Hi Zeph.
I know what you mean as it took me a couple of years after my switch to Mac to get used to, and now regularly use, Spaces. Here’s why it works for me now:
I’ve got used to 4-finger swiping up to get to Mission Control. From there, I can drag whichever window I want to the Space I want it in. I only swipe to a Space when I only have two active Spaces
To move a file, I have set F1 to to also bring up Mission Control. If I start dragging a file (with my right hand), F1 brings up Mission Control and I can choose which space to drop the file in. Hovering over a Space opens it so I can choose the app etc.
I love this set up now, but everyone works differently.
Oh I’m as profligate with Spaces as some people are with browser tabs. (I’ve got seven of them going at this very moment …) My main beef with the touchbar is that I can’t pound away at the F3 key with the wanton abandon I’ve grown accustomed to.
Basically, each distinct thing I’m working on gets its own Space. That space may be occupied by one full-screen app (e.g., Lightroom), multiple windows of the same app, or a bunch of windows for a bunch of different apps—whatever it is that the workflow requires.
The Victorian British explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton had in his house a separate desk for every project he was working on. When it was time to lay aside work on one project and take up work on another, he’d simply get up from the desk he was at and move to the desk he’d dedicated to the thing he wanted to work on next. That’s how I try to use Spaces.
Sigh. For whatever reason I have never been able to get that gesture to stick. Ditto using Control + the Up Arrow, even though the latter should be just as easy as a function key.
Spaces is probably the single feature that most keeps me on the Mac. Apple’s implementation of virtual desktops, when paired with their excellent trackpads and multi-finger gestures (lightly customized) makes organizing and navigating through dozens of windows on multiple displays a delightful breeze.
Using Karabiner Elements I have my left command key bound so that when pressed by itself, it activates mission control. Not sure if that’s a substitute that would fit you or not.
I uses spaces heavily, but I don’t have any methodical process or SOP. I tend to organize my spaces by “feel”—what arrangement of apps will enable me, at a given time, to get to everything that i need quickly and smoothly. As a general guideline, i will usually group all my communication tools in one space that is only one space immediately left of what I am considering the “main” space for my current project. Maybe this is too vague to be helpful, but the take away is just that (for me) being able to flexibly define how I want to use my spaces in the moment has been very effective for me. It’s another great tool in the productivity arsenal.
If I used a laptop with a touch bar a lot, I’d probably would end up doing something like that, or, at the very least, would force myself to adopt Control + the Up Arrow. Fortunately I do most of my work on an iMac.
If we had the option of configuring the Dock and Desktop (not the desktop picture, but what is on the Desktop) differently in each Space, Spaces would be extremely useful. Imagine Space 1: its Dock with photo apps and its Desktop with aliases of photo folders. Space 2: work apps in the Dock; aliases of current work project folders on the Desktop. You could set up other Spaces for family, upcoming travel, etc.
Some of the Dock replacements, such as uBar, provide a way to have differently-configured Docks on different displays. But I don’t think any of them have tackled separate Docks for separate Spaces.
When Apple introduced Spaces (it seems like that was during the Truman administration), I assumed separate Docks and Desktops would be the next step. I remember thinking, “Spaces will be useful once the concept is developed.”
Thanks @jim_sauer! Stage Manager on macOS seemed to me like a nice feature that I might use (especially if I start using it a lot on iPadOS). Now, however, after seeing the macMost video you linked and seeing how stage manager works across multiple Spaces, I think i will use that a ton. It was also nice to learn that you can put windows on top of that sidebar on the left of the screen.
I use workspaces (I refuse to use the Apple marketing name lol) to separate projects. I try not to run more than 3-4 workspaces at most, because if an app quits or crashes that has windows spread across workspaces (like Safari), then I have to play the dealer and start flicking all the windows back to their respective workspaces.
I’m looking forward to find out if Stage Manager addresses this issue.
Gnome, KDE, and Windows handle workspaces a bit better imo, if I launch an app that is open on another workspace, it opens a new window on the workspace I’m on, instead of cycling between workspaces like macOS does.
My always biggest, and until now unsolved, problem is the setting after a restart.
I use a set of multiple desktops, with some Apps in Fullscreen-Mode, and I always have to reset the location of the Apps after a restart of macOS.
While there are several Apps I could use to rearrange Apps on a single Desktop, and “snap” them into places, I haven’t figured out a good way yet, to do so with a lot of Apps on a lot of Desktops.
Has anybody a real working solution for this problem?
I manually assign specific apps to specific desktops. I’ve got one space for communication (Mail, Slack, task management, etc). I have one space for all my development work (it houses Codekit, VSCode/Nova, Terminal, and Brave). And I have a third set up for any apps that require visual work (Figma, all the Adobe apps).
Outside of my communications desktop, I run all these other apps in maximized windows (even on my Studio Display). I typically have three files open side by side in my IDE of choice, and I always have a large Developer Panel open in Brave. The others all greatly benefit from running in large windows (try using InDesign on an 11” MacBook Air. It sucks).
I don’t break things up by project per se, but I’ve got it all broken up based on my mode of work. It works for me.
On my MX Vertical mouse, I have one key mapped to switch to Space #1, which is dedicated to the Finder. There are two Finder windows to facilitate copying files.
I’ve tried separate spaces for each app but that became too complicated. Non-Finder apps are in Space #2. I do use Hazeover to hide windows from background apps.
Hi @snelly; it’s interesting how disparate strategies are applied to meet unique requirements!
In contrast, I never manually assign apps to specificDesktop Spaces even though I often use them in specific spaces. This strategy affords the necessary flexibility I need because I often I want to use these apps in other Desktop Spaces. With the help of Keyboard Maestro, I’ve been able to optimize this approach.