Illuminate Icon

Getting Started

Illuminate allows you to switch between windows on your system, either by browsing thumbnails, typing in part of the title, or searching for a word or phrase that appears in the window. All the functions can be invoked via keyboard shortcuts or from the global application menu found in the top right part of the menu bar. By default the global application menu is represented by the icon of the currently running application.

Basic Use:

  • To cycle through thumbnails of your windows, select the Cycle Windows menu item from the Actions submenu in the global application menu, or press the Option-Tab keyboard shortcut. Continually press the keyboard shortcut to navigate the list, and let up on the modifier key (Option) to select a window.

    See also: Cycle Windows

  • To quickly switch to a given window by title, select Quick Switch from the Actions submenu or press the Ctrl-Shift+D keyboard shortcut. Next, type in all or part of the window’s title. When you’ve entering enough of the title to match the window, press Return to switch to that window.

    See also: Quick Switch

  • To locate a window based on a word or phrase that appears in it’s contents, select the Find Window menu item from the Actions submenu in the global application menu. Next, type in the word or phrase you want to find. You can then navigate the search results and see a preview of the window before selecting the one you want.

    See also: Find Window

  • The global application menu shows all the applications and their windows that Illuminate knows about. By selecting an application or window from the menu, that application or window will be activated.

    See also: Application Menu

How Illuminate Works

Illuminate works by using the Accessibility features provided by Mac OS X. This means that the Access to Assistive Devices checkbox must be check in the Universal Access system preference in order for Illuminate to work. It also means that any window that the Accessibility layer doesn’t know about, Illuminate won’t see either.

Currently, Illuminate offers limited support for tabs. Specifically, it can recognize tabs in Safari and Google Chrome.