As i already wrote that its impossible to close open Mac windows from their minimized state . Its actually a major drawback i see in Mac as compared to Windows. In this post i am again concerned about closing of window but in its maximised or open state. Well an open windows can of course be closed in Mac by clicking the top left Red button . There are three buttons at the top left side of Mac open windows Red is for close Yellow for minimize and Green for maximize ( precisely speaking fit to appropriate size ) .
But the problem i see here as compared to Windows is regarding reaching the small red close button of Mac windows. Any open window in Mac doesn’t take the whole screen area by default .
The open windows in Mac are sized to just fit to the content . Because of this open windows remain floated in some area of screen. To close the window we need to move mouse cursor to the exact position of the Red button .
But in Windows OS by default open windows take the maximum screen size covering the whole screen and the close red button is at the top left part of the screen .
With such behavior in Windows OS its relatively easy to close open windows . To close the particular window i just have to move mouse cursor to the top right corner of screen blindly , i dont really have to move cursor to some exact part of the screen as in Mac . In mac even when open window is maximized the close button is not at the exact top left corner of the screen so in this case too we need to take the mouse cursor the the exact position of the Red close button .
The temporary solution to this irritation in Mac for me is to use Mac shortcut key combinations to close windows . To close active windows in mac i use Control+W and to quit the application i use Control+Q . Better is to use Control+Q to have the similar close effect as compared to Windows OS.
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Using
so it is possible in mac to close open windows.. then where is the problem….see every OS having its own pros and cons hence u can’t say it is irritating… however i like the shortcut options…
Using
@Niraj –The problem is about the close button location . In Windows OS its on the top right to you can just move your mouse cursor blindly to top right and click it the winndow will be closed but in Mac the close button is not in such corner to you need to take your mouse cursor to that exact location of close button
Using
MacPhobia !! In Mac you need to explicitly move your mouse over close icon or say you need to locate close button to close the window… then this is good b’coz this will reduce accidently close of window which might be happen in windows OS…..This is not problem in Mac However this is an advantage over Mac.. :))
Using
Yes Niraj . i agree to you in this accidentally closing of windows. very good point.
Using
“To close active windows in mac i use Control+W” is a false claim. Command-W closes a window on Mac OS X, not Control-W.
“Better is to use Control+Q to have the similar close effect as compared to Windows OS.”
Is also a false claim. Control-Q does not quit an application on Mac OS X, the proper combination is Command-Q.
Quitting an application “to have the similar close effect as compared to Windows OS” is a pointless claim. There is a distinct difference between closing a document and quitting an application. Unfortunately Windows’ dramatically erroneous misbehavoiur misleads most Windows users to be totally unaware of this. Using Command-W does not quit an application because closing documents is not supposed to quit an application.
Using
Thanks nyob for the correction but “Control” and “Command” are quite similar and its easy for the Windows world to understand “Control” than “Command”
quitting and closing a document Window may be different in Mac OS X but its the same in Windows OS. And its independantly done in these two OS. It cant be called erroneous just because it seems wrong from a Mac OS X perspective.The same could seem wrong in Mac OS X and can be called erroneous from Windows perspective.
to have similar close effect as compared to Windows OS in Mac OS you need to quit the application not close it . thats what is written in the post.
Using
This is what I wrote in apple script which you can save as an app. I use it with bulter and have an icon right on the menu for clicking close. Hell I even changed the icon to be an red square with an X. Some applications like firefox or thunderbird aren’t named correctly as a process which can be corrected with an IF-THEN statement.
APPLESCRIPT CODE BELOW:
tell application “System Events”
keystroke tab using (command down)
set appname to name of the first process whose frontmost is true
keystroke tab using (command down)
end tell
tell application appname
quit
end tell
Using
Use the small tab on the bottom right of your window to set the default size for the application in question by dragging it across the screen. After that your mac will always open each window to that size. Hey presto
then the close button will always be in the same place
Using
Or you could just click command Q. That works.
Using
Command - Q and Command - W sometimes DO NOT WORK. Then to close the window you have to play Golden Shot with the mouse and hit the microscopic x top left - which is driving me nuts.
Is there some easier way to close these errant windows??
Using
Can someone tell me the point/reasoning/value behind keeping the window close and application close completely unrelated. Specifically, I get frustrated when I think I am closing an application by closing its one an only open window, but then realize the menu bar didn’t change because the app is still running even though there is not a single window for that app active (essentially no application is present any more for you to interact with). So I have to do a two-step and “quit” the app.