Closing app question

[Seanm87]

I've come from windows to Mac and was confused that when I hit the red close button, that the app stays open in the background. After doing some research it seems Mac has always done this and doesn't seem overly different to iOS in that regard. Thats fine and all but being on a MacBook Air I'm just worried if I have a ton of stuff open in the background will this swallow up ram/battery life? Or is it just like iOS where it is open but also frozen in that it doesn't use of processing power?

What do you suggest just leave it to work this way or force close apps after finishing them?

 

[twintin]

Either hit Command + Q or in the app menu next to the one with the Apple logo, select Quit to quit the app in same manner as in Windows.

 

[barbu]

Closing an app window is different from Quitting the app. Closing a window does just that (e.g. Outlook still gets new messages and can show notifications etc), whereas quitting stops the entire program (Outlook is not running at all).

The secret third way of app management is hiding apps. I use this one the most. Just hit Cmd-H to hide all windows from the active application. They don't freeze like in iOS but Macs have a LOT more memory to accommodate way more apps.

Anyway, closing or hiding does not stop the program from running so it will consume some resources. This would only be a problem if you have loads and loads of programs open at once, or are working on several very large files such as photoshop that take a lot of memory.

My recommendation is just use the computer how you like and don't worry about whether you 'should' be quitting or closing, it's all fine. There is no wrong way. It will have almost no effect on battery life.

 

[fisherking]

how much ram do you have? quitting apps does restore some ram space, but... if everything runs well, it.. runs well. up to you...

 

[Seanm87]

I have the 8 gig RAM model

 

[Fishrrman]

8gb of RAM is "room enough" for several apps to be "alive" at once.

If you want to close a file and leave the app open, just hit the red button or type "command-W" (close foremost window).
The file will close but the app will remain "live".

If you want to close a file and the app as well, type "command-Q" for "quit".
You may be prompted to save any changes you've made.

If you have an app running in the background (but no windows open), you can also quit it by RIGHT clicking on its icon in the dock, and choosing "quit".

None of the above is "force-quitting" the app.
You only do that if something goes amiss and it won't "quit normally".