You know the Task Switcher, right? It’s the keyboard command you use to switch between apps on your Mac. The list of apps in the Task Switcher grows or shrinks as you open and close apps. Sometimes that list can grow pretty large. If you go very fast you might skip past the app you want and find yourself having to go through the entire list again since it wraps around automatically at the end.
But you don’t have to loop around if you don’t want to. Instead, why not change direction and go back to the app you just passed? Here’s how.
If you aren’t familiar with the Mac OS X Task Switcher you should be, since it will let you quickly switch between apps using the Command+Tab keyboard combination. The first time you press those keys the Task Switch pops up on your screen. It looks something like this one:
If you continue to press Command+Tab the Task Switcher will go from app to app just repeat until the one you want to switch to is selected (i.e. like Safari is above) and that app jump to the front. If the list is very long and you overshoot your target then you can reverse direction rather than continuing to press Command+Tab until it wraps around again.
You reverse direction by pressing the tilde or ~ key on the keyboard while the Task Switcher is displayed and while still pressing and holding the Command key. If you release the tilde key and press Tab again then you’ll go in a forward direction just like before. Toggle between both keys as needed until you have selected the app you want to switch too.
I like how Apple set this up since the Tab and tilde keys are both close together making it easy to switch between the two. You don’t need to be a contortionists or have unusually long fingers to get the job done.
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.
18 responses to “Reverse Direction In The Task Switcher With This Keyboard Tip [OS X Tips]”
Or you could apply:
Press Cmd + Tab and use the trackpad to select the app you want ;)
While cmd+tabbing you can also hit the shift key to move in reverse.
I have a Spanish keyboard and the ~ is kinda difficult to press. But you can press command + shift + tab to go backwards.
Good tips to add to this one! Variety is a good thing and thanks for the info about the foreign keyboard. I haven’t seen a Spanish Apple keyboard – can some email me a picture of one?
Another option to change direction, in the process of doing this, is to use one’s right hand to use the left or right arrow keys to move from one app to another, one at a time.
Or, Press Cmd + Tab and use the Magic Mouse to select the app you want using the one-finger left/right swipe. ; – )
yah, this shit has been around for freaking years..
Thanks for pointing that out John, but what about all the people that are new to Mac? They probably don’t know about this trick. Now they do and for that matter some more positive responses, than yours, from readers to this post taught them some more about their Mac. Go team! Thanks everyone for contributing – I really appreciate you.
Within a program you can use command ~ to switch between open windows of that program.