OS X Mountain Lion: Zoom to Mission Control

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Zoom to Mission Control

Mission Control gives you a bird’s-eye view of what’s running on your Mac, including Dashboard, all your spaces, and all open windows including those in full-screen view. Windows are grouped by app; full-screen windows are shown as separate thumbnails. If you have many overlapping windows, Mission Control makes it easy to find the one you need.

Screen zoomed out to Mission Control

Zoom to Mission Control

To see all your open windows, enter Mission Control using one of these methods:

  • From a trackpad, swipe up using three or four fingers.
  • From the keyboard, press the Mission Control key. If your keyboard doesn’t have a Mission Control key, press Control-Up Arrow.

Mission Control shows your open windows, grouped by app, spread out so you can see them all. To go to a window, click it. You can also click the thumbnail images for Dashboard, full-screen apps, and spaces (if you use them).

To exit from Mission Control, swipe again or press the key you used to enter Mission Control.

Clear the desktop temporarily

To move all windows out of the way and view the desktop, press F11. (On a portable keyboard press Fn-F11.) This is useful if you need to find a document or folder that’s hidden by your open windows.

To move the windows back to their places, press the key again.

View all windows for the current app

To see all open windows for the app you’re currently using, press Control-Down Arrow.

To return the desktop to normal, press the keys again.

Last Modified: Sep 4, 2015
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