Michal Ždanský Working with windows is probably one of the most basic operations in any operating system. If you've moved from Windows, you'll find a lot of things you'll do differently on a Mac. Today's article should help you a little with this process and at the same time advise you how to implement in OS X the functions that you are used to in Windows.
Dock
It is a manager of open applications and a launcher at the same time Dock, which is characteristic of Mac. It groups shortcuts to your favorite apps and displays the ones you have running. Handling applications in the Dock is very easy. You can change their order with a simple drag and drop, and if you drag the icon of a non-running app outside the Dock, it will disappear from the Dock. If, on the other hand, you want to have a new application in the Dock permanently, just drag it there from Applications or by right-clicking on the icon choose in Options "Keep in Dock". If you see "Remove from Dock" instead of "Keep in Dock", the icon is already there and you can remove it that way too.
You can tell that the application is running by the glowing dot under its icon. Existing icons in the Dock will remain in place, new ones will appear last on the right side. Clicking on the icon of a running application brings that application to the foreground, or restores it if you previously minimized it. If the application has multiple instances open (such as multiple Safari windows), just click and hold on the application and after a while you will see previews of all open windows.
In the right part of the Dock, you have folders with applications, documents and downloaded files. You can easily add any other folder here by dragging and dropping. On the far right you have the well-known Basket. All minimized applications will appear in the space between the trash and folders. Click to maximize them again and move them to the foreground. If you don't want your dock to swell like this, you can minimize the applications to their own icon in the left part of the dock. You can achieve this by checking "Minimize windows into application icon" in System Preferences > Dock.
Spaces and Exposé
Exposé is a very useful system issue. At the press of a single button, you get an overview of all running applications within one screen. All application windows, including their instances, will be arranged evenly across the desktop (you'll see minimized applications at the very bottom under a tiny dividing line), and you can select the one you want to work with with the mouse. Exposé has two modes, either it shows you all running applications in one screen, or instances of the active program, and each of these modes has a different shortcut (default F9 and F10, on MacBook you can also activate Exposé with a 4-finger swipe down gesture). Once you learn how to use Exposé, you won't let this feature go.
Spaces, on the other hand, allow you to have several virtual desktops next to each other, which is useful if you have several applications running at the same time. The key thing about Spaces is that you can choose which apps run on which screen. You can thus have one screen only for the browser stretched to the full screen, another can be the desktop and the third, for example, the desktop for IM clients and Twitter. Of course, you can also drag and drop applications manually. You won't have to close or minimize other applications to change the activity, just change the screen.
For better orientation, a small icon in the menu at the top informs you which screen you are currently on. After clicking on it, you can then choose the specific screen you want to go to. Of course, there are several ways to switch. You can go through individual screens by pressing one of the control keys (CMD, CTRL, ALT) at the same time as the direction arrow. When you want a specific screen with one click, use the control key together with the number. If you want to see all the screens at once and select one of them with the mouse, then just press the shortcut for Spaces (F8 by default). The choice of control key is up to you, the settings can be found in System Preferences > Exposure & Spaces.
You can of course also choose how many screens you want horizontally and vertically in the settings. You can create a matrix up to 4 x 4, but be careful not to get lost with so many screens. I personally choose only the option of horizontal screens.
3 colored buttons
Like Windows, Mac OS X has 3 buttons in the corner of the window, although on the opposite side. One to close, another to minimize, and a third to expand the window to full screen. However, they work differently than you might expect. If I start from the left of the red close button, it doesn't really close the app in most cases. Instead, it will remain running in the background and restarting will immediately open the app. Why is that so?
It is clear that starting the application is significantly slower than resuming it from running in the background. Thanks to the large amount of RAM, your Mac can afford to have multiple applications running in the background at the same time without experiencing a slower system performance. In theory, Mac OS X will speed up your work, as you won't have to wait for applications that have already been launched to run. If you would still like to hard close the application, then you can do it with the CMD + Q shortcut.
In the case of documents or other work in progress, the cross in the button can change to a circle. This means that the document you are working with has not been saved and you can close it without saving changes by pressing the button. But don't worry, before closing you will always be asked if you really want to end your work without saving it.
The minimize button, however, works exactly as you'd expect, minimizing apps to the dock. Some users complain that the three buttons are too small for them and hard to hit. This can be done either with shortcuts or, in the case of minimization, with one system tweak. If you check "Double-click a window`s title bar to minimize" in System Preferences > Appearance, just double-tap anywhere on the top bar of the application and it will then be minimized.
However, the last green button has the strangest behavior. You would probably expect that when you click on it, the application will expand to the full width and height of the screen. Except for exceptions, however, the first parameter does not apply. Most applications will stretch to the maximum height for you, but they will only adjust the width to the needs of the application.
This problem can be solved in several ways. Either you expand the application manually by the lower right corner and it will then remember the given size, another way is using the Cinch application (see below) and the last option is the utility Right Zoom.
Right Zoom makes the green button work as you would expect it to, which is to really expand the app to full screen. In addition, it allows you to expand the application via a keyboard shortcut, so you don't have to chase the green mouse button.
