Everyday moves
The switcher
Everything you can do while holding ⌥Tab.
Tap the shortcut to jump back. Hold it for a moment to see your windows. Start with Find a window if you're new.
While you hold
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tab, ←, → | Move through windows |
| ⇧Tab | Move back |
| ↑, ↓ | Walk the selected window's stack of tabs |
| Any letters | Search |
| Delete | Remove the last letter |
| The key above Tab | Flick back to your previous window |
| 1 to 9 | Switch to a workflow, until you've started a search |
| Return | Open the selection |
| Esc | Close without switching |
Two fingers on a trackpad, or a mouse wheel, also move through windows.
The Wheel and List styles run top to bottom, so ↑ and ↓ move through windows there, and ← and → walk a stack of tabs.
Act on a window
While holding, you can act without leaving the switcher. If your switcher shortcut uses ⌘, these use ⌃ instead.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ⌘W | Close the selected window |
| ⌘M | Minimize it |
| ⌘H | Hide its app |
| ⌘Q | Quit its app |
Drop files on a window
Drag files onto the switcher to open them in the selected window's app.
Settings
All of these are in Settings > Switcher.
- Keyboard shortcut: ⌥Tab unless you change it.
- Current app's windows: turn on the ⌥ and backtick shortcut walk only the front app's windows. Off by default.
- Swipe up to open: three or four fingers. Three fingers also opens Mission Control unless you turn that off in System Settings.
- Show windows from: all desktops, or this desktop only.
- Show the switcher: where the pointer is, with the current window, or on the main display.
- Leave out an app: keep an app out of the list.
- Tabs: off, stacked per window, one by one, or only while searching. macOS asks once for each browser.
- Private windows: choose how they appear. Safari can't report private windows, so they're treated as normal windows.