Hide the Applications
Mac Tip #114/13-Aug-2003

Grant recently emailed me and asked:

Hi I work on a machine that runs MacOS 9.2, it has the dragthing program but I can’t find a quick way of showing the desktop, I read something in Mac Guide about holding down option + apple and clicking on the desktop but this just gets rid on the current application not the ones underneath. Do you know a quick method of doing this?

For Mac OS 9

The good news: If you hold down the Option key while you click on the desktop it hides whatever other application was at the front at the time. Open up Mac Help and search for Keyboard Shortcuts and you’ll find a list of other, similar helpful keystrokes.

For Mac OS X

The other good news, although only for OS X Jaguar: If you hold down both the Option key and the Command (Apple) key while you click it hides all the other applications.

[Update 2009: you can also use the Exposé feature. ]

So, sorry Grant. To get the enhanced features you’ll need to either upgrade to OS X or find a third party application (such as WestCode’s One Click www.westcodesoft.com/) to do what you’re looking for in OS 9.