Apple + Tab = Cool

There are a lot of cool keyboard shortcuts in OSX but in general, they need to be improved on.

1) Apple definitly needs to copy the M$ way with command-tab. If you're switching between two aps that you're working in and you have 10 apps running, it's faster to use the mouse than it is to command-tab 5 times [if you have 10 apps open and they are as far apart from each other on the dock as possible, you have to hit tab 5 times to switch between them]

2) full keyboard access is a start...but it doesn't work with every application. I want to be able to tab between ALL buttons and hit enter on the one I select.

3) typing the filename works in some places but not in others. typing "macin" on the desktop will select "Macintosh HD" but it won't work in the open file dialog box in some applications such as BBedit. This feature seems to finally be working in drop down menus though [ex: in omniweb type "ny" to select NY on a drop down of the states]. I think omniweb uses the OSX widgets unlike IE which uses its own archaic widgets.
 
Apple-tab can be held in to repeat, Apple-shift does not repeat. I see the simplified logic of Apple-tab, but alt-tab is the faster one in most cases. The down side for Apple is that alt-tab would require its own visual window indicating order of selection, virtually duplicating the dock.

Hey, you know what? alt tab isn't used yet ... it could be. alt being option really, we could option tab in order of most recent app. Or even Apple-option-tab.

The problem with making these things OS level is that you take away key commands from apps. I think virtually all OS level commands should be double modifier based. Like Mail.app needing to use shift-apple-h to view headers because apple-h is already taken.
 
Better yet, have an option for the dock to order itself based on most recently frontmost. Oh I like that idea. ... of course, it's my idea, it stands to reason that I'd like it. :)
 
The down side for Apple is that alt-tab would require its own visual window indicating order of selection, virtually duplicating the dock.
Click to expand...

then why duplicate something that already exists? It would work just like it does now...the icon for the ap that you are currently on when you command-tab is shaded. This would work fine for the alt-tab method used in windows.
 
the dock indicates the order in which selection WILL occur, although not particularly well. It would work well if the dock were ordered consecutively based on most recently frontmost. ;-)
 
Here goes another one...

On new keyboards (without on/off button) ctrl + eject will bring the shut dows dialog both in 9 and X. It does no start the computer unfortunately.
 
The down side for Apple is that alt-tab would require its own visual window indicating order of selection, virtually duplicating the dock.
Click to expand...

If Apple + Tab did exactly the same thing as in Windows, it would not be the same, it would be better, since the visual window indicating order of selection that appears on windows is, of course, of variable order, and its icon-only view sometimes confuses about which windows you are activating if you press tab more than once (if several icons are the same). The Dock is static, so you always know what application you are highlighting, and then it would be 1 click without looking , more clicks looking at the dock which I think is not that bad since it will not be its most use.

However note that in Windows, the behavious is different too, depending on the applications opened: IE and Office documents will display windows at application level, so you change between open browser windows with Alt-Tab (change app), as if you had in fact 2 instances of IE opened, but in Photoshop open docs are displayed at document level (all inside 1 single app) so to change between them you use the almost-universal 'change doc' shortcut ctrl+tab (some apps do not answer to this). Since at the end, even Microsoft does not agree on what is application level and what is document level it ends up turning quite caothic, although usually ctrl-tab will be needed when different windows are enclosed inside a bigger windows as in Photoshop (this does not happen in Mac OS, each element is a top level windows), so it holds a bit.

In Mac OS X would be much more clear than Windows if ctrl-tab or whatever if it was also universal, since Documents never act as Appliaction instances in the Dock (1 app = only 1 icon = different open docs in it). But since each app uses its own 'doc change' shortcut its intuitiveness falls down to zero (IE for instance uses ctrl+~ to change docs, which btw IS INACCESIBLE IN MY SPANISH KEYBOARD - HELLO APPLE?)

I guess both OSs would have place to polish this shortcuts
 
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