Mission Control: I want more control

[roland.g]

My only problem with Mission Control other than all app expose (even for minimized windows) is that I want more control over my "desktops" (formerly spaces). First, don't call them desktop 1, desktop 2, and so on, let me name them. Why not. But really that's neither here nor there.

The real problem is in arranging or rearranging. When you have the box checked to auto rearrange, then it is easy to find stuff using MC, but not when you swipe from side to side as the order changes, so I find myself swiping from one end to another looking for a desktop/space. I would use MC, but that requires swiping for MC and then moving to choose that desktop. Swiping left right is much easier.

Likewise, you can avoid this by unchecking the auto arrange box. But then it puts all full screen apps at the end and all your other desktops in front of that. I would prefer to have Mail first, Safari second, and then desktops as I need them. Then I could prioritize the order of the desktops, always knowing which was to the left or right of another and swiping to it.

I'm sure someone has already pointed this out but I didn't find discussion of this particular issue. I don't mind that they took away the spaces grid so much or changed the schema, but I do mind that I lost the ability to assign on a per desktop situation and order those desktops. In spaces you had that control. That could easily be implemented for MC, even adding which apps were always Full Screen and where in the pecking order.

 

[BlackMangoTree]

10.8 might address your issues.

 

[MattInOz]

I generally like mission control for the small screen, and have found it's something I'm still using a couple of weeks in. Compared to previous incarnations which for me seem to jolt the workflow more than help.

That said I fully agree with you. The options for arranging desktops are both not quite right. We should be able to set our own arrangement. And why spaces open at the end not next to space that spawned them is strange to me.
If the same policies applies to Desktops that applied to tabs in safari or firefox it would go someway to being a lot better.

 

[baryon]

My only problem with Mission Control other than all app expose (even for minimized windows) is that I want more control over my "desktops" (formerly spaces). First, don't call them desktop 1, desktop 2, and so on, let me name them. Why not. But really that's neither here nor there.

The real problem is in arranging or rearranging. When you have the box checked to auto rearrange, then it is easy to find stuff using MC, but not when you swipe from side to side as the order changes, so I find myself swiping from one end to another looking for a desktop/space. I would use MC, but that requires swiping for MC and then moving to choose that desktop. Swiping left right is much easier.

Likewise, you can avoid this by unchecking the auto arrange box. But then it puts all full screen apps at the end and all your other desktops in front of that. I would prefer to have Mail first, Safari second, and then desktops as I need them. Then I could prioritize the order of the desktops, always knowing which was to the left or right of another and swiping to it.

I'm sure someone has already pointed this out but I didn't find discussion of this particular issue. I don't mind that they took away the spaces grid so much or changed the schema, but I do mind that I lost the ability to assign on a per desktop situation and order those desktops. In spaces you had that control. That could easily be implemented for MC, even adding which apps were always Full Screen and where in the pecking order.

I had the same problem, and then I realized that all my problems come from Full Screen apps. The solution is simply don't use full screen apps, and you have more control over the locations of your apps that way. Apparently the next update (10.7.2) will even allow you to move some of your desktops around (but not all of them because Apple wants to keep things complicated and extremely confusing).

 

[Mascots]

I had the same problem, and then I realized that all my problems come from Full Screen apps. The solution is simply don't use full screen apps, and you have more control over the locations of your apps that way. Apparently the next update (10.7.2) will even allow you to move some of your desktops around (but not all of them because Apple wants to keep things complicated and extremely confusing).

10.7.2 will let you move all of the desktops and full screen apps around except your "primary desktop", or "Desktop 1"; it will not move away from the first spot. You can then enable and disable automatic ordering if you want your desktops to remain the positions you set them, or if you're like me, you can leave ordering on and reorder as needed.

 

[roland.g]

10.7.2 will let you move all of the desktops and full screen apps around except your primary desktop, or "Desktop 1"; it will not move away from the first spot. You can then enable and disable automatic ordering if you want your desktops to remain the positions you set them, or if you're like me, you can leave ordering on and reorder as needed.

That's great news. I don't mind the primary desktop thing. I'll put my general finder, system prefs, etc there. Then I can always have Mail 2nd, Safari 3rd, iTunes 4th and have additional other non-fullscreen desktops after those for less used apps like Quicken, 1Password, etc.

 

[Steve's Barber]

I wish that swiping through desktops would start over when you get to the last one.

 

[Mascots]

That's great news. I don't mind the primary desktop thing. I'll put my general finder, system prefs, etc there. Then I can always have Mail 2nd, Safari 3rd, iTunes 4th and have additional other non-fullscreen desktops after those for less used apps like Quicken, 1Password, etc.

I use full screens apps for iTunes, Mail, iCal and occasionally random other apps (XCode, Firefox, iWork suite). Then I organize my desktops based on my work flows (Play, Coding for web, coding for iOS, etc).

You should look into the program/plugin, Maximizer. It adds full screen controls to almost all apps and comes in handy, especially with the ability to move them around in 10.7.2

 

[roland.g]

I wish that swiping through desktops would start over when you get to the last one.

I have Dashboard turned off, but I suppose that is the reason for it. Just like Spotlight on iOS. Otherwise you could loop there too.

I use full screens apps for iTunes, Mail, iCal and occasionally random other apps (XCode, Firefox, iWork suite). Then I organize my desktops based on my work flows (Play, Coding for web, coding for iOS, etc).

You should look into the program/plugin, Maximizer. It adds full screen controls to almost all apps and comes in handy, especially with the ability to move them around in 10.7.2

Awesome. Will do. Thanks for the tip.

 

[baryon]

10.7.2 will let you move all of the desktops and full screen apps around except your primary desktop, or "Desktop 1"; it will not move away from the first spot.

The only problem is that Desktop 1 is NOT my primary desktop. My primary desktop (the one I use the most often) is somewhere in the middle, since it gives quick access to other desktops on the left and right, while Desktop 1 only allows you to swipe right if you want to get to another desktop, since there's nothing to the left of it (except Dashboard if you're using it as a space).

 

[ScottishCaptain]

10.8 might address your issues.

10.8 will be 10.6 with a new number.

Suddenly Expose and Spaces will be "magical" and "powerful" again. They'll tout the elimination of failed features like Autosave and Mission Control as "optimization" and everyone will thank them for it.

-SC

 

[blackomega31]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

10.8 might address your issues.

10.8 will be 10.6 with a new number.

Suddenly Expose and Spaces will be "magical" and "powerful" again. They'll tout the elimination of failed features like Autosave and Mission Control as "optimization" and everyone will thank them for it.

-SC

Amen to that finally somebody other then myself understands my pain. I want to like lion. But first it need to grow from the cute kitten to the powerful lion. And it has potential to get there they just need to get rid of the IOS elements and crappy eye candy and then they have something. The ONLY useful new feature they added was airdrop

 

[roland.g]

Thanks to Maximizer, and some common sense I found a intermediate solution. I am now able to take 1Password and a few other apps full screen that were not before. As for the order. I just turn off the auto arrange in MC and quit all my apps. Then I load and go with full screen in the order I want them. Mail, Safari, iTunes, iProcrastinate, 1Password. And I have my primary desktop for Finder, System Prefs, etc. Then they are always in the order I expect them to be.