I was checking for new mail in my Cult of Mac mailbox the other day and ran into a new message from Cult of Mac reader Justin Kurian. He wrote:
…’Apple iMac Users Experience More Graphic Anomalies‘
Hi David,
I was reading your article and noticed the picture of the task switcher in Lion. How do I access that? I hate how they got rid of the swipe function for it. Thanks!
– Justin
Accessing the Task Switcher in Mac OS X Lion is easy and I’ll show you how to do that today. Plus we’ll look at using swiping gestures while the Task Switcher is active.
If you have a trackpad and the Task Switcher is active and the mouse cursor is hovering over it you can use a one fingered left or right swipe to behave in the same fashion as hitting the Tab key repeatedly above. If you use two fingers instead you can turbo scroll through the app icons in the Task Switcher which is handy if you have a lot of apps running.
If you use three fingers to swipe something different happens – you end up dragging the displayed list of app icons in the Task Switcher between your current desktop and other full screen apps or desktops. Basically this means that the Task Switch stays frozen in place, but the background desktop or full screen app changes as you swipe left or right.
Finally there is one thing to remember – once you use the Command+Tab keys to launch the Task Switcher you must continue to hold the Command key while it is active so that the swipes work. If you let go the Task Switcher exits until you hit Command+Tab again.
David W. Martin has more than 20 years of experience in the industry as a programmer, systems and business analyst, author, and consultant. David has written for CNET’s iPhoneatlas.com, MacLife.com, CultofMac.com, BYTE.com and recently for aNewDoman.net. He comes to Cult of Mac’s website with deep knowledge and passion for the all things Apple. Follow David on Twitter @david_w_martin or see what he’s up to now at davidwmartin.com.
22 responses to “Readers Ask Cult of Mac Answers: How Do I Access The Task Switcher? [OS X Tips]”
The headline of this story should have been written as follows: Readers ask. Cult of Mac answers…” Why are grammar (and sometimes spelling) skills slowly going away in the blogosphere? Whoever wrote the headline needs to look up what a “run-on sentence” is.
I’m actually surprised that someone asked about the swipe gesture that used to bring up the task switcher in Snow Leopard. Almost no one that I know was aware of it. I used it a lot, and I really miss it now. I like the new Lion features better, although it has taken a while to get used to them.
Hi. What is the third application from the right on the task switcher? I can not recall, and it was really functional. I would like to get it again
I meant from the left….the left…sorry
David,
you could just answer that simple question by just replying to reader. but you made a article out of it. I mean comon………
cul of mac, are you hiring? I can write better articles than this one!!
DragThing. I find it to be very useful get it at http://www.dragthing.com/
It is responsible for the Trash can you see on the desktop. In the image the two docks I use with it are hidden.
Thanks David.
Another tip: Once the command-tab has activated the task switcher, the tilde key wil reverse the direction of the rotation.
guys I’m a switcher and articles like this are a god send
Nobody I met knows this trick: if you press 1 while the task switcher is active, it enters in expose mode for that application windows. I use that a lot. While in exposé mode, press command + 2 to reorder the windows.
Your welcome.