Exposé is a feature of the Mac OS X operating system. First previewed on June 23 2003 at that year's Worldwide Developers Conference as a feature of the then forthcoming Mac OS X 10.3,[1] Exposé allows a user to quickly locate an open window, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need to click through many windows to find a specific target. A number of Exposé clones exist as separate applications for other operating systems.
Usage
Exposé includes three separate features for organizing windows:
- The "All windows" feature shows all open and unhidden windows, shrinking their appearance so they all fit on a single screen. By default, this can be activated using the F9 key.
- The "Application windows" feature shows all open and unhidden windows for the currently active application. Again, the windows shrink to appear on the screen together, but generally they shrink less because there are fewer windows in a single application compared to the system as a whole. During this mode, the user can conveniently cycle through windows of different applications by pressing the tab key. In the default preferences, this can be activated using the F10 key.
- The "Desktop" feature moves all windows off the screen, with just the edges of the windows visible at the side of the screen, giving the user clear access to the Desktop. In the default preferences, this can be activated using the F11 key.
In the first two cases, after Exposé is activated, the user can select any window by clicking on it or selecting it with arrow keys and pressing Enter. Exposé then deactivates, leaving the selected window in the foreground.
The key used for activating Exposé can be customized to be any of the function keys, the shift, control, option or command key, the fn key on PowerBooks and iBooks, or even a mouse button on multiple-button mice (such as Apple's Mighty Mouse).
Exposé can also be activated by simply moving the mouse to a corner of the desktop using a feature called Active Screen Corners (which is off by default). A disadvantage of this is that if someone who is unfamiliar with Exposé uses a Mac with 'hot corners' activated, they tend to get very confused if they accidentally move the mouse into one of the corners.
Trivia
- The "blob" is a hidden and undocumented interface to Exposé that was discovered by a member of the MacNN forums.[2] When clicked, it enables the "Application Windows" mode. When Option+clicked, it enables the "All Windows" mode. Holding down Shift and clicking or Option+clicking causes the Exposé effect to occur in slow motion.
- To enable the blob, enter the following commands in Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app):
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool truekillall Dock
- To disable the blob, repeat the above steps replacing
truewithfalse.
- Another undocumented feature of Exposé is for the show desktop function. It places all the open windows in a small box on the screen that can be moved to anywhere on the screen. Unfortunately this function has some bugs, after exiting the show desktop mode, the foremost window will not have a shadow and the user will not be able to move the window. However, this easily fixed by using the show all function (which is set to default F9).
- To enable this function simply enter the following command into the Terminal
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-olddesktop -bool falsekillall Dock
- To disable this function repeat the above steps replacing
falsewithtrue.
- A number of third-party applications that attempt to mimic Exposé are available for other platforms . My Exposé is one such application, available for Windows Vista. Compiz and Beryl (wm), experimental compositing window managers for 3D accelerated X servers, also has a plugin (called "scale") which adds a similar feature.
- Flip 3D, a feature in Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, bears a slight resemblance to Exposé, and offers similar functionality.
- Exposé makes extensive use of undocumented features of the Core Graphics framework.
- Holding shift and pressing the assigned Exposé key will cause the animation to happen in slow motion.
References
- ^ "Apple Previews Mac OS X "Panther"". Apple Press Release Library. June 23, 2003. Retrieved 2006-08-19.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ Luke Sands (October 9 2003). "wvous: 'Hidden' Dock Feature". MacNN forums. Retrieved 2006-08-20.
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