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Alt-Tab application switcher

June 8

Window switching has to be as simple as possible. I think alt-tab switching can be more useful and become more approachable to a wider audience - not just so called power users. Users seem to be getting more sophisticated and more frequently are looking for tricks to make their interaction with a computer faster. In conjunction with the new shell, we may be able to steer them to this handy keyboard trick and make it part of more users' personal habits.

Summary of Improvements to the existing Alt-tab switcher

Basic layout and control of the switcher

attachment:switcher01.png

Using the mouse to set focus

attachment:mouse.png

Using the mouse is a second, more direct way to set the focus in addition to repeated pressing the Tab key. Users are frequently annoyed with tabbing when they tab too far. Employing the mouse, which is likely to already be in their hand, lets the user quickly select arbitrarily from the application list.

Expose windows on demand

attachment:switcher02.png

attachment:switcher03.png

Other thoughts

attachment:switcherwithmenu.png


2024-10-23 11:37