stick. I call this a natural language mnemonic approach.
So, I’m saying in my head, “I’d like to Command this Application to Hide” Each time I hit it, I’ve got less visible applications. It becomes a fast way to work, especially if there are loads of applications open.
How do you bring the Application back? Either click on the Application icon in the dock or use Command+Tab to bring up the Application Switcher.
Now that you’ve gotten this idea, there’s a fantastic optional way to hide every Application other than the one you’re using. (I hope you noticed I used “option” in that sentence!)
We’re going to Optionally Command our mac to Hide (Opt-Command-H) others. That funny squiggle? That’s the option key.
I can still switch via Command-Tab to any other Application. Or use the Show All command underneath the Application Menu to Show All.
Personally, I’m never minimizing windows. So, I’ve gone as far on my system to make Minimize more difficult – because I keep accidentally hitting the keys for it (Command M). I made it harder by remapping Minimize to needing more modifier keys. You can see that in a separate tip.
Try using Hide today. See how much hiding apps make your everyday work faster and easier!
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