The Dock: How to Find Out What's Open

Did you ever single-click on an application, in the Dock, and it looked like the computer didn't do anything? On a Mac, just because you close all of the windows in an application, doesn't mean that you quit it. It just hangs out in the background, pretty much invisible. You can tell what applications you have by clicking on the Dock usually visible along the bottom edge of the screen (the Dock can also be hidden, in which case, moving your mouse cursor to the bottom edge of the screen will reveal it). A small, black triangle below a program icon indicates that it is currently active.

Moving your mouse to any visible icon along the Dock, and single-clicking on it, will activate the application, bringing the open application forward. Otherwise, the single mouse-click will launch the application.

If you have closed all of the windows in an application, the only way to tell you're in it is by looking at the menus at the top of the screen. For example, if you're in the Finder, the menus will look somewhat like this:

(Apple) Finder File Edit View Go Window Help

If you're in Safari, the menus might look something like this:

(Apple) Safari File Edit View History Bookmarks Window Help

So in short, if you single-click on an application in the Dock, and it looks like it doesn't open, pay close attention to the menus at the top of the screen!

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