I have embraced a one laptop lifestyle since getting rid of my iMac. I use my MacBook Pros with my studio display, I have my windows arranged in a particular way. I know with Moom you can save setups so that it opens certain windows in specific positions. What I want is for the setup to change when I disconnect from the Studio display, this way I can have my windows arranged in one way when connected to the studio display and another way when when it’s just the laptop screen?
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I currently use Stay for this. However, I fear it is now abandonware as it was last updated on June 22. 2021 and my questions to the developer have gone unanswered. It is still working for me on Ventura.
I also use Moom and have since discovered (thanks to folks on this very forum) that it also has this functionality. From the linked website:
“This feature is particularly useful if you use a laptop with an external display—Moom can trigger saved layouts on addition or removal of displays.”
But I’ve not tried this with Moom.
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Thanks! I think I tried that in the past, but I will try again and report back.
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Keyboard maestro has hardware and network triggers. Not sure if this works with monitors. But I used keyboard maestro to trigger a Moom setup via keyboard shortcut.
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i completely completely agree. exactly that structure for spaces. with separate instances of finder, mail and other universally used apps, each open to the mailboxes/folders of that project. that would be so amazing for my poor multi tasking tired brain. does anyone have any advice on hope to achieve that?
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Unfortunately, it won’t work. PDF Expert is one of my main apps, and I can’t get it to run separate sessions in multiple spaces. I get moved to the previous space when I open a PDF, regardless of how I have my Mission Control window groupings set. I sent a feature request to Readdle to add this functionality,.
But I’m also having problems with being able to run multiple Finder sessions - perhaps I haven’t figured that out yet.
Yes! Spaces could be so great! How can Apple not have figured this out?
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Yeah, some applications only open one instance by default, macOS Mail for example. Whereas you can have multiple instances of Safari running.
The terminal command “open” with the “-n” or “–new” flag will open a new instance of an application, even if it is already open. The command is:
open -n [path to application]
Thus to open a second instance of Mail it would be:
open -n /System/Applications/Mail.app
Hope this helps.
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Not ideal, sure. But you can have multiple PDF Expert windows in each space. When opening a new PDF, it will open in the window from the current space.
The same applies to Finder, Safari and pretty much every other app. If you already have a window on that space, then it will open that window either from CMD+Tab or by opening a file.
Creating a new instance as @MevetS suggested is also an option, however be aware that it means running the full stack of the app twice, resulting in many more resources used by the machine and even with a duplicated icon on your Dock.
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That’s incorrect. macOS does natively let you move windows between spaces! If you’ve got the control-n shortcuts setup to switch between spaces, then all you need to do is click on the window’s title bar and then type control-n. For example, if you open Slack on space 1 and want to move it to space 4, you click on Slack’s title bar and type control-4.
It can be a little wonky and only works about 80% of the time, perhaps because it can be hard to tell these days where exactly the title bar is. But give it a try!
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Very cool.
Just one correction, “click an hold” on the title bar, and then control-n.
And in my trial just now it worked two out of three times. 
Thanks!
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Agree with everyone that you need to change the setting so that Spaces stay in place. However, I wish that when you make an app full-screen, it would be placed to the right of the current Space, not to the far right.
E.g.: if I have a Desktop and two full-screen apps open to the right, a new full-screen app should go next to the Desktop.
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Indeed, I bought it after listening to the show
Listening to this I was reminded to write of my setup…
… I have a 4K external monitor and a 16" (M1) MacBook Pro.
My basic idea is to stow windows on the 4K until they’re needed.
A RFID reader attached to a Raspberry Pi Pico - when I swipe a card - starts the day by arranging key windows on the 4K just how I like them. This is a Keyboard Maestro macro, positioning windows etc. Another card ends the day.
Meanwhile a quartet of Keyboard Maestro macros - driven by 4 Stream Deck buttons - move the current window to/from the 4K, likewise the mouse pointer.
The idea of putting windows away and pulling them back is to increase the friction of distractions.
And maybe this puts me in the “precise positioning” / “control freak” category.
