6 ms·

I live by keyboard shortcuts, and one that I use many times a day that I find lists of OS X shortcuts always miss is how to restore a window if it's minimized,

by yan 12y ago

I live by keyboard shortcuts, and one that I use many times a day that I find lists of OS X shortcuts always miss is how to restore a window if it's minimized, or open a new empty document if no windows are active. Normally, when you cycle open apps with Command+Tab, if you land on an application that has minimized windows, nothing happens. The way to remedy that is as follows: Hold Command and tab to the app you want to un-minimize. Without letting go of Command, press down Option, then while holding down Option, let go of Command. It's a little awkward to use at first, then you'll do it automatically. I hold Command with my thumb, then tab with ring finger, then just move ring finger back down to Option, and let go of thumb. Edit: Bonus tip: When landing on an application icon with Tab, continue holding Command and use Tilde (~) to cycle through windows of the same App. I use that one a lot too.

hobbsy 12y ago
This is incredibly helpful - thank you.
emehrkay 12y ago
This is a game changer, how did you even discover it?
- yan 12y ago
  I don't really remember to be honest, I'm always on the prowl for new shortcuts (I rarely touch the mouse. Also, get Vimium for Chrome.) but it changed how I interact with OS X pretty significantly after I found it.
- daviding 12y ago
  It is nice, but I sometimes wish that Safari or Chrome tabs would cycle with that combination, rather than the control + tab sequence as then it would all be a bit more similar.
  - yan 12y ago
    FYI: You can also cycle tabs with Command+Option+Left and Command+Option+Right and Command+[1, 2, 3, etc, with 9 always selecting the right-most tab] in the case of Chrome. With Safari, you can do Command+Shift+[ and ]
    - dbtc 12y ago
      Command shift [ ] works with almost everything that has tabs including safari, chrome, terminal, Xcode and sublime. (those are the ones I use it with).
awolf 12y ago
This is a good tip but it comes too late. To deal with this exact frustration I decided years back to simply never minimize anything ever. It's working well for me.
- Fishkins 12y ago
  I knew about it pretty much from the beginning, but I still never minimize anything since it's a pain to have to remember which windows I minimized and therefor need to also press Option for. Of course more often then not I'll use Alfred, which does open minimized windows by default.
- raamdev 12y ago
  I just use Cmd+H to hide windows instead of minimizing, since hiding effectively does exactly what I want (get the window out of my sight, but leave the app running) and then I can easily Cmd+Tab back to it. I only recently found a good use for minimizing over hiding: I was working in my IDE (PhpStorm) on several projects (each project opens in its own window) and I wanted to switch back and forth between two project windows. With 4 or 5 windows open, switching between the two windows I was interested in (using Cmd+`) was a game of cat and mouse. I was alway hoping that I'd land on the right window and not mess up the order of windows. Then I realized if I just minimize the windows I don't need right now, I can get them out of the Cmd+` cycle and easily switch between on the two windows I want.
  - girvo 12y ago
    I solved that same use-case by buying another monitor... I'm not even joking, either.
    - r00fus 12y ago
      If you've ever attempted to be productive while at a meeting, traveling or at a customer site these tricks become very useful.
  - cliveowen 12y ago
    I hide everything too, but I wonder if there is a quick way to hide everything but the current active windows.
arrrg 12y ago
Huh. Cool. Depending on your keyboard you might also be able to slide (with your thumb) from Command to Option. It’s certainly possible on Apple’s keyboards (I just tried).
CatMtKing 12y ago
It seems to work for me even without letting go of Command, I just need to tap Option while Command is being held down and it will pop the window back out.
septerr 12y ago
Because of this awkwardness, I never minimize windows either (like others who replied here). I simply hide them.
- Walkman 12y ago
  I do this either. This way, if you CMD+TAB to it, it will get revealed.
morganherlocker 12y ago
This was one of the things that made OSX horrible for me when switching from Windows and Linux. I have since learned the tricks to get around many of OSX's windowing quirks, but I do wonder how things like this have not been fixed. I love my OSX setup now, but if I was a "non-power-user", I think it would be completely unusable. Watching a typical Windows user try to maximize a window in OSX is pure pain. Hit the + button: window gets a bit bigger, but not full screen. Drag the window to the top: nothing happens. Try to get to the edge of the window, and drag it out: RSI inducing frustration. Windows seems to dominate as far as basic user usability goes on the windowing front. I would still find it completely unusable without the help of a windowing app like spectacle[1] or slate[2]. [1] http://spectacleapp.com/ http://spectacleapp.com/ [2] https://github.com/jigish/slate https://github.com/jigish/slate
- ghshephard 12y ago
  10 years later, and what I would consider a "power user", and I still spend time every day trying to maximize windows on OS X. It's usually a game of hitting the "+" button to see what will happen, and usually being disappointed by the results. Does anybody know how to maximize a window with OS X?
  - Walkman 12y ago
    The author mention a great little app in his previous blog post called Moom [1] I just tried and it's awesome! You can resize, full screen, put windows left and right immediately without the mouse. [1]: http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://manytricks.com/moom/
    - mh- 12y ago
      +1 for moom; I have cmd+period set to activate moom, then just period (when moom is activated) set to maximize. I use that key sequence dozens of times a day (I also have many others, and custom layouts, configured.. but that alone makes it worthwhile.)
  - reviewdbysteve 12y ago
pluggedin 12y ago
Good to know. What I do is Command+Tab then Down Arrow. This will allow you to use the left and right arrows to cycle through all windows.
rrtwo 12y ago
but you need to know apriori that it is minimised no?
nimeshneema 12y ago
Made my day...

