Minimising windows in OS X

Sat, 4 November 2006

Going through the site statistics today I noticed quite a few search keywords related to minimising windows in OS X. One particular query appeared four times over the past week - ’slowing down genie effect’.

Well, here is the answer - hold down the shift key and click the yellow button in your window top bar.

minimizing windows in os x

There are actually a few other tricks you may do with minimising windows in OS X. In system preferences you can select either ‘genie’ or ’scale’ effect. But there is another one, called ’suck’. This one can’t be enabled via system preferences, but it can be via the terminal.

So open your terminal and type the following line:

defaults write com.apple.dock mineffect suck

and hit enter. Now close the terminal, log out and log back in, and voila - your windows … errr… well … ’suck’.

To return to ‘genie’ or ’scale’ simply go to the system preferences and select either, it will instantly change to the selected one.

What is the slow-genie good for? I’m not sure, if not just to show off. But if you want to do so, then you may better opt for an Expose show.

Open a few windows, hold down the shift key and activate Expose, usually by pressing F9 on your keyboard. Your windows are being tiled in a slow-motion and it looks so cool.

But I bet you didn’t know about this one!

Expose has a built-in keyboard window switcher. Try this; open a few windows, activate Expose and then repeatedly hit the tab key. Watch your windows switching like the cards in a deck. Once you have the window you want to use, just hit enter and the window is all yours.

For those finding a similar thing in Windows Vista, I hate to say - this has been part of OS X since 10.3 (Panther) release in October 2003, when Vista was still called Longshot Longhorn.

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Category Posted in New to Mac, Tips

40 Responses to “Minimising windows in OS X”

  1. Smaran said: Sat, 4 November 2006 at 01:08

    Wow… I’ve been using a Mac for almost a year and I didn’t know about Exposé’s window-switcher. Very cool! Much better than CMD + TAB.

  2. Brajeshwar said: Sat, 4 November 2006 at 01:30

    This is awesome. Thanks for the tip on the expose.

  3. Dance Ham said: Sat, 4 November 2006 at 03:44

    Shift+minimize or shift+expose is excellent for demonstrating the Window/Dock system to new, elderly, or otherwise slow users.

    “What? Where’d that window go??”

    “Here, watch….”

  4. Lucas Cantor said: Sat, 4 November 2006 at 07:27

    Try this one: While slowly minimizing a Safari window, enter “killall Dock” in Terminal. The window will freeze in its distorted state, but still maintain most of its functionality!

  5. Niklas Sundqvist said: Sat, 4 November 2006 at 20:18

    You Could use applekey+m to minimize too. And instead of log out, log in. Open the Terminal and simply write “killall Dock” without the “” :)

  6. Michael Skelton said: Sat, 4 November 2006 at 20:19

    Great article! Some good tips for the day to day OS/X user!

  7. Kim Holburn said: Sat, 4 November 2006 at 20:33

    If you use shift-control minimise goes even slower.

  8. Earl said: Sat, 4 November 2006 at 23:44

    cmd-` switches windows inside an application without expose…

  9. Pete K said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 00:26

    try CTRL + OPT + COMMAND + 8

    A friend and I swept an apple store with this one. It even inverted the nano commercial they were using for a screen saver :)

    (Also, it added to the hilarity to see their solution was to restart the machines)

  10. Jason said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 01:55

    @Pete
    Thats awesome, I might have to mess around with this one at the apple store. What is the purpose for this anyway?

  11. Romain Guy said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 02:01

    @Jason
    Try it at night :)

    The Shift key press works for pretty much every animation in Mac OS X. Try to invoke Dashboard while pressing Shift. Or try to invoke Front Row.

  12. WillGonz said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 02:06

    When you’re doing command-tab. Keep command pressed and do Q. That will quit the highlighted application. It’s a quick way to close out applications when not in use.

  13. Sam said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 02:34

    You can also press H when doing the Cmd+tab to hide applications. Also, you can press cmd + ~ (tilde) to go backwards when switching apps.

    Sam Arseneau
    President
    SupportMyMac.ca

  14. jhn said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 04:39

    I’ve got to do the color inversion trick at the nearby Apple store.

  15. chris said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 05:19

    Tab switches between apps, not windows.

    And yes, I did know about all of these.

  16. Scott said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 05:42

    I love the CTRL + OPT + COMMAND + 8 trick myself… if you’re at a university where there a large number of macs (hhhmmm… i love being a bad professor) all in the same room… hilarity explodes after only a few minutes of work!

  17. matt sn0w said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 06:13

    Awesome article. I’ve been looking for tips like this! I’ve been a mac user for about 2 years now and like finding neat new things. :)

  18. paul said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 06:18

    also, when expose is open, the arrow keys will move focus from window to window, then space or enter will select the window you want

  19. Jason said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 06:27

    Another Shift tip:
    Hold shift while hitting the volume key and it wont make the noise when changing volume.

  20. Fred said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 07:22

    One I like to use is the option/alt key then either the volume button/ brightness button for quick access to their system preferences. Give it a try! :D

  21. David said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 09:33

    Try Ctrl + Scroll wheel up and down. Useful for fullscreen in non pro quicktime or youtube, etc. Thanks for all the great shortcuts btw.

