[mdawson]

There are numerous window controls in OS X, most of which are controlled through a feature known as Expose. As imalex has already indicated you can minimize all of the windows of the foreground application to the Dock by holding the option key while clicking the minimize (yellow) button of any document window within that application.

Expose offers window management functions that are not offered be default in Windows.
bq. F9: All windows This feature toggles between the normal window display and a modified view that shrinks all of your open, unhidden, undocked (minimized) windows so that they can be seen on a single screen. F10: Application windows This feature works similarly to the previous, but focuses on the open, unhidden, undocked (minimized) windows of the currently active (foreground) application. F11: Desktop This feature should actually be familiar to you because it is the Mac equivalent of the Desktop icon on Windows taskbar. Like most things on the Mac this feature works differently from Windows, as in Windows toggling the Desktop button switches between minimizing all of the currently maximized windows and restoring them to their previous state. In Expose, all of the open windows are moved off to the sides of the screen with just their edges visible, thus avoiding the clutter that would result by minimizing all of your windows to the Dock rendering it useless.
When you evoke the all windows or application windows modes with Expose, you can choose the window you wish to switch to by clicking on it.

When Apple introduced the new aluminum keyboards this earlier this year they added an Expose key (F3). So yes, when you hit F11 it changes the volume because the new keyboards no longer have dedicated volume keys. Expose has been reduced to single key with differing functions handled by the use of modifier keys instead of using three function keys; F7 thru F12 now function as media control keys; the first 12 function keys have been compacted to accommodate moving the eject key over the core key cluster; and, four new function keys, F16 thru F19, that serve no purpose now sit above the numeric keypad?those four keys were once dedicated volume control keys and the eject key.

So, as you have a newer Mac with the aluminum keyboard, your Expose hot keys should be the following:
bq. F3 to toggle all windows; control-F3 to toggle application windows; command-F3 to toggle the desktop; and, option-F3 to open Expose preferences.
In either case, you can change the hot keys for Expose using the preferences to those of your liking using any combination of function and modifier keys.

Other window management functions include application switching (command - tab), which works just as it does in Windows (ctrl - tab) switching between your open applications. OS X also includes application window toggling (command - `), which allows you to switch between open windows in the active application in the same manner.

[Martian]

You sound like a relatively advanced Windows user which means you must travel farther up the Mac learning curve to meet your expecations.
Yes, the F11 key must be activated by also pressing the fn key or changing preferences which then would require pressing the fn to change volume. I agree this is dumb. I have reassigned Exposé to the F17 F18 & F19 keys which don't require fn to be pressed--problem solved.
Familiarize yourself with the HIDE commands, Command H and the Command Option H keystroke commands. These are also under the application menu just to the right of the Apple menu. To that, I have added a customized command (see two paragraphs down) which will un-hide all windows.
Then there is Exposé which can “Show Desktop” or highlight either “All Windows” or just the active “Application windows”. Look for Exposé under System Preferences, or you can go into it directly through Spotlight by hitting Command Space and typing “expose”.
Also familirize yourself with both the default Keyboard Shortcuts and the customizable shortcuts you can set up in the Keyboard & Mouse preferences.
Windows has a window handling feature that I wish Mac would adopt — Tile vertically & Tile horizontally. Beyond that, the Hide features and Exposé are far far superior to anything Windows XP offers to manage limited screen real estate. (I haven’t used Vista so I don’t know if there is anything new there in window management).
Finally, I use a Microsoft programmable 4 button + wheel mouse (along with the programmable MS driver) that further facilitates handling of windows. For most applications, I have set one side button to toggle through the windows of the app (same as Command `). Then there is the wheel button that quickly selects between open applications.
I also programed a button that when pressed while the Finder is the front application it exicutes the Command Option H keystroke which hides all windows but the Finder window. This is an alternate to the Expose command that pushes all windows to the side.

Stick with it... read and experiment

[mdawson]

FredTheOldGuy has a newer iMac with the aluminum keyboard, not an Apple laptop. The aluminum keyboards have a slightly different key layout and the Expose keys have been altered. F11 is the decrease volume key on the aluminum keyboard.

[mdawson]

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Martian wrote:

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Yes, the F11 key must be activated by also pressing the fn key or changing preferences which then would require pressing the fn. I agree this is dumb.

