Witch

Name: Witch
Price: 14.00 $
Rating: 4.375 (10 reviews)

4.3.4

14 October 2019

Shortcut for switching between windows.

Overview

Witch makes switching between windows easy. Have you ever wanted to switch to a certain window, not just the application it belongs to? While you can use Exposé to switch windows, doing so can be very clumsy if you're the keyboard-only type of user. And don't all of these windows look just the same when they are scaled down?

Witch lets you access all of your windows (in all Spaces using Mac OS X 10.6 and Witch 3.2 or newer) by pressing a shortcut and choosing from a clearly arranged list of window titles. You can also see an optional window preview before switching windows. Moreover, you can use Witch to...

Directly access minimized windows without using your mouse
Close minimized windows without bringing them to front first
Zoom, de-/minimize, and close windows on the fly

What's new in Witch

Version 4.3.4:

Bug Fixes and Improvements:

The Witch System Preferences panel now works properly in macOS Catalina—no more jumping tabs
Witch should now be re-enabled after an update that's done when the System Preferences panel isn't in the foreground
Springloading is temporarily disabled after you back out of a hierarchical menu, so that you don't immediately spring back into it

72 Witch Reviews

See all

Company is completely unresponsive to customers. Development stopped on this product in November 2008. Have tried to email tech support several times over the last month in regards to bug fixes -- ZERO response from the company. Cannot recommend this product at all. This product does not work properly with Leopard's Spaces. When you use Witch's keyboard shortcut to cycle through ALL of your applications when Spaces is active, Witch won't show you all of your applications from the OTHER spaces. It shows you SOME of your applications from the other spaces, but not ALL of your applications from the other spaces. You actually have to switch over to that other space first and THEN use the keyboard shortcut to cycle through those applications that are located in that space. But then the same problem crops up over there -- the applications from the PREVIOUS space that you were in don't all show up again. Emailed tech support many times over the last month... no response. Do not support these developers or this product!

Like (5)

Version 2.0.2

I've tried several other apps like this, and after paying for a different one discovered that Witch is more mature and has a better feature set. I have had problems intermittently with lag for command-tab switching, but after upgrading to Sierra (which required the painful switch away from Karabiner to Karabiner Elements) and then some changes to my Karabiner-Elements setup suggest that one of my Karabiner-Elements configs might have been at fault for the lag. I'll adjust my rating down if it turns out that Witch itself is to blame. But the feature set is really top-notch. I'm hoping that its performance is equivalent.

The only reason I didn't try Witch before the competitors is that I tried it MANY years ago when it only (AFAIK) did Windows-style switching, which switches windows instead of apps. While I can understand a former Windows user wanting that, I find Apple's app-oriented switching to be superior 95% of the time for my style of working. Fortunately Witch now lets you do both, and also a combination, where you can first switch between apps, and then (without opening a different switcher UI) drill down into the windows for the chosen app. This is the best of both worlds. It is also HIGHLY configurable.

There are some features I would like it to have, but nothing else (AFAIK) has them. It would be awesome if we could write functions (shell or AppleScript) to determine if an app is shown or hidden from the command-tab switching menu. This would allow much more sophisticated control over that.

It would also be nice if we could explicitly hide an app from the switcher in the current workspace, using (e.g.) shift-control-H. This would allow ad-hoc changes to which apps we want to show and hide, and wouldn't require OS hiding to result in Witch switcher hiding, because I never find that the two are the same for me.

Some people have complained about the price. HUUUHHHHHH? It's very cheap! Developers need to eat and pay rent! It might seem "simple" because it serves a very well-defined need, but an app like this is actually a very impressive feat. I'm glad to pay for it.

My only serious concern is the performance issue. If that returns, and cannot be attributed to something else, then I'll drop the stars WAY down. If you see this remain at 5 stars, then I recommend this over all the others like it.