  22. David said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 09:37

    also try moving the cursor over the dock while slow-mo minimizing (shift + ctrl + minimize is best) the genie effect reacts in real-time. Just a bit of fun.

  23. Bart said: Sun, 5 November 2006 at 10:20

    The shift trick works on most animations, including Dashboard. Steve also used it while showing off the first ever version of OS X.

  24. Rube said: Mon, 6 November 2006 at 02:33

    The slow-genie effect was supposedly written at Jobs’ request, for the Keynote where they first demoed OS X 10.0. There’s a film on youtube where he claims that, anyway.

    Part 1: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ko4V3G4NqII
    Part 2: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6-fkYFV7rOY
    Part 3: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2GkoAa5718Y

    I think it’s in Part 3; all of them are pretty cool, though, if you’re a Mac freak.

  25. Rodney Blevins said: Mon, 6 November 2006 at 06:33

    Wow, that is great, thanks a lot. If the minimize effect is called “genie” then the shift-minimize should be called “ooze”.

  26. stimp said: Mon, 6 November 2006 at 12:35

    Try holding ctrl+command+d while hovering over any text and the definition will appear, then you can keep holding and cursor from word to word and the definition follows for each new word the cursor eats.

  27. huy said: Mon, 6 November 2006 at 16:18

    wow this stuff is amazing!

    the dictionary thing is very useful… i can get rid of that widget now!

    is there any place with just an index of mac keyboard commands like this?

  28. Sebastian said: Mon, 6 November 2006 at 16:56

    Wow, great article and great follow-up discussion. I’ve learnt a lot tonite! :)

  29. Karen said: Wed, 8 November 2006 at 23:13

    So we all know that to minimize a window, we just hit Command+m. But is there a way to restore a window without having to click on the minimized window in the Dock?

    Great tips guys, these definitely make using a Mac even more fun! :)

    After hiding an application using Command+h, you can unhide it by using Command+Tab and making sure the application’s icon is selected.

  30. Tom said: Thu, 16 November 2006 at 06:31

    CMD-M to minimize.
    CMD-L to Maximize.
    ;)

  31. Brajeshwar said: Sun, 26 November 2006 at 18:20

    And here is another cool thing you can do
    http://mac.brajeshwar.com/2006/11/zoom-in-and-out-effect-anywhere-on-your-macs-screen/

  32. keith said: Thu, 14 December 2006 at 19:52

    command alt d will make the dock hide or unhide by default.

  33. Ahmed said: Tue, 1 May 2007 at 16:36

    The slow-genie effect was supposedly written at Jobs’ request, for the Keynote where they first demoed OS X 10.0. There’s a film on youtube where he claims that, anyway.

  34. Colin said: Mon, 4 June 2007 at 08:27

    @Karen

    The only way I know of to restore a minimized window via the keyboard is by using an application called “Witch” ( http://www.keynote2keynote.com/2007/05/06/witch-review-take-alttab-to-a-new-level/ )

    It takes a little set up and a little practice with the shortcut keys but it is very easy and very aesthetic.

  35. Sandman said: Wed, 18 July 2007 at 08:49

    Hi

    I really like your website and it makes me wish I could switch to a Mac sooner.

    Can you please post a video on youtube for the two effects that you have shown? I dont have a Mac and I want to see this for myself and maybe my friends.

    As a suggestion for your website, maybe you should post screen captured videos on youtube showing stuff that you actually teach.

    Thanks

  36. jgjgjg said: Sun, 29 July 2007 at 19:46

    i loved the previously mentioned zoom feature when i first found it but found it a little tedious to use , try instead: option command 8, it automatically zooms into the cursor/or mouse, press again and it returns to normal. you can still move your mouse when inside zoom to move around

    also, i didnt know of the shift ctrl minimize to slow it down even more, but i started palying around and found out if you add the option key into the mix, ie shft ctrl option minimize, it minimizes all open windows. not very useful, but open 4 safari windows make them all different sizes and put one in each corner of the screen throughout the desktop, press.

  37. Matt said: Fri, 3 August 2007 at 00:49

    ctrl+L doesn’t restore in Firefox. :\

  38. xkotto said: Wed, 10 October 2007 at 01:05

    Great tips! Thx to you all. I think this one was mentioned previously but not very clearly:

    Command + Tab switches between applications, and Command + ` (the key just above Tab) switches between multiple windows in an application, like many browser windows open in Firefox. I discovered this when fumbling after using OS X for years, and it’s made OS X life much easier for me. Keep the cool posts coming!

  39. jenderalmabuk said: Sun, 27 January 2008 at 14:02

    I’m Using Software To Active It. Im Using OnyX For Change That.
    More Info http://www.titanium.free.fr.

    Oh Yeah Is There More Theme For Change 3 Of thats. Like Beryl On Ubuntu.

  40. ed said: Fri, 11 April 2008 at 22:02

    how about this…

    select text and do Cmd +C
    and then open a new window and do Cmd + V to paste the text there!

    LOL - just kidding!

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