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How do I close windows from dock or anywhere else without needing to open the window each time just to close it

If I have 10 windows opened(of the same application) and want to selectively close 7 of them belonging to the same app, is it possible to close them(without needing to re-opening those windows) by right clicking the app icon in the dock/mission control/App Expose/etc and then closing the ones I don't need? (I also have windows of other apps opened and I don't to want to navigate through them)

Re-Opening each window and then clicking the close button(or a keyboard shortcut) seems to be too much work. Looks like a useful feature that is missing in MAC

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    Are you talking in context of specific app(s) or in general?
    – Nimesh Neema ♦
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 14:06
  • General question. When I open 10 windows of the same application. If each window belongs to separate app then I can easily close those windows from the dock because I will have 10 different app icons in the dock. So I don't need to open the window to close it
    – firstpostcommenter
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 14:21
  • What is the point of opening a window just to close it when I can do that from dock or somewhere else if possible
    – firstpostcommenter
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 8:06
  • howtogeek.com/howto/33414/…
    – firstpostcommenter
    Commented Sep 18, 2019 at 11:24
  • It would have been nice if atleast "App Expose" feature had a close button to close the window
    – firstpostcommenter
    Commented May 4, 2020 at 16:56

2 Answers 2

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No, what you're asking is not natively possible.

In other words, an application's Dock Tile menu does not natively allow for closing individual windows the app has open.

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  • Oh ok. Thanks for the update. Looks like a useful feature that is missing in MAC. I would need to repeat the same action multiple times to close each window then
    – firstpostcommenter
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 14:17
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If you are looking for the fastest way to close several document windows within an application, then there are already plenty of better ways than using the Dock might provide.

You can cycle through open windows in one app with Command ` (this might vary in other keyboard layouts, but it's usually the key to the left of Z). You can close several documents in one application with a succession of Command W, using Command ` to flick past documents you want to keep open. I'd say that's much quicker than trying to close 7 of 10 in the Dock. If you get a prompt to Save or Don't Save, you can use Command S or Command D.

You can use the Application Windows function key to show all the windows of an application. Also Mission Control shows you all the windows of all apps.

You can close all documents of one app with Alt Command W, or by alt-clicking on any window's red dot.

You can also Minimize windows into the Dock, but I would advise against it. It's very easy to forget about what you've minimized, and you have to un-minimize before you can do anything else with the window. You can't use the window cycling shortcut above to access minimized windows.

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  • Mission control and Alt Command W are not useful int this case because anyhave I have to open each window and then close it because I want to close only few of those windows but not all of them ........................ "with a succession of Command W, using Command ` to flick past documents you want to keep open" --can you elaborate. I am not able to do this
    – firstpostcommenter
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 15:47
  • You can't use Command W to close a window? Or the shortcut to cycle through documents windows doesn't work? What keyboard language do you have?
    – benwiggy
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 16:35
  • Hi benwiggy, I am new to MAC. I tried Command+W and looks like it is looping through all the windows and not just the windows of the single app(also it is loosing focus of the window sometimes and I had to manually click on a window before continuing with the command+W). I have 10 windows of single app and another 8 windows belonging to 8 different apps. I now want to concentrate on the 10 windows belonging to the single app only and not go through all my other open windows just for the sake of closing those windows
    – firstpostcommenter
    Commented Jul 16, 2019 at 9:49
  • That's strange. Command W should close one document window and bring the next window of that application to the front. Command W should not cause a switch to another app. What MacOS version do you have?
    – benwiggy
    Commented Jul 16, 2019 at 10:12
  • Hi, how is command+W relevant to this question. I am using MacOS High Sierra 10.13 and command+` does not do anything on my machine. Looks like MAC OS does not have any feature to solve this problem
    – firstpostcommenter
    Commented Jul 16, 2019 at 10:56

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