The Actions tab is used to add, configure, and remove switcher panels; each action you add is a new switcher panel, displayed as a window that floats over your content, as a menu bar item, or as both. You can have an unlimited number of switcher panels.
As shipped, Witch includes two actions: The first (Cycle Windows) is activated with Option-Tab and displays all windows in an onscreen panel, similar in appearance to the built-in Command-Tab switcher. The second (Cycle Apps > Windows) exists only in the menu bar, and lists apps with windows (and tabs) shown as submenus of the apps.
If you assign a keyboard shortcut to the second action, you'll have a vertical switcher that lists all your open windows and tabs, as shown here in the introductory section of help.
You do not need to keep these two actions. You can edit or delete them as you wish. You must always have at least one action, however.
Customizing actions
Scroll to the numbered areas to read about the settings in that section of the Actions tab.
Cycle Windows
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The pop-up menu controls what the switcher will display when activated; here's what you'll see with each setting:
Cycle Apps In this mode, Witch behaves like the default Command-Tab app switcher: It just switches applications, not bothering to list windows or tabs at all.
Cycle Apps > Windows Only applications are shown at the top level of the switcher, but you can easily select any app and see its tabs.
Cycle Minimized Windows In this mode, only minimized windows are shown in the switcher. (You can also see tabs associated with those windows.)
Cycle Non-Minimized Windows In this mode, only non-minimized windows are shown in the switcher. (You can also see tabs associated with those windows.)
The next three settings all deal with the Frontmost App's windows—either all of them, minimized, or non-minimized. The switcher otherwise behaves as it does for the non-frontmost versions of these cycling options.
The Other entry will open a sub-menu, containing a number of esoteric switcher options, as seen in the image at right. These items are self-explanatory by title—Zoom Frontmost Window will, in fact, zoom the frontmost window.
Why might you want to use some of these esoteric settings? As one example, you could create a new switcher with the Deminimize All Minimized Windows action, then assign it a keyboard shortcut. This would create a global key combo you could use to take all minimized windows out of the Dock, regardless of which application you were using at the time.
These actions do not put a switcher panel onscreen; instead, they are one-time actions that simply do something. As such, they can only be activated via keyboard shortcut:
As you set up keyboard shortcuts for these esoteric actions, remember that they're global shortcuts—make sure you don't use a combination that's defined in some app, or already in use system-wide.
Sort and List Options
2The pop-up menu changes how Witch sorts the switcher panel. Your sorting options are based on what cycling options you choose, as not all sorting methods make sense for all cycling options. Here are the four possible set of sort options you may see:
The descriptions of each sort order are fairly clear, but here's when you'll see each of those sets of sort options…
- When using Cycle Apps > Windows, you'll see the app-centric list of sort options shown at the top left in the above image.
- If you've chosen Cycle Apps, then your sort options will be restricted to app-only orders shown in the lower left in the above image.
- Use any of Cycle Windows, Cycle Minimized Windows, or Cycle Non-Minimized Windows, and you'll get the full list as seen at the top right in the above image.
- Cycle Frontmost App's Minimized Windows, Cycle Frontmost App's Non-Minimized Windows, and Cycle Frontmost App's Windows give you the window-only options seen at the lower right in the above image.
If you prefer to search for windows by typing, here's a trick: Choose any sorting action other than Window Activity or App Activity > Window Activity, and make sure search is enabled (on the Advanced tab).
When set up like this, Witch will open with the Search field active, and the panel will remain onscreen. Start typing, watch the list of matches narrow, and press Return when you the desired window is selected.
The pop-up menu controls the direction of the window switcher, as seen at right. If you pick the right-horizontal arrow, the layout will match the built-in macOS switcher: Horizontal panel, with your chosen sort order going from left to right.
The downward-vertical arrow is the default switcher layout: Apps and windows/tabs listed vertically, and your sort order goes from top to bottom.
The remaining two arrows mimic their counterparts, but the flow of the sort order is reversed—whatever was leftmost (topmost) will be shown rightmost (bottommost).
