Become the Master of Multiple Windows in OSX Part II
December 29th, 2007 at 11:53 amThe problem with “Become the Master of Multiple Windows in OSX Part I” is that sometimes you want multiple programs open together such as mail and your address book, but with no clutter. Thats where Spaces comes in, you can multiply your screen space up to 16 times.
To Set Up Spaces
Go into Applications => System Preferences=> Expose & Spaces , Then Click Spaces Tab
Make sure Enable Spaces is checked and Show Spaces in menu bar is checked like the picture above. Add 4 or more spaces clicking the + next to rows and columns (it doesn’t matter which or how many).
Setting up the Spaces Example
Open any 4 programs you want and hit F8 to activate spaces
Drag and drop each of the 4 programs into the different empty blue boxes and hit F8 to get out of spaces.
The Only Spaces Commands You Need
F8 = Opens Spaces
Command + Tab = To Open Application Display, just like in Part 1. You can now switch between the spaces by selecting the program associated with that space.
Command + ~ - Switches between multiple windows of the same program
With These 3 Simple Commands you can do this
Other Spaces Commands (Not really useful ones)
Control + Arrow Keys = You can move to the next screen, (if theres a window in the direction you press)
Control # = (Depending on how many spaces you made but, 1 = Box 1… 4 = Box 4)
December 29th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I didn’t know you could switch trough windows of the same program with CMD + ~, thanks!
What comes in handy here is the Application Assignments. Click the + button and add a program you would wish to assign to a certain Space. Then assign it to a Space. With this turned on, you won’t need to replace spaces by hand, but the programs of your choice will be assigned to the Space you selected for it.
I use this for programs like Unison (newsgroups), MSN Messenger or iTunes.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
shh thats part III lol
I broke it into 3 parts really just to make short and simple.
December 29th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Workspaces has been an indispensable feature on linux desktop environments, and its sweet that Apple is finally giving it to us. Spaces is also the best implementation of workspaces I’ve seen.
December 29th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Thanks for the tip. I’ve had the spaces icon in the dock since upgrading to Leopard, but hadn’t tried it until reading your review. I love it! Thanks!
December 30th, 2007 at 5:23 am
It’s also possible to run Spaces using multiple monitors and swap the second monitors around between the spaces. You have to try it to see what I mean!
Also, have you tried using expose as well as spaces? An invaluable tool!
MohThoM
December 31st, 2007 at 9:44 am
When you’re setting up Application assignments, a quicker way to do it is to open your applications folder & spaces preferences side by side, and drag each app onto the icon for the space you want it on. Also, I find the program ‘warp’ indispensable for quickly switching spaces http://www.ksuther.com/warp/
December 31st, 2007 at 10:14 am
warps pretty nice, especially if your using a few windows. Command tab is even more powerful because you can have 16 spaces open without remembering what programs in each space. Warp you have to remember what programs in each space (also cntrl # does the same thing warp does) .
December 31st, 2007 at 3:23 pm
This was very helpful. Thanks!
January 1st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Very nice utility. I use vmware Fusion for XP on occasion. With spaces i can open it in full screen then access it when i need by using command+tab. Another tidbit i have is i assigned the bottom mouse buttons on my mighty mouse to display all spaces(not sure what this is called) then i can select the space i need.
great articles, keep up the good work.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:21 am
I can’t get myself to use spaces no matter how hard I try… I’d prefer 4 monitors haha