Labelling windows in Expose

March 27, 2009 6:03 PM

I use OS X's Expose feature probably 500 times a day. I love it, but when I have more than a couple of applications open, it's hard to tell, say, iTunes apart from Mail.app. Is there an add-on that will place the program's icon over the window when in Expose?
posted by Ian A.T. to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

I have the same problem. I would settle for just being able to change the white background color of some of my OS X apps to unique colors. Right now I'm using my 24" monitor in portrait mode and it seems to exacerbate the condition. as all these little "wide" rectangles have to be stacked and scaled in my "tall" container when I squeeze my mouse.
posted by Rafaelloello at 6:31 PM on March 27, 2009

For what it's worth, I have the same problem when working in Windows, where the default behavior is to have applications maximized to the edges of the screen. The interfaces for all of the open applications blend together when Alt-tabbing through them. By any chance, are you using as much screen real estate as possible for each of your open Mac apps? I'm on a Mac most of the time, and I'm having trouble relating to the problem you describe, because the ideal sizes for various application windows are pretty varied.
posted by emelenjr at 6:54 PM on March 27, 2009

I've got the same problem. Pressing tab while in Expose will cycle through all the windows, grouped by application, so sometimes I'll use that when I can't make anything out. Also, pressing apple-tab while in Expose will also let you quickly select a view grouped by a specific application.
posted by suedehead at 8:21 PM on March 27, 2009

It's not really an answer to your question, but have you considered using the Spaces feature built into Leopard? I was a heavy Expose user but have since retrained myself to "categorize" my computing tasks into different desktops (Spaces). Expose still works, of course, but I end up having fewer windows open because Spaces allows me to have as many desktops as I want and allows me to easily cycle through them.
posted by mrbarrett.com at 8:26 PM on March 27, 2009 [1 favorite]

This is only a partial solution, but while you're in Exposé, holding down the Option key will bring up a text label on all the windows at once.
posted by chrismear at 3:03 AM on March 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Like everyone else here i suffer from the same problem.

However mrbarrett.com is on the right track and this is how I manage my applications.

i have 4 spaces setup

space 1 - safari and Adium
space 2 - video encoding, downloads [torrent apps and so on]
space 3 - coding, MAMP, textmate
space 4 - parallels

This makes it incredibly easy for me to identify what is running where so i hit the button for spaces then the expose button and i can see everything.
posted by moochoo at 3:27 AM on March 28, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks everyone. Weird that everyone has this problem but there don't seem to be any real third-party solutions. I'm gonna send this over to Adam at Lifehacker; if he posts it, maybe one of his readers might be inspired to put something together.

Thanks for the Spaces recommendations. Since this conversation is taking a turn in that direction, feel free to share more of your specific tips and tricks about using it most efficiently.
posted by Ian A.T. at 6:27 PM on March 28, 2009

I organize my Spaces vertically, in one column. Conceptually I think of the upper spaces as the high-level applications that require conscious thinking; the spaces at bottom are things that run in the background. I wrote about this here, and the other comments in the thread might be useful too.
posted by suedehead at 8:25 PM on March 28, 2009

Response by poster: If anyone's still following this, apparently Snow Leopard offers text labels to Expose:

Snow Leopard's New Exposé and Dock Explained

That article also goes into detail about some other new Expose features, but frankly they seem a bit complicated, or at least more complicated than I'm looking for when I just want to switch windows. I'm withholding judgment, of course, until I actually have Snow Leopard installed, though.
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:24 PM on June 9, 2009