Last week’s edition of Tech Tip Tool Thursday talked about Spaces and how your laptop or desktop computer can have up to 16 different virtual screens open all at the same time.
Today we are going to look into another great feature that can help you in a flash when you have too many things open on your desktop(s) at once and its called Expose.
Located in your System Preferences menu and the same option you select for Spaces, Expose will allow you with a single keystroke to view all open windows or windows of the current application you are in only, as small thumbnails. Expose will also allow you to hind windows to locate an item on your desktop that might be covered up.
For example, if you are like me and keep your iChat buddy list all the way to the right on your screen, you may not always be able to see some documents you have stored on the desktop. However, with Expose you can solve that problem.
Expose offers you the option to choose which function keys you want to use to activate the various options. Just remember that when you want to use it however, you must hold down the “fn” key on your keyboard and then press the button you have pre-determined. For those of you that don’t know what the “fn” key is, its simply the function key on your keyboard and should be located in the bottom left-hand side. Note that there is only one you can use.
The other way you can take advantage of what Expose offers is by setting up hot corners which is in the same menu as Expose.
By moving your mouse to a specific corner of your desktop, you can activate certain features such as show all windows. You can also bring up your dashboard, move all of the windows out of your way so you can see what’s on your desktop and of course see all of the windows you currently have open for a specific application.
Overall, it is pretty easy to set up and very easy to use so good luck and have fun.
If you have questions or a topic you want to see included in an upcoming week, let us know!
