Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows • Hacker News Board

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#11

Post by kartiksibal » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:04 PM UTC

Or you could just press Command + N.

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#12

Post by kartiksibal » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:05 PM UTC

Or you could just press Command + N, and open a new window.

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#13

Post by nextos » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:08 PM UTC

The slightly confusing window manager was one of my reasons to switch back from Mac OS to Linux 6 years ago. With a tiling window manager I never looked back. Everything can be customised to match your workflow. Regular setups with floating windows feel awkward now.

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#14

Post by unfunco » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:08 PM UTC

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #4

All I want from OSX is to be able to alt-tab between windows, not apps. Is this possible?

Command + Tilde.

⌘ + ~

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#15

Post by Ezhik » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:08 PM UTC

I just use Expose to switch between windows.

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#16

Post by thought_alarm » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:08 PM UTC

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #4

All I want from OSX is to be able to alt-tab between windows, not apps. Is this possible?

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard > Move focus to active or next window

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#17

Post by guelo » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:09 PM UTC

As a long time user of both I don't think there's any doubt that OSX's window manager is inferior to Microsoft Windows'. Windows can handle things like multiple monitors and full screen modes much more seamlessly with less confusion. If it wasn't for the Unix layer, and the occasional need to open XCode, I personally would have ditched Macs.

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#18

Post by thomas-st » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:09 PM UTC

Some other keys that work while using Cmd+Tab:

- Press "q" to quit the selected application

- Press "h" to toggle hiding the selected application

- Press "1" to show all open windows for the selected application

Does anyone know if there is a built-in way to only switch to the frontmost application window (by default Cmd+Tab puts all app windows in the foreground)? Sometimes I need to switch between two windows of different applications which I both want to keep visible on the screen, but switching to the destination app with Cmd+Tab ends up covering the entire screen because that application has other windows.

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#19

Post by jedmeyers » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:10 PM UTC

[Command + `] - a very useful shortcut in OS X for switching between windows of the same application.

Re: Mac OS X: Sane way to switch between windows

#20

Post by blunte » Sun, Aug 21, 2016, 8:13 PM UTC

Steve Jobs is dead. Can we finally fix this? Or can someone convince me that the behavior we have suffered through for ages has more value than frustration?