In Windows we use alt-tab to switch between all open windows. OSX is a little different. Alt+Tab switches between open applications, while Alt+` (left apostrophe/tilde) is used to switch between windows within an application. This took me about a year to discover.
Archive for the ‘Migrating from Windows’ Category
Application Switching in OSX for the Windows Emigrant
January 18th, 2009 by adminLooking for Ctrl+Alt+Del in OSX?
January 13th, 2009 by adminIf you’re new to OSX and are looking for a task manager to kill a hanging app, you’re not going to get very far with your normal 3 finger salute. Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn’t do anything in OSX. You have three ways to manage your running apps:
- Open the Utility called “Activity Monitor” which lets you see all the running processes and kill them at will
- If your machine is moving too slow to try and launch a new app, hold down Command + Alt + Esc to bring up a dialogue that will let you kill any open apps
- Open Terminal and type “killAll <appname>” where <appname>” is the name of the application (i.e. “killAll Mail” will kill mail)
Switching from Windows? A few keyboard shortcuts to save you time.
January 6th, 2009 by adminMoving from Windows to OSX? There are a bazillion keyboard shortcuts for OSX, but these few took me a while to figure out:
- alt+tab - switch apps
- alt+` (left quote - same key as ~) - switch windows within an app
- command up - same as ctrl+home in windows - jumps to start of document
- command down - same as ctrl+end - end of doc
- command left/right - same as home/end - beginning or end of line
- option left/right - jumps by word left or right