Mac OS X 10.3 Exposé screenshot thumbnail

In Mac OS X, Exposé is a tool for managing open windows (especially large numbers of windows), allowing the user to quickly see all open windows (or specific sets) without the need to click through many windows to find a specific target. Mac OS X is the latest version of the Mac OS, the operating system software for Macintosh computers. ... computer networking A window is a graphic, usually rectangular in shape, containing either some kind of graphical interface, or a textual representation, of the output of and allowing input for one of a number of simultaneously running computer processes. ...

Exposé has three different modes using different criteria to organize the windows:

1. Exposé can show all open and unhidden windows, shrinking their appearance so they all fit on a single screen. By default, this can be activated using the F9 key.
2. Exposé can show all open and unhidden windows for the currently-active application. Again, the windows shrink to appear on the screen together, but generally they shrink less because there are fewer windows in a single application compared to the system as a whole. (See screenshot, right.) In the default preferences, this can be activated using the F10 key.
3. Exposé can move all windows off the screen, giving the user clear access to the Desktop. In the default preferences, this can be activated using the F11 key.

In the first two cases, after Exposé is activated, the user can select any window by clicking on it or selecting it with a keyboard-driven cursor and pressing Enter. Exposé then deactivates, leaving the selected window in the foreground. A function key is a key on a computer or terminal keyboard which can be programmed so as to cause an operating system command interpreter or application program to perform certain actions. ... A desktop is the horizontal surface of a desk. ... Point and click describes the simple action of a computer user moving a cursor to a certain location on a screen (point) and then clicking a mouse button, usually the left one (click), or other pointing device. ... A cursor is a movable marker that indicates a position. ...

The key used for activating Exposé can be customized to be any of the function keys, the shift, control, option or command key, the fn key on PowerBooks and iBooks, or even a mouse button on multiple-button mice. Powerbook 150 The PowerBook is a laptop computer manufactured by Apple Computer; a portable version of the Macintosh aimed at the professional market. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Operating a mechanical 1: Pulling the mouse turns the ball. ...

The Quartz Compositor ensures that the animations and rescaling are quick and smooth. Quartz Compositor is the windowing system that is responsible for the user interface in Mac OS X. On a Mac OS X system, the Quartz Compositor can be seen in a process list as Window Manager or, in more recent versions, WindowServer. ...

Exposé was introduced with Mac OS X v10.3 ("Panther") in October 2003. Since then, several Microsoft Windows and Linux applications have duplicated its functionality, including TopDesk (http://www.otakusoftware.com/topdesk), WinPLOSION (http://www.winplosion.com/) (originally called WinExposé), Entbloess (http://entbloess.com/), Skippy (http://thegraveyard.org/skippy.php) and Expocity  (http://www.pycage.de/software_expocity.html). A screenshot of Mac OS X v10. ... October is the tenth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 2003 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Events January January 1 - Luíz Inácio Lula Da Silva becomes the 37th President of Brazil. ... Microsoft Windows is a range of commercial operating environments for personal computers. ... This article is about Linux-based operating systems, GNU/Linux, and related topics. ...

See also

• Apple Dashboard
• Taskbar
• Konfabulator
• Zooming User Interface

Apple Dashboard is a mini-applications layer for Mac OS X v10. ... In computing, the task bar is a term for an application desktop bar which is most often used for the Windows 95 and later operating systems. ... Konfabulator is a JavaScript runtime engine for Mac OS X widgets. ... A Zooming User Interface or ­­­ZUI is a graphic environment and a radical but fairly evolutionary outgrowth of the graphical user interface, or GUI. In zooming user interfaces, directories and programs are not displayed within windows, but are placed instead (in vectorial form, as vector graphics) directly on an infinite...

External links

• Apple - Mac OS X - Features - Exposé (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/expose/)