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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window System
I'm pretty sure this works only in Cocoa apps, but if you have a two (or more) button mouse, and are using the Apple drivers rather than some third party mouse driver, you can minimise windows by clicking the left and right mouse buttons on the title bar simultaneously.

[robg adds: This seems to also work just fine with my Intellimouse running Microsoft's drivers. A friend with a MacAlly mouse, though, couldn't make it work. Perhaps in Cocoa apps with certain mice, the left- and right-buttons send a double-click when clicked at the same time? If so, that would explain the resulting minimize action. And yes, I know you can just double-click the title bar to minimize any window -- just consider this just another documented case of odd and/or interesting behavior...]
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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window | 18 comments | Create New Account
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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window
Authored by: Welles Goodrich on Jun 11, '03 11:01:17AM

Also works with Intellimouse and USB Overdrive.



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Or...
Authored by: japancakes on Jun 11, '03 02:09:16PM

Why don't you do what I've been doing for years, since I first got my IntelliMouse? That is, simply set up one of the buttons (I use the scroll wheel button) to perform a double-click. Not only helps minimize windows (in both Carbon and Cocoa), but allows you to, for example, open files/folders, play an MP3, and zoom in/out of Flash symbols while authoring...all with one click.



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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window
Authored by: durin on Jun 11, '03 11:23:16AM

Works, sorta, with my ADB kensington Turbomouse(hardware v5.0) with the MouseWorks software, but I have to push the left button first, and then the right button. It has to be really close, but discernably later for the right button push. Does it work this way for you folks with USB(I'm on a beige)?

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Go not to the elves for council, they will say both no and yes



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Errrr.... double click, duh?
Authored by: Anonymous on Jun 11, '03 11:36:43AM

Am I going mad here, or aren't you guys just managing to double-click in the title bar with your mouse buttons? Besides, double-clicking is easier than trying to do a simul-click...

Rob, you've got to be careful with these hints - largely the site's good, but from time to time you drop a real clanger :-)



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Be more tollerant
Authored by: gvitale on Jun 11, '03 11:47:32AM

Hold on please...
This doesn't concern window minimizing only, it is an undocumented feature, which are the juice of this site. Very, very interesting...



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Errrr.... double click, duh?
Authored by: jpkang on Jun 11, '03 11:56:38AM

Actually, this doesn't work in Carbon apps (e.g., Entourage), so obviously there IS a difference. I think the simultaneous click is a behavior inherited from Unix, where three button mice are not uncommon, ergo, it's not a double-click (which would seem, by definition, to be two rapid clicks in succession on the same button).



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Errrr.... double click, duh?
Authored by: Anonymous on Jun 11, '03 01:37:05PM

gvitale says alexf should be more tolerant.

I think we will have to be more tolerant of alexf, since what he says is abject nonsense.

A Cocoa application never treats a right click as a left click unless instructed to do otherwise; a Carbon application always does. Therefore, a click on the title bar with the right mouse button is not simply treated as a left click - there must be some additional behaviour unique to Cocoa that causes windows to minimize when both mouse buttons are pressed in quick succession (or simultaneously).

Try double clicking a Cocoa title bar with the right mouse button and notice how nothing happens. Try the same in a Carbon app and watch the window minimize.



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Works with Logitech Mouse as Well
Authored by: Eravau on Jun 11, '03 12:44:32PM
I'm using the latest Logitech Control Center preference pane and this hint works just fine with my Logitech mice.

-Eravau (Tony Colter)
See my Photo of the Day

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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window
Authored by: kane on Jun 11, '03 03:16:53PM

I have a MacAlly iOptinet mouse, and this hint work just fine for me, but I don't use the macally driver, the apple one I guess!



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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window
Authored by: jjenness on Jun 11, '03 03:40:11PM
Even better...if you have a mouse program such as Kensington's MouseWorks you can program in a "Chord" (which is both buttons at the same time. I programed mine to do an Option+Click.

This means in any application if you "chord" to another application, or the desktop (finder) it will Hide the application, not just minimize it. Very useful when you a running a ton or programs. It's technically a single click to hide an application...and open the one you want.

