Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Mountain Lion Edition

The “Heads-Up” Program Switcher

Just as in Windows, there’s a handy keystroke for switching from one open program to another: the ⌘-Tab keystroke (Figure 4-7).

You can use this feature in three different ways, which are well worth learning:

• If you keep the ⌘ key pressed, each press of the Tab key highlights the Dock icon of another program, in left-to-right Dock order. Release both keys when you reach the one you want. OS X brings the corresponding program to the front. (To move backward through the open programs, press Shift-⌘-Tab.)

• If you leave the ⌘ key pressed, you can choose a program by clicking its icon with your mouse, or by pressing the ← or → keys.

• A single press of ⌘-Tab takes you to the program you used most recently, and another, separate ⌘-Tab bounces back to the program you started in.

  Imagine, for example, that you’re doing a lot of switching between two programs, like your Web browser and your email program. If you have five other programs open, you don’t want to waste your time ⌘-Tabbing your way through all the open programs just to get back to your Web browser.

Tip

Here’s a related keystroke, equally awesome. If you press ⌘-tilde (the ~ key next to the number 1), you switch to the next window in the same program.

Figure 4-7. Apple calls this row of open program icons a “heads-up display,” named after the projected data screen on a Navy jet windshield that lets pilots avoid having to look down at their instruments.