One of the most overlooked and useful features of OS X is Exposé, something for which no version of Microsoft Windows, right up to XP, has an equivalent. It is probably the OS X feature that can singly raise productivity in a very significant manner, yet many prople don’t know of its existence or simply don’t use it

So what is Exposé? Well, it’s a user interface feature that actually has three functions:

Function 1: Tile all open windows in all (unhidden) applications to allow the user to use the mouse to quickly select a different window which then becomes the active (frontmost) window. This window can be within the current application or it can be a window for a different open application:
   

Function 2: Tile all open windows in the current application only. Everything behind the current application windows is dimmed as if the lights have been turned off, allowing the user to quickly select a different window within the current application:


Function 3: Move all open application windows to the edges of the display, exposing the desktop, allowing the user to quickly locate and manipulate files, folders and drives on the desktop.



How it works

By default, OS X has three function keys assigned to the three Exposé functions: press F9 to expose all windows in all applications, F10 to expose the current application’s windows and F11 to expose the desktop. While this in itself can be a boon to productivity, one hand still has to leave the mouse or keyboard to activate Exposé’s functions. To speed things up more and make using Exposé even easier, OS X allows you to set “hot corners” on your display. Once this is done, simply moving the mouse into a hot corner will activate the Exposé function assigned to the corner. Here’s how to set it up:

1.    Open System Preferences (its in the Apple menu and may also be on your dock):


2.    Select “Dashboard & Exposé” (OS X “Tiger”) or “Exposé” (OS X Panther):


3.    Choose the Exposé functions you wish to assign to the screen corners by cliccking on the pop-up menus provided. I use the top right and bottom right corners for the first two functions, but don’t have a hot corner assigned to the desktop function (this picture is for “Tiger” and includes the Dashboard option which is not part of “Panther”):


4.    Close the System Preferences window.

From now on, you can see your productivity improve as you quickly jump between windows and applications by simply moving your mouse to a hot corner and clicking on the desired window.