Like (1)

Version 4.3

This app has so much potential but is ultimately frustrating becuase of its limited functionality with respect to detecting tabs. I understand why this is the case, different apps have different implementations and not all use Apple's APIs, but it's extremely frustrating for users who are really only looking only for this functionality. In particular some apps show as not having tabbed windows at all, even of they do, such as Finder, others like Terminal show as having tabs, but cannot handle name changes to the tabs. Very disappointing.

Version 4.1

Nice addition to OS X's default Command + Tab switching. I wonder why Apple haven't implemented something like this. I wish it could detect tabs inside each window, but that's the limitation imposed by Apple's Accessibility API. Maybe someday. Even without that, it is an excellent workflow enhancement.

Version 3.9.7

emac-man

02 February 2016

Warum werden Nutz dieser hervorragenden Erweiterung, die diese über den App-Store gekauft haben, so vernachlässigt? Während hier schon die Version 3.9.7 verfügbar ist, steht im App-Store seit 11. August 2014 immer noch nur die Version 3.9.4 zum Download.

Version 3.9.7

sbchavel

23 October 2014

Witch broken by Yosemite. Attempting to activate Witch brings up message to grant access to Witch in Security & Privacy preference pane. But when I go to that pane, click plus, and attempt to select Witch, it is greyed out. Selecting "system preferences" does not help with respect to Witch.

Version 3.9.4

1 answer(s)

sbchavel

23 October 2014

Spoke too soon. Not broken completely. For instructions to get Witch working again, see here: http://manytricks.com/blog/?p=3194

Like (1)

clakes

09 November 2013

I'm sorry... I'm a good Mac lover since 2000, and trying to be kind here but... Witch is a bloated helper, resource-hungry and sporting features I don't even need: Apple should get LiteSwitch code and inject it into the next OS release instead. Pleasea

Like (2)

Version 3.9.3

A wonderful app, totally indispensable for me! I moved recently from Windows to OSX, and the one thing I could not stand about OSX is the handling of applications and windows. I used Windows and Linux for decades, and would use Alt-Tab hundreds of times a day and was very fast at switching back and forth between windows. So I found the Mac's handling of Cmd-Tab to be a huge regression - I found it simply dreadful having to Cmd-Tab between apps, then separately cycle between windows with another shortcut. Enter Witch, which solves all these problems, and has quite a few customisations and extra features which actually make it much better than Windows/Linux switching. I very much like the numbering of windows, allowing the quick selection of a window by hitting its number. It has a good selection of fully customisable shortcuts (I have the main switcher configured to Cmd-Tab, disabling OSX's default application switcher, which I never use.) You can ignore apps or windows that match certain patterns, which is useful for excluding certain types of windows/panels that you never want to switch to. And the appearance is fully customisable with sensible and attractive defaults. It's also fast and stable - I've never had a crash or seen a glitch. For me, there's only one missing feature right now: the ability to disable the mouse from affecting the switcher. I often Cmd-Tab with my left hand with the mouse in my right, and that can cause me to move the pointer over the switcher, changing the selected window. This can slow my down sometimes, getting in the way of quickly flicking back and forth between windows. I'm contacting support to suggest they add that. It's wonderful tool and I really can't enjoy OSX without it. If I could run only one productivity/UI app on OSX, it would be Witch.

Like (2)

Version 3.8

1 answer(s)

TheBloke

23 March 2012

I'll add "great support" to my review - I emailed Many Tricks regarding my "ignore mouse" feature request, and they got back to me within the hour. For anyone else wanting to do this, there are already some hidden settings that can configure how the mouse is handled. Disable Witch through the PrefPane, then open a Terminal and run any or all of the following (their meanings are self-explanatory): defaults write ~/Library/Application\ Support/Witch/Settings "Ignore Mouse Movement" -bool YES defaults write ~/Library/Application\ Support/Witch/Settings "Ignore Mouse Clicks" -bool YES defaults write ~/Library/Application\ Support/Witch/Settings "Ignore Scroll Wheel" -bool YES I now have no issues or problems with Witch at all - it does exactly what it's meant to, in near enough the best possible way!

Like (2)