Hot keys let you “click” a tile by pressing a key or key combination, instead of by using the mouse. Be sure to read this whole section — hot keys are incredibly useful.

Hot keys work at any time, no matter which application is frontmost. You can use hot keys to launch applications, bring them forward, open documents — anything you can use a tile for.

• Choose Hot Keys... from the Tiles menu in the menu bar. (That’s the menu bar at the top of the screen, not a tile menu.)

The Hot Keys List window will appear. This window lists all of your tiles and shows you which ones have hot keys assigned, and what those hot keys are.

• Select an entry in the list by clicking on it.

• Click the Set… button to set a hot key for the selected tile. Click the Clear button to remove a hot key from the selected tile. See Setting Hot Keys for details.

The Set… and Clear buttons are not visible in the picture at left, because the Hot Keys window is wider than the picture. You’ll find the buttons at the lower right of the Hot Keys List window.

The first two entries in the list are special because they are not attached to tiles. Exchange Top Applications lets you assign a hot key that will swap the two frontmost applications each time you press it. Rotate All Applications lets you assign a hot key that will bring a different open application to the front each time you press it.

You can turn off hot keys by unchecking the Enable Hot Keys checkbox. Your hot key assignments will still be remembered, and will all start working again the next time you put a checkmark in the Enable Hot Keys checkbox.