Do you accidentally quit Mac OS X apps by pressing Command + Q? A new app allows you to have a Google Chrome-like Hold Cmd+Q to quit delay to the Cmd+Q shortcut for quitting apps.
Those of you who use keyboard shortcuts to get around their Mac will know the annoyance of accidentally quitting apps with Cmd+Q all too well. For me, it happens when I intend to press Cmd+W to close an app, but a slip of the finger ends up in an app being quit suddenly.
To combat this, Google Chrome once had a Hold Q to Quit feature. Through it, users had to hold Cmd+Q for two seconds before Chrome quit. Some time in 2011, though, Google removed this feature.
Introducing SlowQuitApps
Now, Australian software engineer Douglas Teoh has come up with a solution for all Mac OS X apps. Called SlowQuitApps, the app adds a global delay of two seconds after you press Cmd+Q. Only after two seconds is Cmd+Q executed and the currently open app is quitted.
So how do you know the timer has started? It’s simple. SlowQuitApps adds an overlay which looks like an empty progress loader. As you go from 0 to 2 seconds, the loader fills up. When it’s completed filled, the app running in foreground is quitted.
You can also change the delay to more or less than the default 2 seconds. To do that, open Terminal, execute the following command:
$ defaults write com.dteoh.SlowQuitApps delay 5000
Here ‘5000’ is in milliseconds. So, if you want to change it to 1 second, you would use 1000 after ‘delay’ in the command above.
Personal Thoughts
I personally dislike the overly. It’s too big, and colored a repulsive pitch-black that looks out of place. A more subtle overlay – perhaps in the top-right corner near where new notifications are shown – would’ve been less repulsive.
This is only v0.21 of SlowQuitApps, though. It is also an open source project. Thus, I expect it will become better with time.
SlowQuitApps is available as a free app on Douglas Teoh’s GitHub. Just download the ZIP file, extract it, and drag & drop the app to your Applications folder in Finder.
Once you launch the app, you are given an option to automatically launch it at login. Other than that, it stays hidden and out of your way.
I personally will not be using SlowQuitApps for now. I like its functionality, but the overlay is overly in-your-face, and not worth the cringe-surprise reaction it evokes every time I see it.
Download SlowQuitApps [GitHub]
The post Stop Quitting Mac Apps Accidentally By Adding Custom Delay To Cmd+Q Shortcut appeared first on Windows Clan.
