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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

by 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.
  - mercer 12y ago
    CMD-OPTION-H should do that. I also recall there being an option you can turn on through the Terminal that has the same effect when you click on an application's icon in the Dock.

by 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.
- mercer 12y ago
  CMD-OPTION-H should do that. I also recall there being an option you can turn on through the Terminal that has the same effect when you click on an application's icon in the Dock.