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Here’s my experience from a week of trying eight Spaces to separate my projects and tasks (which I desperately need to do). So you have an idea of my structure:
Space 1 - To-Do: Google Calendar (in Safari tab), OmniFocus, Obsidian Kanban board
Space 2 - Communications: Outlook, Messages, Drafts, RingCentral
Spaces 3 - 8 - Projects: Finder, Safari with tab groups, Word, PDF Expert
I often have multiple Word and PDF Expert files open for each project. I typically use the built-in keyboard shortcuts Control-# (1-8) to switch Spaces, which you have to turn on in System Settings > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Mission Control. I also activate Mission Control using Control-Up Arrow and with a custom button on my mouse.
It is working “ok.” It could be much better. One issue I’m having is knowing which Space I’m currently in. I wish there were a way to name Spaces, and to have the Space number/name as part of the desktop background.
In order to have a better idea of what’s open in each space, I added Stage Manager to the mix. I haven’t tried this yet on my MBP 16, only on my MBP + 27" external monitor. It works reasonably well (drag window to the left to put it in the queue of apps hasn’t been working, so I minimize it with Control-M and it goes to the queue).
There are a few problems that keep this from being a great solution to my being able to completely focus on one project at a time, as opposed to having a dozen windows with tabs open on my desktop at once:
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Not all apps work with Spaces such that they will run separate instances. Some apps, especially Word and PDF Expert, are an issue. These apps insist that I have every Word and PDF window from all the spaces open in every space. This clutters up my workspaces. I put in a feature request to PDF Expert about this, but it could be a while. I think Apple should make the OS so it’s easy for devs to implement this, if they haven’t already.
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Obsidian is an even bigger problem. I’m having trouble running it in multiple spaces even with all the windows open in every space. I use Obsidian for my project notes; ideally, I’d have a window open with the notes for that project in each space. I figured of all apps, Obsidian would work for this, but not so far.
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When you open an app that’s not open in the Space you’re working in, but has a window open in another Space (such as by clicking on the app icon in the dock), it will switch you to the Space it’s open in. While this can be used as a way to quickly move to a space that only has that app running, most of the time I have apps running in more than one Space and it simply switches me to the last Space I used where I have this app open. This is disorienting, and breaks the flow that’s the purpose of these separate workspaces.
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When I close the last Word window in a Space, and I have another Word window open in another Space, it moves me to the most-recently used Space that has a Word window open in it. I don’t want to be moved to another Space unless I tell it to (!).
If you have dealt with the above and fixed one or more of these issues, please let us know your technique(s). Or, if you have additional issues when working in multiple spaces, please share them.
There is, although it will take a bit of work on your part to set it up. Each Space can have a different wallpaper. You can create a graphic with each space name/ number in it and select that as your wallpaper. macOS will not know the names, but they can have meaning to you. To set the wallpaper open system settings in the appropriate space, select the “Wallpaper” option, click on the monitor and then select the background.
I use a a menu bar app called WhichSpace, which puts a number in the menu bar.
EDIT: The below is only true if I have the app open in this space as well - So I do have this issue. Sorry, my bad.
I do not have this issue. Unless I have specified that an app always open in a specific space, when I open a new document for that app it opens in the space I am in . I suspect you’ve set the options as shown in my prior post? I have all four of the ‘spaces’ released switches set to off.
HtH.
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Just for completeness, you can also click on the window frame and do CTRL-number to move that window to a certain space.
EDIT: Oops, somebody beat me to this!
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There’s an open-source app for that called Spaceman. It adds a indicator to the menu bar with the indication of the current space. By default, it will show its number, but its settings allow for setting custom names for each space. This is a bonus in comparison with the also great WhichSpace that @MevetS pointed out.
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Just finished listening and I didn’t hear anything on Yabai, Karabiner, Keyboard Cowboy, Ubersicht for the keyboard warriors out there. They are free and opensource and I’m not sure if that’s an important thing for this podast. Anyway good show I’ll check out some more.
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