As do I. Function keys, while rarely used as such on Macs, have been present on Mac keyboards since at least as far back the first Apple Extended keyboards (c. 1994 with the PowerPC transition). Excepting laptops where fn key is a necessity, Apple?s (desktop) keyboards have never before had or required an fn key in order to use the function keys. When the new aluminum keyboard were first introduced, that was one of the first anomalies that I noticed.

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Martian wrote:

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Windows has a window handling feature that I wish Mac would adopt ? Tile vertically & Tile horizontally.

That would require Apple completely changing how windows are handled in the Mac OS. The feature that you speak of dictates how document windows are arranged within application windows in Microsoft?s OS. The Mac OS does not and never has had application windows that contain document windows. In order to adopt that functionality, Apple would have to completely abandon the spatial design aspects of the user interface and implement Microsoft?s methodology of encapsulating document windows within application window. Such a move would also require attaching menus to application windows as well. As the tech gurus at ars technical have often noted, Microsoft?s approach to window management is the antithesis of good UI design.

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Martian wrote:

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I haven?t used Vista so I don?t know if there is anything new there in window management.

Flip 3D. It is Vista?s version of Expose?s all window feature and every article I have read, from the PC press nonetheless, has categorically dismissed Flip 3D as a poor aping of OS X?s Expose. Flip 3D puts visual pizzazz ahead of what the function ought to accomplish by displaying the open windows as a 3D stack that the user has to toggle through instead of showing the user all open windows.

[imalex]

In addition to the other responses, this page at the Apple website might help with your keyboarding on the Mac.


Mac OS X Keyboard shortcuts

[rickcarl]

Old Guy, we seem to be at cross purposes. I care because Macworld is a good Mac resource and lots of good people want to help build a Mac community. Let me explain my side of our surliness exchange.
When I read your first post, I laughed and said to myself that this old guy must be a troll or incredibly ignorant. Of course, I posted troll which has a specific meaning in both the PC and Mac worlds. Then I read some more of your posts and discovered you were not a troll. You really didn't know what you were talking about...but, as others suggested, maybe you could learn.
Breen taught you to install a plugin. Macnuke and mdawson taught you to use the F keys. Once you actually read the manual that came with your computer and actually use it for business tasks, you will be, the highest praise I can give, informed. Apple also provides a forum to learn specific Mac functions.
No, I don't make code for Apple for whatever reason you threw that out. I'm an excavator. I dig holes for a living. I've found that both XP and Mac are useful tools in different parts of my business.
That's why I suggested that you pick a business task and try it with both Mac and Windows before you blast Mac for ease of use. Little did I know that all you knew how to do was turn the computer on. Mac is a tool. Learn to use it. That's my purpose in this thread. That and dump your unfounded, ill-informed opinion words.
You made a business decision to buy a Mac without checking it out for your business use. You blasted it before you even learned to use it. Competence on a task makes this boss less surly. On the job, I never let a worker blame the tools like you do.

[mdawson]

Fred, as you have yourself stated in reference to (Wintel) PC forums, ?If you go onto one of those forums and disparage the PC, I doubt if anyone would care.? That is exactly true because no one cares or loves Wintel PCs. It is that that sets the average Mac user apart from other computer users. Our Macs are an extension of ourselves because they give us the ability to be creative or just get things done. Even those of us that are technophiles appreciate the fact that we rarely have to fight with our Macs to complete tasks and it is a joy to use a computer that does not get in the way.

Also, Mac users spent the bulk of the past 20 years receiving the same treatment that a non-capitulating, educated black would have in the Jim Crow South. Macs users have been chastised, taunted, teased, insulted and otherwise disrespected by a group that consisted of people that mostly knew nothing about technology beyond parroting IT and Microsoft?s party line. We have faced the press making patently false statements about the Mac, Microsoft aping the Mac OS and then receiving praise for being ?innovative? when all they did was copy and Wall Street turning the market against Mac users by constantly predicting the impeding death of our platform of choice. PC weenines, immature Windows users (typ. techies) that go out of their way to taunt Mac users, have long practiced trolling Mac-centric forums to stir up trouble?Mac users do not go onto Windows forums and trash talking Wintel systems?so much like the terror rides of the KKK, Mac users were not even safe from the spreading of anti-Mac FUD in Mac communities.

