Steam Forum

I've heard that pressing shift+tab is supposed to bring up an in-game chat/friends list. However pressing shift+tab does nothing for me in either Portal or TF2. Is this a bug, or does shift+tab just not work when you're running the game in windowed mode, or am I doing something wrong?

Well, the Shift-Tab thing is something you have to enable in Steam's settings. That said, I haven't tested it. Please give it a try and let us know what you find.

In the Steam settings I have the shift+tab turned on. It doesn't work. I also tried changing it to various other keys and key combinations but none of them worked. I tested in Portal, HL2, and TF2.

I can confirm this doesn't work for me in exactly the same way Brian described.

My guess is that Steam is registering a global hot-key for this feature. Wine does not yet support global hot-keys, so this won't work in CrossOver. 😥

Not only does Shift+Tab not work, but if a friend messages you it doesn't pop up the little message in-game like it should. I've seen in youtube videos where a box at the bottom right appears when your friends change status or send you a message. Would that also be caused by the global hotkey problem, or is it possibly something different?

That seems different. I don't know what would cause that. We'll have to investigate. I'll enter a bug in our bug tracker.

I've used Steam for quiet a long time on a Windows machine, and now it's kinda stupid that I allways have to exit the Game to chat with my Steam friends (I am on a MAc now).
I would be extremely thrilled if you could fix this issue. (I own Crossover Games)
Anyway, you're doing an awesome job - Keep on the good work!

See Stefan's post in this thread for the proper explanation and status: http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibility/browse/name?app_id=3379;forum=1;msg=27088