Command W

[M. Adele154A]

I have always used command W to close image window in Photoshop and also application window (not quit, just close). Newest version 22.3.1 no longer does that. Closes image but does not close PS window. Have to "manually" close it.

[DaveJCummings]

I'm able to do it on my copy of PS,  and I'm using the newest version on my Mac

[M. Adele154A]

I am probably not explaining well. Command w closes an open image window but leaves blank photoshop window in place. Have to click the red close button to close it. For years I would hit command w/command w to close image and close PS window. Now, when I just open photoshop (not from an image, just clicking on application in dock) and look at file drop down, command w is grayed out so I can't just close the window. It seems small but so many years of muscle memory doing it the other way. Also when that stays open it covers up things below on the desktop so going back and forth between a folder contents and when opening and closing a bunch of files, it's tedious. Thanks for the response!

[TheDigitalDog]

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@M. Adele154A wrote:

I am probably not explaining well. Command w closes an open image window but leaves blank photoshop window in place. Have to click the red close button to close it. 

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Right, as designed. You want to quit Photoshop? 

At least on Mac (and I've been using PS since 1990), Command W has never quit or made Photoshop 'disappear', it simply closes the window. 

[Earth Oliver]

close the application window without quitting? Do you mean hide the application?

[jane-e]

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@Earth Oliver wrote:

close the application window without quitting? Do you mean hide the application?

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Cmd+W is the Mac shortcut to close a document in every Mac application. Cmd+H is hide — in Photoshop you get a choice the first time you use Cmd+H to hide the application or to use the PS shortcut.

~ Jane

[jane-e]

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@M. Adele154A wrote:

Newest version 22.3.1 no longer does that.

Hi @M. Adele154A 

The newest version is 22.5.1, not 22.3.1

Cmd+Q will quit the application; Cmd+W only closes the document. If you close the document and click away, the title bar changes, but that is not the same as quitting the application. This is how OSX and macOS have always worked.

[Edited after closer reading]

~ Jane

[jane-e]

I wonder if you might be talking about the Application frame. Try toggling it from the Window menu and see if that's what you are thinking of.

~ Jane

[withwords]

Did you ever find a solution to this?

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

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@withwords wrote:

Did you ever find a solution to this?

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Is your Application Frame (Window menu) enabled or not?

Jane

[withwords]

Under Window, yes, it's checked. Should I uncheck that?

[c.pfaffenbichler]

You have been presented with a counter-question about a very specific on/off setting and now it would seem prudent to me for you to try both settings before asking further. 

And if that does not affect your problem please post meaningful screenshots to illustrate it. 

[Matthew240572512rn3]

That fixed it -- Application Frame (Window menu). Thanks! But wouldn't it be nice if ALL windows responded to cmd-W?

[jane-e]

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@Matthew240572512rn3 wrote:

That fixed it -- Application Frame (Window menu). Thanks! But wouldn't it be nice if ALL windows responded to cmd-W?

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• When the Application frame is on, Photoshop behaves similar to an application in Windows OS.
• When the Application frame is off, it is more like a native Mac application.

Mac users have a choice — they can turn the Application frame on or off as they prefer. (I like it on.) Windows users don't have a choice — the Application menu is always on and cannot be turned off.

~ Jane

[Conrad C]

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@Matthew240572512rn3 wrote:

But wouldn't it be nice if ALL windows responded to cmd-W?

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No, that would not be nice, it would be confusing. Because that isn’t Mac standard behavior for a multiple window application. For decades, Command-W has been the shortcut for closing a single window on the Mac.

Below are four Apple applications installed on every Mac, and all support multiple windows. All of them use Command-W for closing just one window.

Command-W in Photoshop is consistent with all of these Mac applications by Apple.

Both Apple Safari and Photoshop have a command for closing all windows without quitting the application, but they are different:

Safari has Close All Windows with the shortcut Option-Shift-Command-W.

Photoshop has Close All with the shortcut Option-Command-W. If you want to close all windows without quitting the application, as you said in the first post, then this is the command and the shortcut you want.

The commands and shortcuts for closing all windows without quitting are different, because they haven’t gotten standardized on the Mac. It’s historically less common for Mac applications to have a command to close all windows without quitting the application. That’s why there is no Close All Windows command in the four applications shown in the picture above.