Navigation
Switch to any open window, or click any menu bar item, from the launcher.
Navigation adds three keyboard commands:
- Switch Windows lists every open window of every running app and brings the one you choose to the front.
- Switch Windows Backwards opens the same list and moves through it in reverse.
- Search Menu Bar Items lists every item in the frontmost app's menus and clicks the one you choose.
Turn it on in Settings → Navigation → Enable navigation. It's off by default. While it's off, none of the commands appears in the launcher and their shortcuts do nothing.
All three need the Accessibility permission. None needs Screen Recording.
Each command has a checkbox, a shortcut recorder and an alias field in Settings → Navigation.
Switch Windows
The list groups windows by app, with the app whose window is frontmost first. Minimized windows come last. Type to filter by window title or app name.
return (Switch to Window) brings the window to the front:
- A minimized window is restored first.
- A window on another Space switches you to that Space.
If the app quit after the list opened, Tinycast tells you instead of doing nothing.
| Action (⌘K) | Key | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Switch to Window | return | Brings the window to the front |
| Minimize Window | ⌃⇧M | Minimizes it and keeps the list open |
| Hide Application | ⌃⇧H | Hides the window's app and closes the palette |
| Quit Application | ⌃⇧Q | Quits the app. Its windows leave the list once it quits |
Minimize Window isn't offered for a window that's already minimized, and it does nothing to a full-screen window.
Press the Switch Windows shortcut again while the list is open to move to the next window. If you keep holding the shortcut's modifier while you press, releasing it switches to the selected window, like ⌘tab. For example, with the shortcut set to ⌥tab, hold ⌥, press tab to move through the list, and release to switch. A single press still opens the list for searching.
The Switch Windows Backwards shortcut moves up the list instead, wrapping around to the last window. Set it to ⌥⇧tab and, while holding ⌥, press tab or ⇧tab to move either way before you release.
Search Menu Bar Items
Open it over any app and every menu item appears as a row, with the app's icon, the item's name, its
location (like File → Export) and its keyboard shortcut, if it has one.
With an empty search, rows are grouped by top-level menu, like File, Edit and View. When you type, they merge into one Results list sorted by match. return (Activate Menu Item) clicks the selected item.
Good to know
- It always acts on the app that was in front when you opened it. Switching apps afterward doesn't change the target.
- Only items you could click are listed. Disabled items, separators and hidden items are left out.
- Tinycast never opens menus to read them. Some apps only build a submenu when you open it, so those items may be missing. Opening menus in the background would make the app's interface flash every time.
- Very large menus are limited to 4,000 items, and reading stops after about a second.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Show Apple menu items | Off | Adds the Apple menu, which is the same in every app |
| Excluded Applications | Empty | Apps whose menus Tinycast never reads |
Tinycast checks the Excluded Applications list before reading any menus, so it never reads those apps' menus at all.
When there's nothing to search, you see a short explanation instead of an empty list, like Finder has no menu bar to search or Menu search is turned off for 1Password.