Front and Center 1.0.1
In classic, when you click on a window that belongs to an application that’s not currently active, all the windows that belong to that application come to the front. In Mac OS X (and macOS), only the window that you click comes to the front.
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Sadly, macOS Catalina’s lack of support for 32-bit apps finally killed the last of the apps that implemented this feature. I was alone in a cold, barren world where I had to click on a Dock icon to switch to an app and bring all its windows to the front.
His Front and Center app lets you choose the classic behavior or, as I prefer, choose the modern behavior and selectively override it by holding down the Shift key when you do want all the windows. There are ways to do this without the app:
- Click the Dock icon.
- Assign a keyboard shortcut to Bring All to Front and press it after activating the window.
- Press Command-Tab, then Left Arrow after activating the window.
But a modified click is more elegant.
Gus knew of a deprecated API that does the process-switching much more efficiently, that doesn’t exhibit the same bug, and makes the code much simpler. Given that the impetus of writing the app was to make the 32-bit to 64-bit transition cleanly, I wasn’t a fan of using an API that had been deprecated in OS X 10.9, but it works well.
Carbon for the win. I, too, have had issues with the newer process APIs.
Previously:
Update (2020-01-10): John Gruber:
So why Shift-click? There really wasn’t any choice — the other single modifier keys are all spoken for by the system.
See also: Accidental Tech Podcast.
3 Comments RSS · Twitter
If using the cmd-tab method, I find it easier to press cmd-tab, then while keeping the cmd key pressed, holding down shift and pressing tab again. This can all be done with one hand, and very quickly.
I typically press cmd-tab twice in a row quickly.
Ironically, here is another thing I'd like: a way to cmd-tab to an app and bring only the main/key window to the front. When working on 2 apps, with one window for each app, the other windows get in the way when switching using cmd-tab (the workaround is to click on the windows instead...).
Don't get me started on the new process APIs. NSRunningApplication is buggy as all getout.
Adam Engst actually put me on to a solution to the “bring all windows to the front” which he was using with Keyboard Maestro but only for the Finder - basically, just create a macro that triggers when the Finder comes to the front and does a Bring Application Windows to Front action. Personally I always feel a Mac is broken when it doesn't have this macro, but I don't mind the mixed windows for other applications, just the Finder.