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looking for 'workspace' software

M

Melan

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi, kind of hard to explain this one.

Say I'm working on a project for which I have open a pdf file, a word document, maybe some webpages, and suchlike. I finish working on it and close all the programs. If I wanna pick up on the project later I have to remember what files I had open, find and open all those individual files, arrange them how I want them and so on - that step can hold me back from getting to work quickly on a project.

Is there a program that would allow me to 'save' a certain setup of open programs and documents and easily reopen all that stuff later on? Kind of like how you can save multiple tabs and open them all up at once in firefox. Strikes me that this kind of software would be amazingly helpful for keeping track of and easily getting back into your projects.

Anyone know of anything like this?

Thanks!
 
Could you not in theory open all that in one Space (I'm assuming you're running Leopard here), then move to a clean Space, use that for everything else, and when you want to jump back to what you were previously doing, just switch back to that Space?
 
The problem with that kind of setup is essentially that the applications themselves aren't designed for it -- depending on the application in question, if you were to open it, do things, save its "state" as part of a cluster of apps, and then close them all, and then you were to open that single app again, outside the cluster, make changes, then close it, and reopen the cluster, you now have the issue that you have two different states for the app (the one it was left in when most recently closed, and the one from the "saved" state).

If you really need that much control over things, I guess in principle you could set up a few virtual machine copies of your OS, so that each set of jobs is running in a different environment.

Otherwise, you could, as said, just put it in another space and don't close the apps to begin with.

And third, you could use a program like Entourage that has a project binder kind of feature. It doesn't save the "state" of the software, but it helps you pick up all the pieces associated with your project.
 
Could you not in theory open all that in one Space (I'm assuming you're running Leopard here), then move to a clean Space, use that for everything else, and when you want to jump back to what you were previously doing, just switch back to that Space?
Click to expand...

Hmm that wouldn't work for me. Mostly because I'm looking to put projects aside for days at a time and would not keep those windows and programs open all that time. But also because it would be irritating to be sent back to that space whenever I want to open an application for some other purpose. Also, I have all applications associated with a space due to little screen 'real estate' on the Macbook, so there'd be a lot of dragging and expose use to use and set up that.

I have a feeling you could probably do something weird with applescripts to achieve what I'm looking for but it's not something I really understand (and a UI would be nice)

Thanks for your suggestion though..
 
mkrishnan said:
The problem with that kind of setup is essentially that the applications themselves aren't designed for it -- depending on the application in question, if you were to open it, do things, save its "state" as part of a cluster of apps, and then close them all, and then you were to open that single app again, outside the cluster, make changes, then close it, and reopen the cluster, you now have the issue that you have two different states for the app (the one it was left in when most recently closed, and the one from the "saved" state).

If you really need that much control over things, I guess in principle you could set up a few virtual machine copies of your OS, so that each set of jobs is running in a different environment.

Otherwise, you could, as said, just put it in another space and don't close the apps to begin with.

And third, you could use a program like Entourage that has a project binder kind of feature. It doesn't save the "state" of the software, but it helps you pick up all the pieces associated with your project.
Click to expand...

Forgive me if I misunderstand, but it wouldn't be about saving states I think. All I'm looking for is a button that can open pdf document x, word documents y and z, webpage n. They wouldn't have to be saved as a cluster or anything like that or be connected in any way, other than one thing knows where they are and launches them all. That 'project binder' thing sounds promising - even a program that keeps a list of all the documents involved in one project and allows me to open them all individually would be nice. Is there anything that might mimic the functionality of Entourage (at least as I'm understanding it) that's cheaper/more lightweight? I'd use the finder but I already have a system for keeping the documents involved in these projects and I'm looking for something more convenient than a confusing copies/shortcuts system...

Thanks for your suggestions though. I'm afraid I wouldn't know where to begin with the virtual machine option so that's out.
 
Check out DevonThink Pro - it is a browser, file viewer (pdfs, among others) and text editor (for general text) all in one. When you have stuff open and close the application, the windows re-open. I just tried it with a pdf, a text file and a web page.

www.devon-technologies.com
 
Relaunch?

Relaunch might well do what you want. I use it on Leopard. It saves snapshots of the apps and docs you have open at timed intervals or when you want. So, tell it to take a snapshot of where you are when you want to leave your projects and later click on that 'snapshot' to have relaunch open the apps and documents as they were when you left them.

http://wiredupandfiredup.co.uk/Relaunch/
 
Poncho said:
Relaunch might well do what you want. I use it on Leopard. It saves snapshots of the apps and docs you have open at timed intervals or when you want. So, tell it to take a snapshot of where you are when you want to leave your projects and later click on that 'snapshot' to have relaunch open the apps and documents as they were when you left them.

http://wiredupandfiredup.co.uk/Relaunch/
Click to expand...

WOW... what a great app... thanks for the heads up...
 
Poncho said:
Relaunch might well do what you want. I use it on Leopard. It saves snapshots of the apps and docs you have open at timed intervals or when you want. So, tell it to take a snapshot of where you are when you want to leave your projects and later click on that 'snapshot' to have relaunch open the apps and documents as they were when you left them.

http://wiredupandfiredup.co.uk/Relaunch/
Click to expand...

Wow! This looks like exactly what I was looking for! Thanks, I'll give it a try.
 
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