Act like Windows -> click icon in dock to minimize/restore program windows in OSX

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Here is what I'm talking about. In the first screen shot (in Windows), you can see that there are programs running in the taskbar, but all the windows are minimized. The mouse is hovering over the "Computer" tab in the tasbar at the bottom of the screen. I am about to click the left mouse button once to restore the "Computer" window onto the desktop, but I haven't clicked it yet...


Minimized.jpg





In this next screen shot, you can see that I have just clicked the left mouse button once and the "Computer" window has been restored (is now showing on the screen)...


Restored.jpg




Then, WITHOUT MOVING THE MOUSE TO ANY BUTTON IN THE "COMPUTER" WINDOW, ETC, IE. THE MOUSE IS STILL IN THE SAME PLACE IT WAS WHEN I CLICKED THE LEFT MOUSE BUTTON ONCE TO RESTORE THE WINDOW, I click the mouse button again and the window minimizes!...


Minimized.jpg




All I'm asking is if anyone knows of a way to mimic this behaviour in OSX (in the dock) - either within the operating system itself, or with an addon app, etc.



Right now, as you know, in OSX when you click the program in the dock, the program restores, but then you have to move the mouse and click on the yellow button at the top-left of the program window to minimize it again. This is because once you click the program window icon in the dock to restore the program window, the icon is then removed from the dock - thus disallowing the possibility of clicking it again, without moving the mouse, to minimize the program window. I'm trying to see if there is a way so you don't have to move the mouse to toggle the window from minimized to restored to minimized again.



Or to be even more clear...



This next screen shot shows the desktop in OSX (mine happens to be Lion 10.7.5) and we can see that the Firefox program window is minimized into the dock into a Firefox program window icon. I have not yet clicked the mouse button to restore the Firefox program, but I am about to. The red circle at the bottom left of the screen shows where the mouse is...



OSXMinimized.jpg




Here, in this next screen shot, is the screen once I have clicked the mouse button on the Firefox dock window icon and the Firefox program window has been restored...



OSXRestored.jpg




As you can see, the Firefox dock window icon that I just clicked has disappeared and, in that place instead, the red circle is now over a different dock window icon. The Firefox dock window icon is now missing from the dock and is therefore unclickable. If the Firefox dock window icon was still there, I could just click on it again to minimize the Firefox program window, and subsequently click it again to restore, and so on - like I am able to do in Windows.
 

dtravis7


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What you are saying does not happen here on my Mac with 10.7.5. The icon goes no where at all.

The only way stock do sort of do what you want it when you click to make the closed window show, you click the icon again and right click (Control/Click) and select hide. To show again just click like before.

There might be some after market thing to do what you want but I don't use many apps like that so someone else maybe can help you.
 
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Thanks!

I've been dealing with a couple of idiots in the apple forum that dance around the issue. You actually gave an intelligent response. You give me the impression that you have used Windows before and you understand what I'm talking about... Thanks!
Your solution is VERY close to what I'm hoping to find, and I may just use it... but I'm still gonna look for a closer solution.
Thanks again!
 

dtravis7


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I am a Windows computer tech and Windows networking person. Been using Windows since 3.0 and on and DOS before that. I was hoping maybe someone else will have a application that might make OSX do exactly what you want. I will search around the net and see what I can find and get back to you.
 

Slydude

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Why did you tell him that? Now he is going to get a swelled head. :D
 

dtravis7


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Why did you tell him that? Now he is going to get a swelled head. :D

Dennis puts head in Vice to make the swelling go down! :D Grin! OUCH that hurts.
 

dtravis7


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Ok, Give this a read and check out Hyper Dock. It's $10 but if it does what you want it's worth $10!!

How to Get Windows' Best Features on Mac OS X

There are a lot of other things you can do in that URL to make OSX more Windows like. Check it out. I am going to try out Hyper Dock and see what it does!
 

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Hyper Dock works quite well once you figure it out. You can configure it to do different things. Stock you hold Shift and left click and app minimizes to dock and you left click it opens back up. It also shows the same previews that W7 does when you hover over the icon in the Dock. You can from close the window or open a new window! They give you 15 days fully functional then you pay $10 if you like it. I just set it so the middle click on my Logitech mouse hides and left click shows.
 
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I know this answer comes late, but someone might still be interested. There is a tool for Mountain Lion (unfortunately the tool is recent and no backwards compatibility has been added for 10.7.x) which mimics the Windows taskbar. It's called iTaskbar:

iTaskbar - The one and only taskbar for OS X!

It's trialware and costs about 10$. The difference between the Dock and iTaskbar is that the first one is application-oriented, whereas the latter one, just like the Windows taskbar, is window-oriented. Every entry in the bar represents a window and as such can be minimized and restored with a click.

P.S. I'm affiliated to the product, but I hope my answer is useful. ;)

screenshot_1.png
 

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