Another fairly new Mac user here… One way I was shown to see all open applications is to press the “fn” key and then the “F7″ key. You still have to then mouse over to the app you want on top, but it’s handy sometimes to see them all that way.

Wow - another eye-opener. Thanks so much!

@ David
I believe that that is Expose. It’s a great piece of software to do a very similar thing, especially when you have multiple windows for the same program. Instead of Command+Tabbing to the program and then Command+’ ing to the window you want, you bring up Expose and it shows all your windows. Then select the one you want.

A nice way to quit multiple applications is to open the App Switcher with Command+Tab, and while the Command key is down, type Q. The selected application quits and the App Switcher stays open, so you can quit of a bunch of applications very quickly.

I never knew about app switcher. I have a hot corner for “expose” and another hot corner for “all windows” so between those I get everything shown, BUT it I didn’t have any open windows I’d still have to head to the dock for an open app.

And the “Q” quit will be a great way to shut them all off.

Thanks for the tip

Again, this doesn’t seem to work for me. It shows four apps (Safari, Mail, Address Book and Finder) when I hold the Command Key and then press the Tab key. When I then tap the Tab Key to cycle through the apps, it will only bring Safari or Mail to the front, when I release the Command key, not Finder or Address Book. I use a MacBook Pro with Leopard…What am I missing here?….Jim

So how to bring up an app that’s in the dock?

O.K. you guys….I don’t see a “command” key on my keyboard??

Hey Lauren, the Command key is the key with a apple logo and a little squiggly celtic-knot on it, to the left of the spacebar. More info here:

http://osxhelp.com/primer-on-macintosh-os-x-keyboard-shortcuts/

Thanks Drakfyre. I just always called it my “Apple” key.

@Jim, in the case of Address Book, are you sure you have the main Address Book window open? If it is closed, it will bring the Application forward, but not the window. As for the Finder, the Finder does not have much to bring forward, there is no real window to bring forward.

I would suspect that Address Book is just open, but the data window is closed. Go to the Window menu in Address Book and down to “Address Book”, this should show you your entire address book, then you can use command-tab to move to Safari, and back to Address Book.

@Lauren, Apple is moving away from calling it the Apple Key, and even removing said branding from the key, so from this point on, more and more will know it as the command key.

So how to bring up an app that’s in the dock?

@Todd, If you mean what I think you mean, you just click on the item in the dock with your mouse. If you mean an item that has been minimized to the Dock, I would like to know that myself

If I am off base here, reply with more detail about what your specific question is.

@Scott Yeah, how to bring up an app that’s minimized to the dock in the alt-tab sequence. My contention is that minimized apps should automatically be brought out of the dock and given focus. You can access the dock with ctrl-F3, but it seems silly to have to switch to another key command once I realize the app I want is minimized.

OK, I know I can cmd-h to hide windows and then they’ll appear in an alt-tab sequence, but sometimes minimizing is more convenient to get a window out of the way.

Okay, I finally got it!…Duh!…The window must be open and not minimized, then one can cycle through Cmd + Tab to put the focus on an open app that has not been minimized. Doesn’t work on Finder, though— too bad. However, after trying it a few times I like Expose better. with my Mighty Mouse, I merely push the button, then click on the app I want. Quicker for me. Thanks, Scott, for bringing this tip to us. I’ve enjoyed, and learned, from all your tutorials. Thanks, again, for bringing them to us…Jim

@Jim, glad you got it worked out. It can be a bit confusing at times. There is an app called LiteSwitch X that I use. This gives me much more control over how an app is brought forward, and can force it to happen in some cases.

As for the Finder, I am not sure what you want to come forward, there is really nothing to come forward. I am guessing you want your open folders and finder windows to come forward, but they are obscured by other apps. Correct on that one, you are stuck in that regard. LiteSwitch, I believe, can bring one forward, and tell all others to hide, though I do not use that feature.

Application switching is best when you need to toggle two applications all the time. For example, I move from typing this, to mail.app, then back to typing this, and back to mail.app, and I can do that all with no mouse at all. This is, in my opinion, where the Application Switcher really shines.

First I’d just want to point out that the scrollwheel feature existed in Tiger as well. And that was a feature I grew to like - *a lot*.

Now with Leopard I personally think Apple has done a terrible job. Scroll directions have changed, scrolling down in Tiger moved the selection box to the right, now in Leopard a scroll down moves to the left, but most frustrating feature to be removed is that scrolling can’t loop around the list anymore!!!
When you get to the point where you have like 30 (or more) open applications it was a quick way to get from your most resent (leftmost) application to the one used longest ago (rightmost). Really *hate* the changes brought on by the Leopard application switcher vs. the one in Tiger.

@Joachim. I never used the scrool wheel. I will be honest, I do not use the Apple Application Switcher. I use LiteSwitch X, which I find has a ton more features and is a little smaller and more flexible.

Test out the demo and see if it works to your needs.

How do you set up opening an application with a keystroke command?

Thanks very much for this info. I had been using Lite Switch X and wanted to be fair by paying but $15 was too much. Then found apple-tab, now know apple-tilde & apple-q. Very simple, works well.

@james, most use Butler: http://www.manytricks.com/butler/
it is free, and will do what you want, I use Keyboard Maestro: http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/ And while it is a paid software, the support and Peter, the guy who will answer your support issues, is top notch.

I completely agree with Joachim: the inverted behavior of the scroll wheel in Leopard’s application switcher is annoying. There should be at least a hidden preference to change that.