question about leopard and spaces

[rozner]

Hi,

so first off, I'm a noob on OSX, been a long time PC user but just got my MacBook Pro today. So I've mostly got the hang of things. I've been playing with the Spaces thing which I understand is new to Leopard altogether. So I've been able to assign specific applications to spaces, but is there a way to do this on the fly, like without having to open the preferences page? I want to be able to just click a window, and "send it" to another space. Is this possible, or is the only way through the preference page?

Thanks

 

[mnkeybsness]

drag your window to the edge of the screen (with your mouse touching the edge) and hold there until it moves.

it won't be assigned to that space, but it will be there for now.

 

[swiftaw]

Ok, to send a window to a particular space, there are a couple of ways:

1) Activate spaces by pressing F8, then you can drag the windows to any space you want.

2) Left click on a window, and while keeping the left click pressed, hit Ctrl+number (the number being whichever space you want). You will then switch to that space taking the selected window along with it.

 

[siurpeeman]

i think launching a certain app in a specific space as its default setting can only be done in the system preferences. if, however, you're just concerned about moving an app or a window from one space to another, this can be done by dragging the window to another space (either by dragging and holding to the side of the screen or within the spaces birds eye screen).

 

[xUKHCx]

You can drag windows to the edge and if you stay there for a little while the space will change to the next one in that direction. Or you can click and hold the application window and use the shortcuts to switch spaces.

 

[rozner]

cool, thanks for all the replies, I didn't realize dragging to edge would do it, that's exactly what I was looking for.

 

[Bern]

Not meaning to railroad this thread, but I'm a little confused with the purpose of spaces. I understand that each space is for a specific working environment but does that mean if you put say your Adobe suite in one space and your gaming in another then maybe your web stuff in a third that each app in each space is no longer accessible in the opposing one?

So does it mean each space could have a dock with certain apps on it that other spaces wouldn't necessarily display?

I just don't get it??

 

[swiftaw]

Not meaning to railroad this thread, but I'm a little confused with the purpose of spaces. I understand that each space is for a specific working environment but does that mean if you put say your Adobe suite in one space and your gaming in another then maybe your web stuff in a third that each app in each space is no longer accessible in the opposing one?

So does it mean each space could have a dock with certain apps on it that other spaces wouldn't necessarily display?

I just don't get it??

It's simply a way to have more Space. Rather than having all your windows buried under one another you can spread them out onto several desktops called spaces. The spaces do not have to be themed, you can put whatever you want onto any space, you can drag windows from space to space, and switch between spaces easily. All spaces see the same Dock.

The idea is by spreading out your windows, it'll make you more productive.

 

[rozner]

I'm not sure if you've ever used Linux, but it's sort of similar to the multiple desktops, it's really just a matter of organization. I tend to have many applications open at the same time, so for me its just a way of grouping apps together and finding them quicker. I'm not sure if the dock changes between spaces. Haven't used it long enough to notice. I think depending which space you're in you'll only see the apps of that space on the dock.

 

[rozner]

looks like you beat me to the reply

 

[aceducy]

Solaris has had this on all versions of the GUI for about 10 years (under the usual X-win managers Gnome, Java Desktop, OpenWindows, Motif etc). AIX can install it, HP-UX has a so-so version. SGI Irix has a great version (but nobody uses it), as does most distros of Linux and Berkeley produced in the last few years.

X Application developers have been putting it to use for quite a while - new windows open in a different space, printing status in another etc. I also remember somebody had coded an OSX version of spaces (work areas) for 10.4, but most found it pretty clumbsy. I think it was the standard X port and OSX had to be hacked up to get it to cooperate.

In a nutshell, everyone except MS has been using "spaces" for years, and Apple went to a lot of trouble to keep it at arms length until now. They would have to remove it from the open source code before they did anything to OSX, but it appears they've had a few requests for it or we wouldn't see it now