If you enable List windows from all spaces, Witch will try to list windows from all Spaces. There is a caveat: Because Apple doesn't provide an API developers can use to see across Spaces, you'll have to manually visit each Space first, so Witch knows what's where. If you add Spaces, it's possible Witch may ask you to navigate to each space to figure out the layout.
There are three different ways to list tabs, as seen in the image at right. If you select Windows > Tabs, then tabs will always be listed as children of their parent windows, unless a window has but one tab.
As an example, if you're using a Cycle Apps > Windows action, and you have a Safari window with two tabs open, it would be listed in the main switcher screen as Safari. If you use the Right Arrow to expand Safari, you'll see the active tab listed, with another expansion arrow. Hit the Right Arrow again and you'll see both tabs in the switcher.
If you choose Treat Tabs as Windows, then in the previous example, pressing the Right Arrow from Safari's entry will show both tabs—because each is treated as its own window.
Finally, if you choose Automatic, Witch will try to be intelligent about what it shows you, and only offer the interim panel (between the apps and the tabs) when it makes logical sense.
There's a special hidden mode on the List Tabs—Mode pop-up menu: Hold down the Option key when selecting that menu, and you'll be able to control how tabs are listed for just the frontmost window:
These are the same options you get with a normal click on the Mode pop-up menu, but the setting will apply only to tabs in the frontmost window. Each Action you create can have a different setting for how frontmost window tabs are handled.
Check the List apps without windows option to, well, list apps that don't have windows in the switcher panel. There are three choices as to how those windows will be listed, as seen at right.
Bring to Front is the equivalent of choosing an app in the Command-Tab app switcher: The application will come to the foreground. If it has open windows, they'll be there. If it doesn't have any open windows, none will be opened.
Reopen (↺) is the same as clicking on an app's Dock icon: The application comes to the foreground, and if it doesn't have any open windows, one is opened. If the app has minimized windows, but no open windows, the most-recently-minimized window will be released from the Dock.
Finally, Both will give you the option of choosing either a bring to front or a relaunch action.
Keyboard and Menu Bar
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If you'd like to assign keyboard shortcuts to an action, do so by clicking in the top box (for forward cycling) and bottom box (for backward cycling).
To use Command-Tab or Shift-Command-Tab as your shortcut, click the gear icon in the top box to reveal the menu shown at right.
If you use Command-Tab as your Witch activation shortcut, there are times it will be overridden and you'll see the default macOS app switcher. This will happen any time an app activates secure text input. The only workaround is to complete whatever task in whichever app enabled secure text input. Witch will then again be able to trap Command-Tab.
If you'd like to use Witch from your menu bar, just click the Show in menu bar entry. You can add multiple actions to the menu bar, too.
Each action receives its own top-level entry under the Witch icon in the menu bar, and can then be selected and expanded.
If you create a menu bar switcher, Witch will try to determine when secure text input is active and notify you about it in Witch's menu bar item. It can't always determine the source, but if it can, you'll see it listed.
Activate Witch in the menu via keyboard shortcut By default, the Witch menu bar icon is accessible only via the mouse. However, if you prefer, you can also activate it via keyboard shortcut. To do so, set a keyboard shortcut as you normally would—using either the forward or backward cycling box. Next, hold down the Option key and click the gear icon next to the shortcut you just created. The contextual menu will appear, but the first entry will read Trigger Menu instead of Delete Shortcut:
Select Trigger Menu, and the shortcut will activate the Witch menu item. (You can then use the arrow keys to navigate and select entries.) To undo this, repeat the process and remove the checkmark next to Trigger Menu. Also remember to delete the shortcut, unless you want it to activate the normal Witch panel.
See frontmost app icon in menu bar Witch's menu bar icon is normally a miniature window (left in below screenshot). You can choose to instead have it change to reflect the frontmost application, along with a checkmark next to the active app in the menu itself (right):
