13 ms·

It could be worse. You could be on MacOS where Cmd-Tab switches between apps not windows. I currently have 13 browser windows open (each with 3 to 15 tabs) and

It could be worse. You could be on MacOS where Cmd-Tab switches between apps not windows. I currently have 13 browser windows open (each with 3 to 15 tabs) and another 9 windows of other things (terminal, vscode, etc....) and IMO The Cmd-Tab vs Ctrl-Tab vs Ctrl-Up vs Ctrl-Down suck compared to Windows. I really want to easily switch to the previous window, not the previous app. Command + backtick doesn't work either. It doesn't switch to the previous window. It switches to the previous window "in the same app" which is not actually the previous window as that could be from another app.

ggfgg 5y ago
Honestly that sounds like you aren’t garbage collecting enough. I have perhaps 3-5 tabs open in one browser and 3-5 apps open at any time. Also working in VSCode, terminals and browser mostly. I coworker runs his windows box with about 100 tabs iOS. Sometimes. Just close some shit.
- williamdclt 5y ago
  I tend to agree. I have one window from each app open at any time, and dedicated hotkeys to bring up each app. Having to guess how many cmd+tab I'd need to get to the app I want breaks my flow so I set up opt+h to bring up Firefox, opt+j VSCode, opt+k Slack etc etc. But obviously, to each their workflow!
mitemte 5y ago
Maybe you’d like this: https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos
- SparkyMcUnicorn 5y ago
  Yeah, this app improved my entire life.
blacksmith_tb 5y ago
Hmm, I find it pretty practical, cmd-tab from one app to another, cmd-backtick to toggle between windows, I mean, it's a different paradigm, sure, but you can still move around from the keyboard? I do find it a little annoying that there aren't consistent shortcuts for moving between tabs in everything that uses them, could be cntrl-tab, could be alt-arrows...
- gunapologist99 5y ago
  I have alt-backtick mapped to my favorite terminal app in Linux, and control-backtick mapped to a new browser window. I'd be buggered if I ever switched to Mac!
  - jacobmischka 5y ago
    These keybinds are relatively common on Linux too, they're Gnome defaults.
    - joombaga 5y ago
      They're also customisable.
      - jacobmischka 5y ago
        Are they not customizable on macOS?
        joombaga 5y ago
        Yes they are.
  - dkonofalski 5y ago
    Why? Cmd+tilde/backtick is neither of those...
- stormbrew 5y ago
  The problem is cmd-tab brings everything up. For example, if you have a terminal window and a browser window next to each other that you're flipping between, but there's a browser window under the terminal window, cmd-tab will obscure the terminal.
jltsiren 5y ago
This was the feature that convinced me to buy a Mac ~15 years ago. When I'm working, I keep jumping between a few apps (e.g. browser, emails, terminal, IDE, text editor, PDF viewer, reference manager), and the additional level of hierarchy makes switching to a specific application easy. Before macOS, I was using both Windows and Linux. Alt-tab was often useless in both, because it was flooded with redundant windows.
- opan 5y ago
  On GNU/Linux with the Sway Wayland compositor, I have a bunch of keybinds to focus a program by app_id (wayland) or class (xwayland) so I can jump to specific windows even on other monitors or workspaces. This wouldn't solve the issue of multiple windows of the same program, but I find I rarely have such a thing. I bind the actions to ctrl-super-foo where foo is a letter associated with a mnemonic like b for browser or v for video (player). I then also made a key in my qmk (keyboard firmware) config where pressing it once acts as ctrl-super and also like a sticky key where I can let go and then slowly press the next letter instead of holding the modifiers down. I've been very happy with this setup. I do tend to have multiple terminals (local tmux session, remote tmux session, tmux session dedicated to my text editor), which I launch with custom app_ids so that they all have their own separate keybind. Just to let you know you can probably get something pretty personalized outside of macOS as well!
tim-- 5y ago
The app 'Contexts' will change your life if you feel like this.
- jgalentine007 5y ago
  Contexts is great, I like it better than alt+tab on Windows 10!
micromacrofoot 5y ago
does cmd + backtick still work for switching windows on a mac? I seem to recall this shortcut
- presentation 5y ago
  Yep switches windows for the active app, very useful
amyjess 5y ago
I have to use a Mac for work, and I've been using WindowSwitcher as a cmd+tab replacement. I liked it enough I paid for it at the end of the free trial. It's excellent, except I wish the mouse interacted it on click instead of mousover. Still better than the default. (another tool along those lines I use is uBar, which is a Windows-style taskbar for macOS)
- joombaga 5y ago
  Contexts is pretty good too (another cmd tab replacement).
wolverine876 5y ago
There is no extension or utility that will do it?
hbn 5y ago
> I really want to easily switch to the previous window, not the previous app. Command + backtick doesn't work either. It doesn't switch to the previous window. It switches to the previous window "in the same app" which is not actually the previous window as that could be from another app. I really can't figure out what your issue is after reading this several times. If the last active window was a different app, you hit Cmd+Tab. If the last active window is from the same app, you hit Cmd+`
- addicted 5y ago
  I’m not sure why I should be thinking about whether my last active window was in the same or different app. In windows it doesn’t matter whether I switched from a Chrome window to a Firefox window or from one Firefox window to another one. The cognitive load is way less. Also, CMD+’ is way more ergonomically inconvenient to hit.
  - hbn 5y ago
    I guess it's a matter of preference. I use both Mac and Windows and I prefer Mac's way of doing it. Sometimes I'll have 3 IntelliJ windows open + my terminal, along with a dozen other apps that are on other desktops/workspaces that I'm currently not using. So it's nice that I can bounce between the IntelliJ windows for editing my code with Cmd+`, then when I need to hop into the terminal I do Cmd+tab, do my stuff, then Cmd+tab and I'm back in the code. Maybe it's a learning curve but it feels very natural to me. > Also, CMD+’ is way more ergonomically inconvenient to hit. What fingers are you using for Cmd+tab if that's comfortable but not Cmd+`? It's exactly 1 key above tab.
    - addicted 5y ago
      It’s not just 1 row above. It’s also a smaller key. If you do treat it like you would CMD+Tab, the odds are you would hit CMD+1 fairly often.
      - hbn 5y ago
        I'm really not sure why you think that would happen. It's like you're saying the Q key is in an inconvenient place because it's too small so "odds are you would hit W fairly often" It's on the side of the keyboard. If you're on tab, you just feel for one key up.
millzlane 5y ago
Me and a collegue were having this discussion a couple of days ago. There is a way to do it. It involved bringing up mission control selecting the window then pressing option. Also there is this https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/
collin128 5y ago
When I first switched to Mac I absolutely hated the way the OS handle the alt tab function. Now I'm a big fan and find it disorienting to go back to Windows but I've been here for 10 years. CMD + ~ all the way.
- greggman3 5y ago
  I've been on a Mac since 2008 so ~13 years. I still hate it, not the mac, just this one poorly designed feature ... and a few others. I don't want to have to stop-pause-think "was the last thing I used in the same app or a different app?" so that I can press the right key. Further, I only want the last window to move to the front, not all windows of the same app. Quite often (50-70% of the time?) I have say 3 VSCode windows, 4 terminals, and 3 browser windows. I need to switch between say a terminal window and a VScode window. ideally when I moved the VSCode window to the front and mostly on the right side of the screen the last terminal would stay visible but instead Cmd-Tab brings all the VScode windows to the front, covering the terminal. It's useless. Cmd+~ doesn't help, that only switches within the same app.
systoll 5y ago
> You could be on MacOS where Cmd-Tab switches between apps not windows Switching between recently used windows, regardless of app, is bound to control+f4 by default. [Cmd+tab/~ is clearly their preferred method.] You can switch it to something more ergonomic in 'System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts' – 'Move focus to the active or next window'.
afiori 5y ago
It is always I nice moment of discovery when I learn that yet another feature I hate from Gnome was copied from MacOS

