Why there's one row
Many Mac apps use the tabs built into macOS: Finder, Terminal, Preview, TextEdit and others. Behind the scenes, every one of those tabs is a separate window, and the tab bar groups them. Only the window of the tab in front is shown. macOS puts the others away without closing them, and brings one back when you click its tab.
Flick leaves out windows that macOS has put away like this: open, but not shown on any Space. Minimized windows, hidden apps' windows and windows on other Spaces are different: Flick lists those unless your settings hide them. That's why a tab group shows up once. That row:
- shows the title of the tab in front, so it changes when you switch tabs;
- brings the window forward with that tab when you pick it;
- matches a search for the front tab only. A folder or document in a background tab isn't found until its tab is in front.
Reach the other tabs
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Switch to the window with Flick
Hold ⌥, tap Tab until the window's row is selected and let go. Or type part of its front tab's title while you hold ⌥.
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Move between its tabs
Press ⌃Tab for the next tab or ⌃⇧Tab for the previous one, or click the tab you want.
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Lost among many tabs?
Choose View › Show All Tabs to see them all at once, then click one. In Terminal, ⇧⌘\ does the same.
| Keys | What it does in apps with macOS tabs |
|---|---|
| ⌃Tab | Shows the next tab. |
| ⌃⇧Tab | Shows the previous tab. |
| ⇧⌘\ | In Terminal, shows all tabs or leaves the tab overview. |
More ways to move between tabs, in browsers too, are in keyboard shortcuts for switching tabs on Mac.
Turn a tab into its own window
If you want a tab as its own row in Flick, make it a window: select the tab and choose Window › Move Tab to New Window, or drag the tab out of the tab bar. Flick lists the new window straight away.
To have new documents open as windows rather than tabs, open System Settings › Desktop & Dock, and under Windows set Prefer tabs when opening documents to Never. In Finder, the matching choice is Finder › Settings › General › Open folders in tabs instead of new windows: deselect it and folders you open with ⌘-double-click get their own window. Both settings are in the same place on macOS 14 and later. Tabs you open on purpose, such as with File › New Tab, are still tabs.
Browser tabs are different
Browsers draw their own tabs, and Flick reads them a different way. With a license, Flick lists the open tabs of Safari, Google Chrome, Google Chrome Beta, Brave Browser and Microsoft Edge, once you turn each browser on in Settings › Browser Tabs and allow Flick to control it. Tabs show up in search results by title or address, and → on a browser window's row lists that window's tabs. The list itself keeps one row per browser window. Turn on browser tabs walks through it, including why Safari needs Include private windows.
Editor tabs
The tabs for open files inside an editor window, such as Visual Studio Code, Cursor or Xcode, are drawn by the editor, not by macOS. Flick lists one row per editor window, under whatever title the editor gives that window.
Coming soon Editor tabs, for the files open in VS Code, Cursor and Xcode, are on the roadmap. They aren't in Flick 1.1, and there's no date yet.
Questions
Will Flick list Finder and Terminal tabs one day?
The roadmap lists editor tabs, not macOS window tabs. Today, the way to give a tab its own row is to move it to its own window.
Does ⌘` reach the other tabs?
Not in Flick. Its front app's windows (⌘` with the ⌘Tab trigger, or ⌥` if you turned it on) use the same rows as the main list, so a window with tabs is one entry there too. Use ⌃Tab once you're in the window.
Why did the row's title change?
The row always stands for the tab in front. When you switch tabs, macOS brings that tab's window forward and puts the other one away, so the row follows with the new tab's title.
Still stuck?Email [email protected] with your macOS version, your Mac and what you've tried, or visit the Support page.
Sources
Checked on .
- Use tabs in windows on Mac (⌃Tab, Show All Tabs, Move Tab to New Window, Prefer tabs when opening documents; the macOS 14 version describes the same steps), Mac User Guide, Apple Support
- Keyboard shortcuts in Terminal on Mac, Terminal User Guide, Apple Support
- Change how folders open in the Finder on Mac, Mac User Guide, Apple Support