by yan 12y ago

hobbsy 12y ago

This is incredibly helpful - thank you.

emehrkay 12y ago

This is a game changer, how did you even discover it?

yan 12y ago
I don't really remember to be honest, I'm always on the prowl for new shortcuts (I rarely touch the mouse. Also, get Vimium for Chrome.) but it changed how I interact with OS X pretty significantly after I found it.
daviding 12y ago
It is nice, but I sometimes wish that Safari or Chrome tabs would cycle with that combination, rather than the control + tab sequence as then it would all be a bit more similar.
- yan 12y ago
  FYI: You can also cycle tabs with Command+Option+Left and Command+Option+Right and Command+[1, 2, 3, etc, with 9 always selecting the right-most tab] in the case of Chrome. With Safari, you can do Command+Shift+[ and ]
  - dbtc 12y ago
    Command shift [ ] works with almost everything that has tabs including safari, chrome, terminal, Xcode and sublime. (those are the ones I use it with).

awolf 12y ago

This is a good tip but it comes too late. To deal with this exact frustration I decided years back to simply never minimize anything ever. It's working well for me.

Fishkins 12y ago
I knew about it pretty much from the beginning, but I still never minimize anything since it's a pain to have to remember which windows I minimized and therefor need to also press Option for. Of course more often then not I'll use Alfred, which does open minimized windows by default.
raamdev 12y ago
I just use Cmd+H to hide windows instead of minimizing, since hiding effectively does exactly what I want (get the window out of my sight, but leave the app running) and then I can easily Cmd+Tab back to it. I only recently found a good use for minimizing over hiding: I was working in my IDE (PhpStorm) on several projects (each project opens in its own window) and I wanted to switch back and forth between two project windows. With 4 or 5 windows open, switching between the two windows I was interested in (using Cmd+`) was a game of cat and mouse. I was alway hoping that I'd land on the right window and not mess up the order of windows. Then I realized if I just minimize the windows I don't need right now, I can get them out of the Cmd+` cycle and easily switch between on the two windows I want.
- girvo 12y ago
  I solved that same use-case by buying another monitor... I'm not even joking, either.
  - r00fus 12y ago
    If you've ever attempted to be productive while at a meeting, traveling or at a customer site these tricks become very useful.
- cliveowen 12y ago
  I hide everything too, but I wonder if there is a quick way to hide everything but the current active windows.

arrrg 12y ago

Huh. Cool. Depending on your keyboard you might also be able to slide (with your thumb) from Command to Option. It’s certainly possible on Apple’s keyboards (I just tried).

CatMtKing 12y ago

It seems to work for me even without letting go of Command, I just need to tap Option while Command is being held down and it will pop the window back out.

septerr 12y ago

Because of this awkwardness, I never minimize windows either (like others who replied here). I simply hide them.

Walkman 12y ago
I do this either. This way, if you CMD+TAB to it, it will get revealed.

morganherlocker 12y ago

This was one of the things that made OSX horrible for me when switching from Windows and Linux. I have since learned the tricks to get around many of OSX's windowing quirks, but I do wonder how things like this have not been fixed. I love my OSX setup now, but if I was a "non-power-user", I think it would be completely unusable. Watching a typical Windows user try to maximize a window in OSX is pure pain. Hit the + button: window gets a bit bigger, but not full screen. Drag the window to the top: nothing happens. Try to get to the edge of the window, and drag it out: RSI inducing frustration. Windows seems to dominate as far as basic user usability goes on the windowing front. I would still find it completely unusable without the help of a windowing app like spectacle[1] or slate[2]. [1] http://spectacleapp.com/ http://spectacleapp.com/ [2] https://github.com/jigish/slate https://github.com/jigish/slate

ghshephard 12y ago
10 years later, and what I would consider a "power user", and I still spend time every day trying to maximize windows on OS X. It's usually a game of hitting the "+" button to see what will happen, and usually being disappointed by the results. Does anybody know how to maximize a window with OS X?
- Walkman 12y ago
  The author mention a great little app in his previous blog post called Moom [1] I just tried and it's awesome! You can resize, full screen, put windows left and right immediately without the mouse. [1]: http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://manytricks.com/moom/
  - mh- 12y ago
    +1 for moom; I have cmd+period set to activate moom, then just period (when moom is activated) set to maximize. I use that key sequence dozens of times a day (I also have many others, and custom layouts, configured.. but that alone makes it worthwhile.)
- reviewdbysteve 12y ago

pluggedin 12y ago

Good to know. What I do is Command+Tab then Down Arrow. This will allow you to use the left and right arrows to cycle through all windows.

rrtwo 12y ago

but you need to know apriori that it is minimised no?

nimeshneema 12y ago

Made my day...