ggfgg 5y ago

Honestly that sounds like you aren’t garbage collecting enough. I have perhaps 3-5 tabs open in one browser and 3-5 apps open at any time. Also working in VSCode, terminals and browser mostly. I coworker runs his windows box with about 100 tabs iOS. Sometimes. Just close some shit.

williamdclt 5y ago
I tend to agree. I have one window from each app open at any time, and dedicated hotkeys to bring up each app. Having to guess how many cmd+tab I'd need to get to the app I want breaks my flow so I set up opt+h to bring up Firefox, opt+j VSCode, opt+k Slack etc etc. But obviously, to each their workflow!

mitemte 5y ago

Maybe you’d like this: https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos

SparkyMcUnicorn 5y ago
Yeah, this app improved my entire life.

blacksmith_tb 5y ago

Hmm, I find it pretty practical, cmd-tab from one app to another, cmd-backtick to toggle between windows, I mean, it's a different paradigm, sure, but you can still move around from the keyboard? I do find it a little annoying that there aren't consistent shortcuts for moving between tabs in everything that uses them, could be cntrl-tab, could be alt-arrows...

gunapologist99 5y ago
I have alt-backtick mapped to my favorite terminal app in Linux, and control-backtick mapped to a new browser window. I'd be buggered if I ever switched to Mac!
- jacobmischka 5y ago
  These keybinds are relatively common on Linux too, they're Gnome defaults.
  - joombaga 5y ago
    They're also customisable.
    - jacobmischka 5y ago
      Are they not customizable on macOS?
      - joombaga 5y ago
        Yes they are.
- dkonofalski 5y ago
  Why? Cmd+tilde/backtick is neither of those...
stormbrew 5y ago
The problem is cmd-tab brings everything up. For example, if you have a terminal window and a browser window next to each other that you're flipping between, but there's a browser window under the terminal window, cmd-tab will obscure the terminal.

jltsiren 5y ago

This was the feature that convinced me to buy a Mac ~15 years ago. When I'm working, I keep jumping between a few apps (e.g. browser, emails, terminal, IDE, text editor, PDF viewer, reference manager), and the additional level of hierarchy makes switching to a specific application easy. Before macOS, I was using both Windows and Linux. Alt-tab was often useless in both, because it was flooded with redundant windows.