Like any minority group persecuted by a tyrannical majority, Mac users formed a strong sense of community and a connection with their platform of choice. So even now when Macs are given their due respect, Mac users are still quite wary of anyone that comes onto a Mac forum unduly criticizing the Mac for being different. Mac users pride themselves on being able to think outside the box, resist groupthink and not just be a passive sheep in the herd. Nothing about the Mac is like a Windows PC and that is the way we want it. It is a feeling that those that have never gone through being persecuted simply because they chose to ?Think Different? can never understand.

So yes, the Mac is a tool, and yes Mac users take it personally when ?outsiders? unabatedly bash the Mac based on false premises, inexperience or their inability to stop working as if they are on a Wintel PC. As Chris Breen stated early on in this thread when you referred to us as a cult?another insult that Mac users have long since had their fill of?if you ask for help you will receive it; I and others have provided you with a wealth of information about OS X?s window management features when you outright asked elsewhere in this thread. What you experienced early on was the result of the fact that your initial post was not a request for assistance, but a prolix negative assessment of the Mac based on inexperience and issues that ultimately have little to do with the Mac.

[Martian]

mdawson said:

That (tiling of windows) would require Apple completely changing how windows are handled in the Mac OS. The feature that you speak of dictates how document windows are arranged within application windows in Microsoft’s OS. The Mac OS does not and never has had application windows that contain document windows. In order to adopt that functionality, Apple would have to completely abandon the spatial design aspects of the user interface and implement Microsoft’s methodology of encapsulating document windows within application window. Such a move would also require attaching menus to application windows as well. As the tech gurus at ars technical have often noted, Microsoft’s approach to window management is the antithesis of good UI design.

That's a good explanation. I didn’t realize that tiling was so intertwined with other aspects of window management.

[Chris Breen]

mdawson said:

Mac users spent the bulk of the past 20 years receiving the same treatment that a non-capitulating, educated black would have in the Jim Crow South.

And, if you haven't noticed, Fred, some of us are prone to hyperbole. As far as I know, Mac users haven't been threatened with beatings and worse by those who use PCs. I'm not sure what the African-American version of Godwin's Law is, but I'm pretty sure that one could file this there.

Stripping the most hyperbolic portions of m's post, some Mac users have felt put upon by the Windows majority and tend to be sensitive about criticism of their favorite computer.

[mdawson]

While the threat to life and limb may not have been present, there are parallels, Chris, and that was what I trying to get across. Off hand, I cannot think a lesser example that most people would recognize, although I could have easily used the more extreme example of the persecution of Jews over 5000+ years by nearly every other culture they have encountered; lsrael has come to be known for reactions to threats that could justifiably be classified as overreaction.

Lack of violence notwithstanding, the psychological impact on the Mac users is much the same. We are effectively a tight knit (minority) community formed as a result of a form of unwarranted majority persecution.

[Chris Breen]

M, I've been a Mac user for over 20 years and I don't feel persecuted by anyone -- nor do most of the Mac users I know. It's a computer. It's just a computer. And one I happen to enjoy using. If others want to use PCs, it's no skin off my nose.

This ain't religion and to take it so seriously that you feel persecuted because the majority of people use Windows boxes only helps to reinforce the unattractive notion that Mac users are fanatics.

I think a more apt comparison would be Nikon versus Canon rather than dredging up visions of pogroms and the Holocaust.

[Martian]

Chris Breen said:

I think a more apt comparison would be Nikon versus Canon rather than dredging up visions of pogroms and the Holocaust.

Well put. Excellent.
Another analogy would be how the Chevy, Ford and Mopar guys have had intense rivalries from before computers were invented. These guys genuinely like and respect each other while they endlessly “argue” over motor sport, then over automotive technical topics which are just as esoteric as computer technology, and then back to the generic Ford vs. Chevy banter.

[mdawson]

Apparently, this did not take when I posted it yesterday:

I guess we have to agree to disagree, Chris. People that choose Canon cameras do not berate people for choosing Nikon cameras. They do not go onto Nikon forums and taunt photographers for not using Canon equipment. Where they are permitted to choose their own equipment or make suggestions for future equipment purchases, photographers that prefer Nikon are not told that they can choose any camera within their $x budget as long as it is a Canon; the exception would of course be if a company has an outstanding contract to purchase certain equipment.

