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Submission details

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Not able to hide all applications / windows with Cmd-H shortcut

Submitted by bastyani on August 23, 2009 to Usability

I use Cmd-H all the time to quickly hide applications. The only problem is that in no
way you can hide all the windows / applications. In every case the last window remains opened and you cannot hide it. I really don't know why it is that way.
When you have all your windows hidden and you are for example surfing on
the web and then you have to hide the window (because the boss enters :)) you
are not able to do so.

Just allow to hide all windows / applications.

Medium

Medium

Not fixed

Discussion (4 comments)

bastyani wrote on August 23, 2009, 6:45pm

Changed solution description.

ebaur wrote on August 24, 2009, 2:50am

If you haven't noticed already, you can always hide all but the last application. I believe the original intention of that feature was just to "clear the working space" so to speak so that you could focus on only one application... in that context, it kind of makes sense.

If you're intention is to only hide one app from view (ie: a "boss key"), then it should work just fine, unless you've already hidden everything else. If you're intention is to hide everything to get to the Desktop, then you can use Expose. I'm not sure I can really think of other use cases, myself.

polycat33 wrote on September 2, 2009, 7:54pm

You can always hit F-11 which moves everything off the screen and shows just the desktop...

bastyani wrote on September 2, 2009, 8:00pm

@polycat33 . Yes, I am completely aware of this shortcut, believe me...

wellslogan wrote on September 21, 2009, 9:32pm

I use this: http://www.everydaysoftware.net/showdesktop/ to create a "show desktop" icon in the menu bar. I suppose you could link it to a hotkey with another program.

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