Is there a taskbar for OS X?

macos taskbar osx-spaces

On Mac there's a visual window management tool called Exposé. On recent Macs, the default key is F3. (I think it used to be F11 on older MacBook keyboards.)

F3: show all open windows
Ctrl F3: show current application windows
Cmd F3: hide all windows to show the desktop

Clicking on a window will bring it to the foreground.

While in Exposé, you can use the Tab key to switch apps and see their windows. Google "Exposé keyboard shortcuts" for more tricks.

You can assign the Exposé key and see the assigned shortcut keys in System Preferences.

David The Man

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

David The Man almost 2 years
I might have misunderstood how things are suppose to work but here goes.

I have a form for one item (a person), a person have several projects. Now I'd like that the generated html for the name textfield would have the name attribute to something like this: [person][0][project][name] for the first item and [person][1][project][name] for the second item and so on. And I thought that the code below would give me that, however it only produces [person][project][name] which is a problem because that entails whenever you submit this form, only one of the text fields will actually be posted.
```
<%= form_for @person do |person_form| %>
  ...
  <% @person.projects.each do |project| %>
    <% if project.active? %>
      <%= person_form.fields_for :projects, project do |project_fields| %>
        Name: <%= project_fields.text_field :name %>
      <% end %>
    <% end %>
  <% end %>
  ...
<% end %>
```
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
Paul Biggar almost 14 years

Thanks for the answer, but I want to see it all the time, not just when I click a button. As in, I want a taskbar. (My question had a typo which may have obscured this, sorry!)
StackHub almost 14 years

I too would like to know what you think is wrong with the Dock in OS X. It's the equivalent of the task bar in Windows. Right click on a Dock icon to select from many running instances. Click and hold and OS X 10.6.2 will open Expose but for just that app so you can pick from an instance on any Spaces desktop using the graphical Expose browser. Better than a Windows task bar IMO.
Paul Biggar almost 14 years

There's nothing wrong with the Dock, it's just different. I described the behaviour I'm looking for, and the Dock behaves differently.
StackHub over 13 years

Nothing in your description is not done by the Dock. Try removing all the icons from the Dock for non-running programs and get rid of folders and stacks. Then it works almost exactly as requested: it's available on every space; it only shows you running programs (and if you have multiple windows for a program it can let you chose between them). Only think missing is it showing on every monitor, but last time I used XP in multi-monitor mode it only displayed the taskbar on the primary monitor.
Paul Biggar over 13 years

@Ian: That means I'd have to click to see what windows the application has. It also shows every open application, not just the applications that are open on that virtual desktop. Very different behaviour.
UNK over 13 years

This is not an answer. SU is not a Question and Opinion site, it is a Question and Answer site.
mmmmmm over 13 years

@Ian C - the dock does not list the windows it lists apps which is not the same
Andrew Vit over 13 years

@Mark, yes it does list windows when you select an application. @Phoshi, how is my answer an opinion? I state that the dock actually does these functions, but maybe it just does them differently than what Paul is expecting from Windows.
Andrew Vit over 13 years

Updated my answer to cover virtual desktops, since it seems that's really what the question is about. (Except for that, the dock does everything as advertised...)
Paul Biggar over 13 years

Andrew: While I appreciate your effort, your answer is not helpful. I'm looking for a list of windows. Dock does not display this. (You say it 'does list windows when you select an application'. That is clearly not the behaviour I want when I say that I'd 'like to permanently see a clickable list of windows I have open').
Admin about 2 years

This product was discontinued.
Admin about 2 years

You can configure the dock place an application’s windows inside the app icon, or separate from it.