Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by urbandw311er | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

urbandw311er

Ok, so you can actually do this but the keyboard sequence is a bit bonkers.

* Hold down Command and press Tab until the application icon representing the minimised window is highlighted.

* Release Tab but DONT let go of Command.

* Now press Option too so you are holding down Command + Option

* Now release Command so you are just holding down Option

* Finally release Option

Amazingly this will then maximise the window whose application icon you selected in the first place.

Sounds crazy but it works. Try it!

View on HN

You can also tab to the application, hit the up arrow and use the arrow keys to select the minimized window then hit enter.

In fact, my command-tab workflow is: command-tab to open the Switcher and then arrows to switch application/window

Exactly. Cmd-Tab to open the switcher, arrow-left/right to select the desired app, arrow-up/down to show all windows, then arrows or mouse to select the desired window.

I did not know you could do this, and have been following command-tab with control-down for years now. Thanks!

Also, when it comes to maximizing, the green button changes modes when you hover over it with Option held and switches to tiling the window left/right or maximizing it. In general, holding Option on Mac toggles alternate behaviors for menus and buttons. (Special callout to Option+dragging a window edge)

Thank you. That was super helpful!

I do this, it's the only thing I know how to do on a mac and it's in my muscle memory as there's no way I could describe it.

It put me off so much that I really can't be bothered to work out why it works, what the underlying switching philosophy is, or if there are any other commands to use.

You've literally improved my life with this comment. Thank you.

Holy crap. Same here, I never knew this keyboard shortcut existed.

This works, but it's (1) completely undiscoverable (how did you find out about this?), and (2) does not work for switching to a minimized window if the app has another unminimized window.

I don't know about natural discoverability, but Apple still has user manuals for its products: https://support.apple.com/manuals

I learned a few things from idly perusing them when I had nothing better to do.

Thanks for this! I had no idea. That said, it doesn't seem to work if you have 2+ instances of an app window, with one minimized and the other not.

That's new to me. I had gotten used to knowing that the first minimised window for something like Messages or Activity Monitor is what I wanted, and used Cmd-0 to get that up.

I will try this once, be amazed, and promptly forget it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com