Hidden Exposé Features

Exposé debuted with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) in October 2003. Panther was a vast improvement over 10.2 (Jaguar) in terms of speed, stability, and features. I found that Jaguar would lock up at random, no matter the hardware it was running on; restarting could take up to ten minutes on my Power Mac G5 when it would lock up. Thankfully, Panther resolved that restart bug.

Panther introduced Fast User Switching, forever changing the way families and workgroups share computers. For me, however, the greatest new feature of Panther was Exposé—the iconic and copied window management system we are all used to. Just this morning I discovered what was, to me at least, a hidden feature of Exposé.

I had a dozen or so Safari windows open, a spreadsheet, and a keynote presentation, and could not see the desktop. I could switch applications using the Command-Tab keystroke, and then hide others once in the Finder—but that would be a bit disruptive. I had to drag a block of text from a web page onto the desktop to make a clipping. So, I highlighted the text I needed, began dragging it, then pressed F11 (the default keystroke to show the desktop using Exposé), and was then able to place the text clipping where I wanted on my desktop. With this done, I pressed F11 again, and picked up right where I left off.

You can use F9 to show all windows for a similar effect. Say you have an unsent email on your screen behind an active Pages document. Save the Pages document, and drag the icon in the window’s title bar. Now, press F9 (the default “show all windows” keystroke for Exposé) to show all your windows. Drag it over the email you’re writing and wait a second. Just like Finder’s spring-loaded folders feature, you’ll see the destination window flash a few times and then come to the forefront. Let go of your mouse or trackpad button, and you’ve attached the file to your email.