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Open Files with Finder's App Switcher

Say you're in the Finder looking at a file and you want to open it with an application that's already running but which doesn't own that particular document. How? Switch to that app and choose File > Open? Too many steps. Choose Open With from the file's contextual menu? Takes too long, and the app might not be listed. Drag the file to the Dock and drop it onto the app's icon? The icon might be hard to find; worse, you might miss.

In Leopard there's a new solution: use the Command-Tab switcher. Yes, the Command-Tab switcher accepts drag-and-drop! The gesture required is a bit tricky. Start dragging the file in the Finder: move the file, but don't let up on the mouse button. With your other hand, press Command-Tab to summon the switcher, and don't let up on the Command key. Drag the file onto the application's icon in the switcher and let go of the mouse. (Now you can let go of the Command key too.) Extra tip: If you switch to the app beforehand, its icon in the Command-Tab switcher will be easy to find; it will be first (or second).

Visit Take Control of Customizing Leopard

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Published in TidBITS 525.
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03 Apr 2000 | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article

April Fools Gotchas

by Adam C. Engst Send Email to Author

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April Fools Gotchas -- The mail has been thick over the weekend in response to our traditional April Fools issue (TidBITS-524), and all we can say is, "No mas!" That, and we'd like to apologize to all the people who were suckered by the articles in that issue, especially the one reporting on the internal Microsoft memo that outlined a plan to sell the company's Macintosh business unit to Apple as a concession to the Justice Department (special thanks to Omar Shahine, the Microsoft Outlook Express program manager, for providing the quotes that lent that extra touch of verisimilitude to the article). Fewer people fell for our discussion of the proposed MRML standard (Mind Reading Markup Language), but Geoff Duncan's tongue-in-cheek suggestion for how software companies could encourage more users to upgrade - documents that wear out as you use them - has unfortunately been well-received by some larger Macintosh software developers who shall remain nameless. [ACE]

<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS- 524.html>
<http://www.oxy.edu/~ashes/mrml.html>

 

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