Blog · Setup
The button you already have.
Look at your mouse. There is a wheel that clicks, and it probably does nothing you would miss. There may be two buttons under your thumb, mapped to Back and Forward, which you use in a browser about twice a week. The mouse's own software offers to make them Mission Control, or a media key, or a macro. Mission Control is not a reason to give up a button. "Every window I have open, here" is.
Detect Button
The wheel click works straight away. For anything else: Settings → Mouse → Detect Button, then press the button you want. That is the setup. VortexFlow listens for mouse buttons earlier in the pipeline than mouse utilities do, so any button the mouse actually reports is fair game, including buttons macOS has no name for.
Which button
The honest answer has a trade-off in it. Middle click is on every mouse and is the most natural place for the spiral. But VortexFlow has to consume the button, and middle-clicking a link to open it in a new tab will stop working in your browser. Settings says so when you pick it, because we would rather you know before you wonder.
A thumb button avoids that entirely. Back on the thumb is easy to give up. Cmd-[ and a two-finger swipe both still work, and the thumb is already resting there. If you have two, put the spiral on the front one and leave the rear one alone; you will find a use for it later.
Tap and hold
Hold the button and let go: you switch to the previous window. The spiral flashes up, the card under the pointer is already the one you want, and you are there. This is the fast Cmd-Tab, without the Tab and without the app-not-window problem.
Tap the button: the spiral stays. Now roll the wheel to walk the cards, point at one, or type a few letters. Right-click a card for the window actions. Press the button again, or Return, or click.
Trackpads, and both hands on the keys
A laptop has no spare button, and sometimes the mouse is across the room. The same spiral opens from a keyboard shortcut, ⌃⌥Space by default, or ⌃⌥Tab or ⌃⌥` if you prefer, and tap and hold mean the same thing there. Both triggers can be on at once. The overlay is the product; the input is whichever hand is free.
If the button does nothing
A button the mouse keeps to itself never reaches the Mac at all. Open the configuration app that came with the mouse, if it has one, and check the button is not set to "Do Nothing." That swallows the press. Assign it to Forward or Back and run Detect Button again. Or give it a keyboard shortcut in that app and choose the same shortcut in VortexFlow; the spiral cannot tell the difference. If a mouse we have never met still refuses, that is a bug report we want.
Download VortexFlow View on GitHub
Next: Read the code: auditing a menu bar app in an afternoon. →