Managing Windows with Mission Control

Mission Control is a feature that is new to Mountain Lion. It allows you to see every open window, Dashboard, and all your Spaces (more on those later in this chapter). Individual windows are grouped according to the application to which they belong. Figure 1.14 shows Mission Control in action.

1.14 Mission Control shows every open window and other items, such as Dashboard, all in one location.

Manipulating open windows

You can launch Mission Control in a few ways:

Swipe up on your trackpad or Magic Mouse using three fingers.

Click the Mission Control icon in the Dock.

Press the Mission Control key on your keyboard, or press F9 (or fn+F9 for laptops) if you don’t have a Mission Control key. Consult the documentation for your Mac to find out if you have a Mission Control key.

Now that Mission Control is running, you can use it to move or copy files from location to location.

Moving a file from a folder to the desktop

You can easily move files from a folder to the desktop using Mission Control. Follow these steps:

1. Find the file you want to move to your desktop and click to select it.

2. Start dragging the file while simultaneously pressing +Mission Control (use F11 if you don’t have a Mission Control key or fn+F11 on a laptop) to hide all windows.

3. To move the file, just drop it onto the desktop.

• To copy the file to the desktop, press Option before dropping it.

• To create an alias for the file, press +Option before dropping it onto the desktop.

Copying text and graphics to the desktop

You can use Mission Control to quickly copy text or graphics from another item (such as a document or website). To do so:

1. In the window that you want to copy from, select the text or graphics you want to copy to the desktop.

2. Start dragging the text or graphics, and then press +Mission Control at the same time. If you don’t have a Mission Control key, use F11 (or fn+F11 on a laptop).

3. Drop the text or graphics onto the desktop by releasing the mouse or trackpad button.

Copying text and graphics from one window to another

Mission Control affords the flexibility to copy text and graphics from one open window to another. The window could be a folder, a website, or a document. To copy from one window to another, follow these steps:

1. Open the window containing the text or graphics you want to copy, and then select the material.

2. Start dragging the text or graphics by performing one of these options:

• If copying the text or graphic into another window in the same application, press Control+Mission Control (F10 if you don’t have a Mission Control key, or fn+F10 for laptops).

• If copying the text or graphics into a window from another application, press Mission Control (F9 if you don’t have a Mission Control key, or fn+F9 on a laptop).

3. Hold the text or graphics over the window to which you want to copy them, and then press the same keys that you used in Step 2.

4. Copy the text or graphics to the other window by releasing the mouse or trackpad button.

Setting Mission Control preferences

You can control several behaviors of Mission Control through the use of preferences. I’m very big on preferences, as they let you control more of the action.

Open the Mission Control preferences, shown in Figure 1.15, by choosing Apple menu→System Preferences and then selecting the Mission Control icon in the Personal section.

The preferences allow you to do the following:

Determine whether to show the Dashboard as a space.

Arrange spaces automatically according to which ones you used most recently.

Switch to a space automatically when choosing an application that has a window open within it.

Configure keyboard and mouse shortcuts for launching Mission Control, switching to application windows, showing the desktop, or showing Dashboard.

1.15 Configure the Mission Control preferences to suit your needs and work habits.

Managing Windows with Exposé

Exposé is a great feature for helping clear up the jumbled mess of windows that can grind your productivity to a halt. Exposé arranges your windows in one of three ways, using three of the function keys at the top of your keyboard: F9, F10, and F11. You’ve actually already used Exposé in conjunction with Mission Control if you performed any of the Mission Control tasks earlier in this chapter.

Press F3 to arrange the open windows so that they can all be seen. Move the mouse pointer over the windows to see which applications they belong to. Click the window you want to bring to the forefront, or press F9 to return the Finder to its previous state.

Press Control+F3 to bring all the open windows for the current application to the forefront. Press +F3 to cause all the open windows to scram out of the way so that you can see the desktop. To return the windows to their previous position, press Control+F3 or +F3, depending on which one you used to move the windows.