Close all windows at once

As a user of macOS, I’ve found that it features a lot of useful keyboard shortcuts you can use to improve your overall workflow. Today I’d like to introduce you to one such shortcut.

I personally either close windows when I finish with them, or completely quit out of an application to Close All Windows at once. But sometimes, you may want the application to continue running, while also closing all those active windows at once.

As an example, say you have a lot of safari windows open for a specific project, and you have a similar project you’ll have to tackle immediately upon finishing this one. Once finished, you can use Command+Option+W to close all the windows you currently have open, and jump right into the next project, without having to relaunch Safari.

On older hardware, this has a lot of potential to save time, especially if you spend a lot of time waiting for Safari to open, and or close.

Obviously, this is only one use case. Here’s another one for the road.

Say you have a lot of Finder application windows open, and want to close all of them at once. Sadly, quitting isn’t normally an option you either can or would want to use in this case. So this shortcut can be a huge life saver allowing you to close all Finder windows when your only other option would be to close them one by one.

Just to wrap up, let’s summarize how to use this keyboard shortcut:

• The focused application should be the one whose windows you’re trying to close.
• Use Command+Option+W to close all windows.
• Enjoy the view as all windows are dismissed, providing you with a fresh start.

NOTE: For most applications, you can use Command+N, or Command+T, to create a new window after the windows have been closed.

Conclusion

With this keyboard shortcut, you now have another tool to use in your personal workflow, and hopefully get even more done for having it.

Credits

• Apple – Provider of macOS.