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I am using Mac for 5 years now and still didn't get used to this behavior. I think I waste hours each month to try to switch to the app that is minimized.
Task for you, guys -- tell me which app is minimized and WILL NOT POP UP when I try to switch to it (this is the photo of the screen):
You can't.
Switching to an application which is hidden will unhide it.
Switching to an application with minimized windows will not, usually, unminimize those windows.
Unlike er... Windows, macOS applications and windows are different things. An application can have multiple windows, and some may minimized, some not. Using the Application Switcher will not in general change the status of the windows. To complicate matters, an application may have windows in different Spaces (or "Desktops"), so you may or may not also switch to a different Space if you select an application from the Application Switcher.
You can't.
Switching to an application which is hidden will unhide it.
Switching to an application with minimized windows will not, usually, unminimize those windows.
Unlike er... Windows, macOS applications and windows are different things. An application can have multiple windows, and some may minimized, some not. Using the Application Switcher will not in general change the status of the windows. To complicate matters, an application may have windows in different Spaces (or "Desktops"), so you may or may not also switch to a different Space if you select an application from the Application Switcher.
You can't minimize an App. You can Hide an App, but you can't minimize it.
You can minimize an app's document windows. Switching to an app that has all of its document windows minimized will activate the app. You will then have to reveal the particular document you want to use, or create a new one.
OK, cool, so let me be more precise.
So, imagine that two of those apps in my switcher have minimized windows. Which ones? How can I tell if switching to a specific app brings up any window or none? I don't have a clue which apps have windows on the desktop, which ones are hidden, which ones are minimized. How can I tell based on the view that I see?
Thanks.
I am looking for a thought process that is behind that approach to be able to follow it. Since this is possible to un-minimize the windows of an app by adding option key before releasing command, why am I unable to see, that the app that I am trying to switch to has minimized windows? This so painfully simple: I am using app switcher to switch to an app and I interact with the app through windows. What is the logic behind switching to the app, that basically does nothing if the app has minimized windows? I think I have this situation like... 100 times a day? That I try to switch to an app and nothing happens. So I must be doing something wrong and looking for a better way of interacting with that.
There are third party extensions that change the behavior, like Witch for example, but they are not ideal.
Honestly I don’t see much of a point in minimizing windows most of the time. If one feels that the desktop is cluttered with many windows from many applications perhaps using several Spaces is a better approach. Personally it doesn’t bother me to have 12 applications open and maybe 30 windows, as I just command-tab to whatever I need at any time (and most windows take up a large part of the screen anyway. Minimizing and unminimizing is something I don’t need but if you do, I’d imagine you know you did it: if you command-tab to Safari, say, and no windows show, it could be there is none or they are all minimized. They all still appear in the Window menu.
I understand that a windowless application can be confusing for people used to other OS. But being used to the Mac for almost 4 decades… (I actually used a Macintosh 128K 😎)
No one here in this user-to-user forum could really answer what the thought process was at Apple.
You can certainly let Apple know what you'd like to see here:
I guess I just know which apps I have minimized documents.
App switcher behavior when the app is minimiz
