Unfortunately, I was too optimistic above with my 3-step system, it doesn't work either, at some point my crew is not on the bridge anymore which means I will get playing anomalies from that point. (I used that method to ALT-Tab out to read the 4-Bearing method and apply it).
So the only secure way to ALT-TAB is the save game and ALT-Tabbing out from main menu, and then reloading the save. Unless someone has another miracle solution
Question now is: Do all smartphones (up to $350) easily allow the viewing of PDF documents? That would indeed be more useful for me