Comments on: A maximize keyboard shortcut for OS X

By: kp

kp — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:46:42 +0000

Check out the “mouse and keyboard”-preference pane of the osx system preferences. You can assign keyboard shortcuts for every menu item in osx, also maximizing windows. Just add a new shortcut for either all or just one special application, enter the name of the menu command name and press the shortcut. Unfortunately firefox3 and fdt/eclipse do not follow apple’s design principle :((( but for all other apps it’s just fine.

By: QA

QA — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:54:00 +0000

I’ve experienced frustration trying to maximize docked windows as well. So I went on a quest to find a better navigation method and here’s the solution I found: Stop minimizing and maximizing. Hide your apps instead using Cmd+H. It’s much faster. Then you can access the hidden app by using Cmd+Tab. Furthermore, if you want to cycle through an application’s windows you can do this with Cmd+~.

Cmd+H
Cmd+Tab
Cmd+~

Those three shortcuts have greatly increased my productivity.
Oh and BTW you CAN also maximize a docked window using Cmd+Tab. Just hold Option before you release (works in 10.5 and later).
And a final tip for speedy navigation: AFTER pressing Cmd+Tab, while “Tab” moves L to R, “~” moves R to L. Have fun!

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 15 May 2008 05:37:15 +0000

If you want QS this is the site to go to today.

http://lipidity.com/apple/quicksilver/quicksilver-cleaned/

By: MuffinDCC

MuffinDCC — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 16:19:55 +0000

Cheers for the article, really helpful =)

By: Aral

Aral — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:41:34 +0000

Just tried Ctrl-F2 in a couple of apps Firefox, TextMate, Preview, etc. and it didn’t do anything.

By: Jyrki

Jyrki — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:44:43 +0000

Hi Michael and others!

Have you ever tried control F2? Then you can just type few of the first letters of a menu item you’re willing to access, type “down” and continue… IMO this is full keyboard access, not the way Windows has it [alt an alphabet underlined] And you know what.. The control F2 can be changed to whatever you want to use.

-jyrki

By: Aral

Aral — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 07:54:23 +0000

Hi Michael,

Have you tried QuickSilver? It’s been a lifesaver for me — can’t imagine using a Mac without it.

By: michael chalk

michael chalk — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 06:59:56 +0000

hello Aran, great to see someone is grappling with this issue.

Mac is so beautiful in so many ways, that i just find the lack of Alt F bewildering! And okay the “Start Menu” on windows is really lame compared to Linux, but to see mac going backwards, and preventing people from managing their own ‘apple menu’ .. agh

both linux and windows allow full keyboard access to all menus, and mac users just look at you blankly, “But why would you want to do that?” (uh, because my arm hurts from wielding this mouse so much)

the keyboard configurability in linux is just amazing … you can do completely anything. Don’t like Alt space? Change it.

anyway, rave on
michael

By: Nishant

Nishant — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:52:53 +0000

You are very right here in article. Its more of a mouse driven OS. Being a developer, i used keyboard ONLY many times, but with OS X i get simply pissed off. I checked with keyboard shortcuts in help are one of those.. which are not frequently used. Thanks for CTRL-F2 it simplified my life a little bit .

By: aral

aral — Thu, 10 May 2007 10:14:20 +0000

Thanks, Kris, I’ll check Witch out. Although, I have to say, since I’ve been using OS X for a while now, I no longer miss the maximize shortcut at all.