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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window
Authored by: MacFandango on Jun 11, '03 04:13:16PM

Works for Carbon apps, too - just did it with both iTunes and the Finder. However, all this is really doing is simulating a double-click; evidently, OS X doesn't care whether it's left-left or left-right (interestingly, right-right doesn't work on Safari, but it does work on the Finder).

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Feet motion!

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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window
Authored by: Mr Tea on Jun 12, '03 08:28:29PM

Doesn't work with non-cocoa apps here - TextEdit, Process Viewer and Safari yes, Finder, AppleWorks & Word, no. That's with a Logitech cordless mouse being driven by the Logitech Control Centre drivers. OS 10.2.6

---
"Always remember to warm the pot."



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Wake Up!
Authored by: sgi_oh_too on Jun 11, '03 04:43:22PM

Comon now people ... dont forget that Macintosh has no "right click" it simply uses your right mouse button to CTRL+LeftClick ... thus when you chord right and left ... its the same as if you issued a left click and a control left click ... since the window manager ignores control clicks on the titlebar ... its the exact same thing as double left clicking ... try holding CRTL and double clicking the titlebar ... still works? ... case in point



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Wake Up!
Authored by: JayBee on Jun 12, '03 04:30:44AM

hmm... except that it DOESN'T work in Finder with my wacom (right button programmed to perform a ctrl+click). I thought this too, but I can't get it to work.

Also, if I "double right click" in a cocoa title bar, nada, zip, zilch. Hold down control and double LEFT click (SHOULD be the same thing, right?), the window vanishes to the dock.

Oddness. In a carbon app, double left, double "right" and double control clicks all minimise the window, but a simulclick of both buttons WON'T minimise it.

There's definitely something odd going on here. I don't reckon there's any ACTUAL second button stuff going on. My guess is that using a driver to program a CTRL click via one button is somehow different - when you manually perform a ctrl click, you hold ctrl BEFORE strking the mouse button. Perhaps the driver software handles this differently and hits them both simultaneously, perhaps allowing the "click" to get through the CTRL modifier.

However, THAT doesn't explain why a double right click doesn't minimize the dang cocoa window... or does it?



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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window
Authored by: jamesflach on Jun 12, '03 07:06:23AM

I have a Kensington StudioMouse and when I do the left-right simultaneous mouse click on the title bar in Safari I get the Find window.

I can get the window to minimize if I click the right mouse button first followed immediately by the left mouse button (but not simultaneously). However, I think this technique is simply qualifies as a double mouse click.



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Another shortcut for minimizing a Cocoa app's window
Authored by: olwylee on Jun 12, '03 08:50:00AM

This simul-click also works if your using <a href="http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/wsx/">Windowshade</a>.
<p>
Very cool indeed.:=)



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Proof that this hint is valid
Authored by: nichrome on Jun 12, '03 01:03:21PM

Some, such as "sgi oh too" and "alexf" have claimed that this hint is somehow invalid. That's not true.

Cocoa, which is based on the OpenStep specification, fully supports right click events. Carbon doesn't have full support. This is why this hint is Cocoa specific.

If you think right clicks are just control-leftclicks, do this to prove yourself wrong:
1. Double-rightclick the title bar in any Cocoa app. Nothing.
2. Hold down control and double-leftclick the title bar. Window minimizes.

Or, if you think that Mac OS X just registers a "simulclick" as a left click followed by a right click (or vice versa):
1. In any Cocoa app, click with the left button, then click with the right button, in rapid succession. Nothing.
2. Click the buttons simultaneously or at least almost simultaneously. Window minimizes.

Note that the two clicks of the "simulclick" don't need to be in perfect sync, but the window in which you need to depress both mouse buttons is much shorter than the double click speed set in the Mouse prefpane.

To Cocoa, control-clicking and right-clicking are not the same, and also clicking the buttons in succession is not the same as clicking them roughly simultaneously.

I hope this clears up a few things about OpenStep style mouse button behavior...



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Proof that this hint is valid
Authored by: JayBee on Jun 12, '03 01:49:02PM

Interestingly, try right clicking THEN left clicking the title bar like a double click...

window minimizes!



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