Exposé is the OS X windows management system that allows you to cut through the clutter of your open windows to find exactly what you want. Using different keyboard or mouse buttons, you can order your windows, bring certain application windows into view or reveal your desktop.
Exposé is one of the most useful features of the Mac interface, and as such it is worth taking the time to customize Exposé in OS X to your exact requirements. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to set up Exposé to meet your needs.
1.) Click on the icon for System Preferences in your Dock, then select Exposé & Spaces from the top row. You will be presented with the following screen:
2.) There are three different Exposé options – All windows, which in use appears like this:
Application windows, which only reveals open windows belonging to the specific application you are using:
Finally, Show Desktop hides all open windows to reveal the Desktop below:
3.) Exposé can be controlled by three different means: keyboard, mouse buttons and mouse movement on your screen. When using All windows and Application windows, you can then select the window you require by left-clicking on it. When using Show Desktop you need to press the relevant keyboard or mouse button again to return to view.
4.) To customize your Exposé keyboard shortcuts, use the left-hand drop-down menus in the central pane of the Exposé Preferences. You can select any of the function keys, or hold one of the keyboard modifier keys to assign that Exposé function to a key combination:
If a certain key combination is in use elsewhere in OS X, a yellow warning triangle will highlight next to the Exposé function, and clicking on this will take you to the Keyboard Shortcuts Preferences to show you what shortcut is already assigned to that key combination.
5.) To customize your Exposé mouse shortcuts, use the right-hand drop-down menus. If you have a third-party mouse with a number of buttons you can assign all three Exposé functions to different buttons, and again you can assign keyboard modifier keys:
6.) You can also instigate the different Exposé effects by navigating your mouse cursor to the four corners of your screen. This customization option is set in the top pane of the Expose Preferences. In this screenshot we have set All windows to the top-left of our screen, Application windows to the top-right and Show Desktop to the bottom-right:
When you have finished customizing Exposé to your liking, simply close System Preferences.
Exposé is a vital feature of the Mac OS X, vastly speeding up your ability to rapidly navigate between open windows and applications. As such, it is well worth taking the time to customize Exposé to your preferred shortcuts, with the benefits of increased productivity and fluency in your interactions with your Mac.
