{"id":47130,"date":"2019-01-17T10:12:36","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T16:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=47130"},"modified":"2019-01-18T15:34:03","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T21:34:03","slug":"quick-tip-take-advantage-of-the-macos-app-switcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/47130-quick-tip-take-advantage-of-the-macos-app-switcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Tip: Take Advantage of the macOS App Switcher"},"content":{"rendered":"

One feature of macOS that many new Mac users might not be familiar with is the Application Switcher or “App Switcher”. In its most simple form, the App Switcher uses the Command – Tab<\/strong> keyboard shortcut to show a list of all of the apps currently running on the Mac. In this article, I’ll show you how to take advantage of both the common use of the App Switcher as well as teach you a few new tricks.<\/p>\n

Using Application Switcher In Its Basic Form<\/strong>
\nHold the Command<\/strong> key and press Tab<\/strong>, and the App Switcher appears on the Mac screen (see screenshot below):<\/p>\n

\"(The<\/a>
(The macOS App Switcher.)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As long as you are pressing on the Command<\/strong> key, the App Switcher remains on your screen. To move through the active apps, just tap the Tab<\/strong> key with the Command<\/strong> key still held down and it cycles through them from left to right. Once the app you wish to switch to is highlighted, let up on the Command<\/strong> key and the app becomes active on your screen.<\/p>\n

Want to reverse the order of how App Switcher cycles through the active apps? Hold down the Command<\/strong> and Shift<\/strong> keys while tapping Tab<\/strong>, and the App Switcher goes through the apps from right to left. As before, release the Command<\/strong> key to use the selected app.<\/p>\n

To get to the last app listed on the App Switcher, just hold down the Command<\/strong> and Tab<\/strong> keys to make App Switcher cycle quickly through the active apps and stop at the last (rightmost) one. The Shift key works here if you want to quickly get to the first app (leftmost) in the App Switcher — hold down Command<\/strong> – Shift<\/strong> – Tab<\/strong> until the selection box stops at the first app.<\/p>\n

Finally, if you press Command <\/strong>– Tab<\/strong> to invoke the App Switcher and then release the Tab<\/strong> key, you can use either the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard or your mouse to navigate to the app you wish to use. For those with a Magic Trackpad or a MacBook, a two-finger drag left or right does the same thing.<\/p>\n

Opening Files From the App Switcher<\/strong>
\nThis capability of the App Switcher isn’t widely known, but it can be a timesaver. Start dragging a file from a Finder window, then bring up the App Switcher and drag the file onto the appropriate app icon. It’s often much faster than right-clicking a file, then waiting while macOS builds a list of apps that can open that file. The screenshot below shows an HTML file being dragged to a text editor to be opened:<\/p>\n

\"(Dragging<\/a>
(Dragging a file from a Finder window to an app icon in App Switcher opens the file in that app.)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using Expos\u00e9 From the App Switcher<\/strong>
\nDo you have multiple windows open for a single app, and perhaps a few that are minimized? The App Switcher is a way to quickly invoke the macOS Expos\u00e9 function to see just those windows and hide everything else on the screen.<\/p>\n

With the App Switcher open, highlight the app you wish to use Expos\u00e9 with, then press either the Up<\/strong> or Down<\/strong> arrow<\/strong> key (or the 1<\/strong> key on the number row of the keyboard) and the open windows are displayed on the screen. The following screenshot demonstrates what happened when App Switcher was open, Safari was highlighted, and the Up arrow<\/strong> key pressed:<\/p>\n

\"(Using<\/a>
(Using Expos\u00e9 from the App Switcher displays open windows from an app.)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Any windows that have been minimized (by clicking the yellow button in the upper left corner of the window) appears as a window icon at the bottom of the screen. To switch between the open or minimized windows, use the arrow keys and then press Enter<\/strong> to open the currently highlighted one. As before, a mouse or trackpad can also be used to select one of the windows.<\/p>\n

Hiding and Quitting Apps with the App Switcher<\/strong>
\nWant to hide all of the windows of an app selected in the App Switcher? Press the H<\/strong> key and they’ll disappear — press H<\/strong> again and they’ll reappear. I often use this trick to clear out windows on a cluttered desktop by moving through the App Switcher with the Tab<\/strong> key, then pressing the H<\/strong> key.<\/p>\n

Quitting a number of active apps is also made easy with the App Switcher. Highlight an app icon in App Switcher and tap the Q<\/strong> key, and you can quit that open Mac app. You’d be amazed at how quickly you can quit multiple apps with this method!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One feature of macOS that many new Mac users might not be familiar with is the Application Switcher or “App Switcher”. In its most simple form, the App Switcher uses the Command – Tab keyboard shortcut to show a list of all of the apps currently running on the Mac. In this article, I’ll show […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":45936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"class_list":["post-47130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nQuick Tip: Take Advantage of the macOS App Switcher<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this article, we show you how to take advantage of both the common use of the App Switcher as well as teach you a few new tricks.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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