So, while it is true that being a Mac user is not exactly like being black, Jewish, gay, etc., in that there is no (government) sanctioned persecution of Mac users, it is still a fact that parallels can be rightfully drawn where the reaction to a minority group is concerned. So maybe persecution is too strong a term, but Mac users have been singled out simply for choosing something other on a grand scale. If fact, those aspects that make just about any other company/product the rare sought after elite thing to have, have been reversed where Apple and the Mac are concerned.

Sony, BMW, Bang & Olufsen, et al., are not castigated because their products come at a premium. Macs were. Wall Street did not make a game of predicting the downfall of the entire luxury car segment of the auto industry because their combined market share came in at a whopping 1 percent of global auto sales. Small market share has been a favorite argument against Apple and the Mac?s long-term viability. Then when Mac users react as most would for choosing a product that they prefer that differs from what every one else simply accepts by default, they are labeled as a cult of (religious) fanacitcs or nutcases that happily drank Apple?s, or more specifically Jobs?, ?Kool-Aid?. If the Mac is just a computer, and I do accept that, then why are people not treated in this manner when they choose ?boutique? products in other markets.

At the very least you would have to agree that in the past stating that you preferred to us a Mac was an admission often met with disdain or ridicule. I can rarely think of an instance were my product choices have resulted in what amounts to a ?what the f? is wrong with you? reaction. No pogrom or potential Holocaust was on the horizon for Mac users, nor did I state that there was, but the reaction to one being a Mac user was a far cry from ?what were you thinking when you bought that Yugo??

The fact that there is has been Mac evangelism that can range from mild defensiveness to extreme fanboism clearly indicates that there is more going where (longtime) Mac users are concerned. But where fanaticism is concerned, it is not Mac users that go around the Web calling for the utter eradication of the other OS. While the extremes of group persecution have not befallen Mac users?we are not threatened with violence nor have laws been passed stripping us of our rights?, the level of harassment that Mac users have endured over the past two decades has clearly had a similar psychological effect. It is unlikely that Mac evangelism would have come to fruition otherwise.

Personally, I do not care if people choose to use a Wintel PC. I often posted on these boards to people trying to make a decision one way or the other need to seriously consider their needs; I have also pointed friends away from the Mac in those few instances where I knew a Mac would not serve them well (e.g., accountants, et al). I often stated in the past that those in vertical markets have it in their best interest to stick with Windows. I have also stated numerous times that despite my preference for the Mac, where all computer users are concerned, things would be much better if we had more viable mainstream operating systems available for out computers, as the resulting competition would (or at least should) result in advancements from which all can benefit. That is hardly the position of some die-hard cultish fanatic.

[FredTheOldGuy]

Mdawson, I have some
inking as to what you mean with respect to the Mac lending itself to one’s
sense of creativity. While I’ve often
rued my own lack of creativity, the interface alone in the iWeb and podcast
creation programs seduced me into playing around in ways that I would not have
attempted on my Windows machines. I’m
not exactly sure what the difference is, except that the Mac makes such activities
not only look possible but tempting as well.

I can’t speak to your experience as a Mac user in the past. Some years ago the subject of Mac computers
came up among some of my friends and cohorts, and their attitude about the Mac
was generally a big question mark. No
one ever had anything negative to say about the Mac. My own understanding was that the chip the
Mac was built around was especially well suited for graphics and publishing. When a PR agency I was working with at the
time made the decision to work exclusively within the Mac environment, my reaction
was one of concern, but only because I was afraid that we would no longer be able
to exchange electronic files. I was the
liaison between the PR agency and the rest of the members of the committee that
I was serving on, so if my fears had been valid ones we would have had a
problem on our hands. But I never did have
a problem with the files generated by that agency, and my concerns were quickly
resolved.

As far as my calling the group here a cult, I don’t believe
I actually made that allegation. Based on some of the (from my perspective) strange
reactions I got, I had certainly begun to wonder about it. I think it was the unified and consistent
nature of the reactions that gave rise to that thought. Given my experience on PC forums in the past, I felt like I had landed on a whole new planet. Fortuntaely I decided to stick around and see if I could figure out what all of that was about.

Gotta go. Got a bid day ahead.