Monday, October 27, 2003
Expose is one of the coolest things Appe has done with Mac OS X. Basically you can hit a trigger (mouse in corner of screen, mouse click, keyboard stroke) to invoke Expose. There are 3 modes:
1. All the windows slide off screen and you can see your desktop.
2. You see all the windows of the current application, tiled nicely around the screen.
3. You see all the windows of all open applications tiled around the screen.
So first of all, Expose works best with a 3+ button mouse. You should assign a mouse button to activate it. That way you can use it without taking your hand off the keyboard.
Obviously you can use expose to click to activate, find the window you want, then click on it to bring it to the front.
Other cool things:
1. Once Expose is active, if you hit tab it will cycle through the open applications. Each time you hit it the effects are awesome. The old windows slide off screen and the new windows either slide in from the side, or kinda zoom in a little.
2. When in Expose, you can use the arrow keys to move through the windows on screen.
3. So let's say you want to attach a file to a mail message. Activate Expose Desktop only, click and drag the item to attach. Then while you're holding that item, invoke expose again. All windows are visible. Find the mail message and either just hover over it for a few seconds, or click again to bring it to the front. Then drop the item in the message. Very very cool.
1. All the windows slide off screen and you can see your desktop.
2. You see all the windows of the current application, tiled nicely around the screen.
3. You see all the windows of all open applications tiled around the screen.
So first of all, Expose works best with a 3+ button mouse. You should assign a mouse button to activate it. That way you can use it without taking your hand off the keyboard.
Obviously you can use expose to click to activate, find the window you want, then click on it to bring it to the front.
Other cool things:
1. Once Expose is active, if you hit tab it will cycle through the open applications. Each time you hit it the effects are awesome. The old windows slide off screen and the new windows either slide in from the side, or kinda zoom in a little.
2. When in Expose, you can use the arrow keys to move through the windows on screen.
3. So let's say you want to attach a file to a mail message. Activate Expose Desktop only, click and drag the item to attach. Then while you're holding that item, invoke expose again. All windows are visible. Find the mail message and either just hover over it for a few seconds, or click again to bring it to the front. Then drop the item in the message. Very very cool.