Shortcut to "un-minimize" something from the dock?

Question

Shortcut to "un-minimize" something from the dock?

I was big on shortcuts with my PC and now that I've switched I'm trying to figure out how to "un-minimize" something from the Dock with a shortcut.

I know that Command-M will minimize something but is there a shortcut to do the opposite?

I found out Hide is Command-H but it seems that you can only hide one thing at a time.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 17, 2008 11:58 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Francine Schwieder

Level 6

19,070 points

Jul 17, 2008 12:43 PM in response to Kappy

Actually, there is, as I recently found out....much to my astonishment. It is a bit hard to describe, but actually easy to do. If you have minimized a window to the Dock, use the Command-Tab shortcut to get to the application. With the application selected press the Option key and release the Command key. One minimized window of the application will become un-minimized (if you have more than one minimized application window, you have to un-minimize the other windows the old fashioned way). If the application is hidden, the same steps will make it reappear: Command-Tab to the application, press the Option key and release the Command key.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

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Answer 2

Jul 17, 2008 5:32 PM in response to Christopher Yuan

Francine:

Wow! That's amazing! How did you figure that out? Was it a freak accident? Even the geniuses at the Apple Store don't know this!

Thanks a million!!!!!!

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,849 points

Jul 17, 2008 12:09 PM in response to Christopher Yuan

There is no "un-minimize" shortcut nor "un-hide" shortcut. You need to click on the minimized or hidden item in the Dock to return it. You can only hide the foreground application.

In OS X COMMAND-W only closes a window. You use COMMAND-Q to quit an application. There is a shortcut to close all windows and quit. See Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts for all OS X shortcuts.

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Answer 4

Jul 17, 2008 12:03 PM in response to Christopher Yuan

Also related to this is once I close a window using Command-W, the program is not quit so when I press Command-Tab, the top menu changes to that program but there is no window open (such as for Address Book), I can't re-open it!

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Answer 5

Jul 17, 2008 12:18 PM in response to Christopher Yuan

You will notice its a different shot cut key per application, you can discover what short cut key it is by looking under the "Windows" drop down menu. That shortcut key will pull it out of the dock, using Command-Tab makes this operation very fast and responsive.

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Answer 6

Jul 17, 2008 12:49 PM in response to Christopher Yuan

Forgot to mention: if you close the window for certain applications, such as Address Book, Activity Monitor, or Console, you can get the primary window back by clicking on the Dock icon for the application. Also, applications such as System Preferences, which can only have one window, will quit when that one window is closed. Any application that can potentially have another window must be explicitly quit.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

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Answer 7

Rothrock

Level 4

1,465 points

Jul 17, 2008 8:44 PM in response to Francine Schwieder

That is insane. I've wondered about that for years. Although I have to say that it isn't really that easy to do and only works if you realize you need to bring it out of the dock. Don't suppose you know any way to do it if you are already switched to the app?

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Answer 8

Jul 17, 2008 10:02 PM in response to Rothrock

The only way that I know is that I just pressed Command-Tab and cycled through until it got back to the app I wanted while still holding down Command and then switched to Alt. But ask Francine - she's the one who figured it out!

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Answer 9

Jul 18, 2008 12:02 AM in response to Christopher Yuan

I didn't figure it out--like Kappy I always thought it couldn't be done. Someone here in Discussions gave the method a month or so ago in a thread I read. Since Search is currently disabled I'm afraid I haven't a clue as to who it was, but I remember being flabbergasted that it worked.

If you are already in an application, and have a window open, it won't work. As I mentioned above it will bring back ONE and only one minimized window. If you really want to use it a lot, your best bet is to hide an application with multiple windows open, rather than minimize, then you can bring them all back with the shortcut.
Francine

Francine
Schwieder

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Answer 10

Jul 17, 2008 5:33 PM in response to Francine Schwieder

Francine:

Wow! That's amazing! How did you figure that out? Was it a freak accident? Even the geniuses at the Apple Store don't know this!

Thanks a million!!!!!!

Reply