opan 5y ago
On GNU/Linux with the Sway Wayland compositor, I have a bunch of keybinds to focus a program by app_id (wayland) or class (xwayland) so I can jump to specific windows even on other monitors or workspaces. This wouldn't solve the issue of multiple windows of the same program, but I find I rarely have such a thing. I bind the actions to ctrl-super-foo where foo is a letter associated with a mnemonic like b for browser or v for video (player). I then also made a key in my qmk (keyboard firmware) config where pressing it once acts as ctrl-super and also like a sticky key where I can let go and then slowly press the next letter instead of holding the modifiers down. I've been very happy with this setup. I do tend to have multiple terminals (local tmux session, remote tmux session, tmux session dedicated to my text editor), which I launch with custom app_ids so that they all have their own separate keybind. Just to let you know you can probably get something pretty personalized outside of macOS as well!

tim-- 5y ago

The app 'Contexts' will change your life if you feel like this.

jgalentine007 5y ago
Contexts is great, I like it better than alt+tab on Windows 10!

micromacrofoot 5y ago

does cmd + backtick still work for switching windows on a mac? I seem to recall this shortcut

presentation 5y ago
Yep switches windows for the active app, very useful

amyjess 5y ago

I have to use a Mac for work, and I've been using WindowSwitcher as a cmd+tab replacement. I liked it enough I paid for it at the end of the free trial. It's excellent, except I wish the mouse interacted it on click instead of mousover. Still better than the default. (another tool along those lines I use is uBar, which is a Windows-style taskbar for macOS)

joombaga 5y ago
Contexts is pretty good too (another cmd tab replacement).

wolverine876 5y ago

There is no extension or utility that will do it?

hbn 5y ago

> I really want to easily switch to the previous window, not the previous app. Command + backtick doesn't work either. It doesn't switch to the previous window. It switches to the previous window "in the same app" which is not actually the previous window as that could be from another app. I really can't figure out what your issue is after reading this several times. If the last active window was a different app, you hit Cmd+Tab. If the last active window is from the same app, you hit Cmd+`

addicted 5y ago
I’m not sure why I should be thinking about whether my last active window was in the same or different app. In windows it doesn’t matter whether I switched from a Chrome window to a Firefox window or from one Firefox window to another one. The cognitive load is way less. Also, CMD+’ is way more ergonomically inconvenient to hit.
- hbn 5y ago
  I guess it's a matter of preference. I use both Mac and Windows and I prefer Mac's way of doing it. Sometimes I'll have 3 IntelliJ windows open + my terminal, along with a dozen other apps that are on other desktops/workspaces that I'm currently not using. So it's nice that I can bounce between the IntelliJ windows for editing my code with Cmd+`, then when I need to hop into the terminal I do Cmd+tab, do my stuff, then Cmd+tab and I'm back in the code. Maybe it's a learning curve but it feels very natural to me. > Also, CMD+’ is way more ergonomically inconvenient to hit. What fingers are you using for Cmd+tab if that's comfortable but not Cmd+`? It's exactly 1 key above tab.
  - addicted 5y ago
    It’s not just 1 row above. It’s also a smaller key. If you do treat it like you would CMD+Tab, the odds are you would hit CMD+1 fairly often.
    - hbn 5y ago
      I'm really not sure why you think that would happen. It's like you're saying the Q key is in an inconvenient place because it's too small so "odds are you would hit W fairly often" It's on the side of the keyboard. If you're on tab, you just feel for one key up.

millzlane 5y ago

Me and a collegue were having this discussion a couple of days ago. There is a way to do it. It involved bringing up mission control selecting the window then pressing option. Also there is this https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/ https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/

collin128 5y ago

When I first switched to Mac I absolutely hated the way the OS handle the alt tab function. Now I'm a big fan and find it disorienting to go back to Windows but I've been here for 10 years. CMD + ~ all the way.

greggman3 5y ago
I've been on a Mac since 2008 so ~13 years. I still hate it, not the mac, just this one poorly designed feature ... and a few others. I don't want to have to stop-pause-think "was the last thing I used in the same app or a different app?" so that I can press the right key. Further, I only want the last window to move to the front, not all windows of the same app. Quite often (50-70% of the time?) I have say 3 VSCode windows, 4 terminals, and 3 browser windows. I need to switch between say a terminal window and a VScode window. ideally when I moved the VSCode window to the front and mostly on the right side of the screen the last terminal would stay visible but instead Cmd-Tab brings all the VScode windows to the front, covering the terminal. It's useless. Cmd+~ doesn't help, that only switches within the same app.

systoll 5y ago

> You could be on MacOS where Cmd-Tab switches between apps not windows Switching between recently used windows, regardless of app, is bound to control+f4 by default. [Cmd+tab/~ is clearly their preferred method.] You can switch it to something more ergonomic in 'System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts' – 'Move focus to the active or next window'.

afiori 5y ago

It is always I nice moment of discovery when I learn that yet another feature I hate from Gnome was copied from MacOS