OS X ’s minimize feature article shrinks down an open windowpane and store the page on the right - paw side of your Dock ( assuming you have n’t moved the bobtail off the bottom of the screen ) . It ’s a handy way to leave a windowpane open for well-heeled succeeding book of facts , yet not have it take up infinite on your screen . There are a couple direction to minimize a window to the Dock — printing press Command - M , or just sink in the yellow minimize button in the top left of an undefended windowpane . When you do , an oh - so - pretty spiritedness will scale the fighting window down into the Dock . When you want to use it again , click the humble windowpane picture in the Dock , and it will scale up to full size .
But what if you want to minimise all of an software ’s loose window ? essay holding down the Option key before cluck the minimize button . This whoremaster will probably work in most , but perhaps not all , of your software . AllCocoaapplications support the feature automatically , from what I can distinguish . There are lots of Cocoa applications out there , including most anything Apple has shipped lately , plus programs such as OmniWeb , Camino , Path Finder , and many more . In any of these programs , Option - clicking the minimize gizmo will send all of the programme ’s windows to the Dock . If you find you require all the windows back at full size , Option - select any one of the minimized window in the dock , and they ’ll all amplify again .
So much for Cocoa applications . What aboutCarbonapplications , such as Microsoft Office 2004 , BBEdit , and Photoshop ? The answer here is you ’ll probably be able to use the alternative - click cutoff to minimize all open window , but it ’s not guaranteed . On my system , it seemed to work in every Carbon app I could see , include the Finder , Excel , and Photoshop . It did n’t , however , lick in Word , which seems quite odd . I ’m not sure if Word is the only exclusion to the rule , or if there are other such apps — but if there are , I do n’t have them on my Mac .
There ’s another disadvantage to Carbon apps in this respect — you ca n’t release all of the minimized windows with an Option - tap one of the docked windows . Instead , you have to tap each window to release it from its impermanent home in the Dock . You ’ll desire to keep this in mind before you minimize those 20 open BBEdit windows via Option - click .
Just to further bedevil things , however , there ’s one social function where Carbon applications have an reward over their Cocoa vis-a-vis — when close minimized windowpane . With Cocoa applications , you have to let go a minimized window from the dock before you’re able to close it . With Carbon program , however , you’re able to fill up a minimized window by ascendence - clicking on its icon on the Dock and selecting Close ( or by pressing Command - W ) . Try that with a Cocoa lotion ’s windows , and you ’ll only see Open in the contextual computer menu .
Hopefully , OS X 10.5 will bring further consistence to this functionality , as it ’s puzzling to explain in its current nation .