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Features from Windows to Mac
Just like Mac OS X, Windows also has its useful gadgets. Above all, Windows 7 brought a lot of interesting features to make everyday computer work easier for users. Several developers were inspired and created applications that bring a small touch of the new Windows to Mac OS X in the best sense.
Cinch
Cinch copies the features of the latest version of Windows with dragging windows sideways to expand them. If you take a window and hold it at the top of the screen for a while, a box of dashed lines will appear around it, indicating how the application window will expand. After releasing, you have the application stretched to the entire screen. The same is true for the left and right sides of the screen, with the difference that the application only extends to the given half of the screen. For example, if you want to have two documents next to each other, there is no easier way than to drag them to the sides like this and let Cinch take care of the rest.
If you have Spaces active, you need to pick the time to keep the application on one side of the screen so that you don't move to the side screen instead of enlarging the application. But with a little practice, you'll get the hang of the timing quickly. Keep in mind that some application windows cannot be maximized, they are fixed.
Cinch is available in either a trial or a paid version, with the only difference being the annoying message about using a trial license every time you log into your account (that is, even after a restart). You then pay $7 for the license. The application can be downloaded here: Cinch
HyperDock
If you liked the previews of application windows after hovering the mouse over the bar on Windows 7, then you will love HyperDock. You will especially appreciate it in a situation where you have several windows open within one application. So if HyperDock is active and you move the mouse over the icon in the dock, a thumbnail preview of all windows will appear. When you click on one of them, that instance of the program will open for you.
If you grab the preview with the mouse, at that moment the specific window becomes active and you can move it around. So it's the fastest way to move application windows between individual screens while Spaces is active. If you just leave the mouse over the preview, the given application will be shown in the foreground. To top it all off, iTunes and iCal have their own special preview. If you move the mouse over the iTunes icon, instead of the classic preview, you will see controls and information about the currently playing song. With iCal, you'll see upcoming events again.
HyperDock costs $9,99 and can be found at the following link: HyperDock
Start Menu
As the name suggests, this is really a kind of replacement for the start menu that you know from Windows. If instead of large icons after opening the Application folder, you prefer an ordered list of installed programs, the Start Menu is exactly for you. After clicking on the relevant icon in the dock, a list of all installed applications will scroll to the top of the screen from which you can select the desired program.
MenuEverywhere
Many switchers will become disillusioned with how the Mac handles the menu of individual applications. Not everyone likes the unified menu in the top bar, which changes depending on the active application. Especially on large monitors, it can be impractical to search for everything in the top bar, and if you accidentally click elsewhere, you have to mark the application again to return to its menu.
A program called MenuEverywhere may be the solution. This application has a wide range of settings and will allow you to have all the menus in the bar of the given application or in an additional bar above the original one. You can see how it looks best in the attached pictures. Unfortunately, this app is not free, you will pay $15 for it. If you would like to try it, you can find the trial version at these pages.
Finally, I will add that everything was tested on a MacBook with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, if you have a lower version of the system, it is possible that some functions will not be found or will not work.
You can also get the Aero function from Windows instead of the paid Cinche in the free and absolutely excellent Better Touch Tool utility.
Golden OS X, it's just a matter of habit.
Thanks for Cinch
it made my work a lot easier :)
You're welcome. I have to say that they really got away with this feature in WIn 7 and luckily the Mac developer also noticed it :-)
Does anyone know if it is possible to change Safari's behavior so that when the browser is closed with a red circle and reopened from the dock, its contents are preserved? Similar to other programs..thanks.
thanks for the tips, I will run the things that I missed on the mac, these applications will solve it
This is a question.
Please, what is the name of the program on M.OS that fulfills a roughly similar function as Total Commander on PC?
There is something like that. Thanks for the advice.
The program is called muCommander and is also localized in Czech.
it does have one, and quite significant, disadvantage. Drag and drop doesn't work, so it's practically unusable.
HyperDock wrote to me that I have 15 free days to use, so what kind of free is it?
Maybe this note of mine won't be of any use to anyone, but maybe on the contrary it will help someone - so I'd rather let it out into the world. For about half a year I solved the problem with the functioning of Acrobat and then Photoshop CS5. When I wanted to select some text in Acrobat Pro, the marking took a long time...as if something could not be blackened and it only blackened after a few seconds. At that moment, the MacBook crashed and nothing seemed to work. In two seconds everything is ok, but at the next command again. With the advent of CS5, the same thing happened when selecting tools from the toolbar in Photoshop - if it was a tool other than the selected one, I held down the icon, the menu started, I selected and again... two, three seconds. In practice, this meant that these apps were unusable. I've tried everything: support, system reinstall, foreign discussions...etc. Then I found out that there is no problem in another profile, but when I moved data etc. Everything happened again. Only today, by chance, I found out what was causing the problem. It's Right Zoom. So if someone has the same problem - turn it off and you're done. An interesting bug, but what gave the work the revelation. It's one of the three apps that I use absolutely regularly and... Well, next time I'll be wiser and I'll look for the error where it might be :) But who would have thought that, right? :)
Good luck,
I need help…..I deleted the wifi network icon in the top right corner and I don't know how to get it back there. Can someone help me?
Thanks Gaby