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1. Mac Switching Between Windows With Mouse

Reader David Utts has recently emigrated from the Land of Windows and poses a question about Macintosh windows management. He writes:

I have a hard time moving between open Microsoft Word documents on my new Mac. In the Windows environment I am used to going between open documents with a keyboard command. Can you offer any suggestions for more easily switching between documents?

Sure. Start by memorizing this keyboard shortcut: Command-` (that’s the Tilde key next to the 1 key at the top of the keyboard). This is a universal Macintosh shortcut for moving through open windows within an application or the Finder. Just hold down the Command key and bang the Tilde key each time you want to move to another open document. Press Shift-Command-` and you’ll move in the opposite direction through those open windows.

Or you can use your mouse. Word lists all open documents in its Window menu. Regrettably, it doesn’t assign keyboard shortcuts to these open documents as does a program like Bare Bones Software’s BBEdit. Still, you’ll find them listed in this menu so feel free to mouse up and choose the one you want.

Or you can click and hold on the Word icon in the Dock. Do so and at the top of the contextual menu that appears you'll see a list of all the open documents. Choose the one you like and it becomes the active document.

Finally, locate the F10 key on your Mac’s keyboard and give it a press (or Fn-F10 on a laptop). This invokes Exposé’s Application Windows function, a handy feature that exposes all of an application’s open documents (except for those you've minimized). To select a different document, just drag the cursor over the window you want. Its name will appear when the cursor moves over it. Let go of F10 and the document you were hovering over will come to the fore.

This feature is so useful that I’ve assigned my mouse’s scroll button to invoke it. You can make that kind of assignment in the Exposé & Spaces system preference.

I want to switch between two different windows opened in the same desktop on Mac (El Capitan). I can't do it with cmd+tab. Does anyone knows how to do it?

None of the following shortcuts work as well:cmd+`, cmd+shift+`, cmd+number

6 Answers

The shortcut is defined in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts

⌘` is the default, Check the shortcut and if it's enabled at all

vadianvadian

Using CMD + Shift + Backtick allows you to cycle through windows.To select a specific tab in a window you can use CMD + a number.

You may have this disabled in your settings. System Preference > Keyboard > Shortcuts

BurganBurgan

Using cmd+number you will switch the windows, starting in number 1 to the number of open windows

This is a common issue in all [currently released] versions of 10.12 [Sierra]. Although there isn't a solid fix for it the quickest workaround is to go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard > Text and in the lower left corner first click the '+' button then click the '-' button, close System Preferences and you should be good to go. You may need to do this after restarting each time but it only takes a second.

Mac Switching Between Windows With Mouse

Had this problem too (MaxOS Mojave)I knew about this fix:System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard > Move focus to next window- but could not make it workThe thing is. First just click on the right side of the 'Move focus to the next window' you then see the area becomes editable with a line around the symbol to the right. Then you click the combination you want and voila! I noticed when done and then clicked 'restore defaults' it went back to not working again. Followed the steps again and all good.Jonny

The solution by Johnny H works in my Mojave 10.14.2. You obviously cannot assign a key combination already in use in other shortcuts.

Had this problem too (MaxOS Mojave) I knew about this fix: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard > Move focus to next window - but could not make it work The thing is. First just click on the right side of the 'Move focus to the next window' you then see the area becomes editable with a line around the symbol to the right. Then you click the combination you want and voila! I noticed when done and then clicked 'restore defaults' it went back to not working again. Followed the steps again and all good. Jonny

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