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Someone school me on Spaces

S

ScottFitz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 3, 2007
666
0
I played around a bit with spaces. I guess I had a preconceived notion on how it was supposed to work, but I think I'm missing the point. Maybe it's because I have a 17" monitor. My preconceived notion leads me to believe that on a huge screen, I could divide up the screen into Spaces, confining my work into a section of the monitor.

Am I seriously way off here? I set up two spaces, side by side and assigned an application to each, but I don't see the point.

Thanks for any explanation.
 
No, the idea is that you have multiple desktops. SO for example, all your work apps on one desktop, your itunes on another, email on a third, and a forth running windows via parallels. Then you can switch between them at will. This is rather than having all the apps on the same desktop all under each other.
 
Yeah, you have it pretty much backwards.

Spaces is a way for people who have tiny monitors to create a larger "virtual" workspace by creating multiple individual desktops and then giving them the ability to rapidly switch in between each space.

It's utility is inversely proportional to how cramped you feel by your display.
 
Nugget said:
Yeah, you have it pretty much backwards.

Spaces is a way for people who have tiny monitors to create a larger "virtual" workspace by creating multiple individual desktops and then giving them the ability to rapidly switch in between each space.

It's utility is inversely proportional to how cramped you feel by your display.
Click to expand...

Hey, I live in College Station. I pretty much have everything backwards! :)

Thanks for the explanations!
 
I don't really find spaces all too useful myself. I typically only have one window open. I have several apps running, but just close their windows. I open them when I need them, and all of my notifications of any changes is handled by the dock and the menu (new messages, new IMs, who's on, etc). And when it gets a bit crowded, I use Expose.
 
I think spaces are most useful when you have apps that like to take over the entire screen space -- Aperture, Photoshop, XCode, etc. It allows you to switch between them without things getting too cluttered. You can place your HUDs, palettes, etc without them conflicting with each other.

I've never been a huge virtual desktop fan, but I am finding spaces well designed for that kind of situation.

If you typically use a browser and mail, you probably don't need the extra room.
 
There was some program for Tiger that gave you "Spaces" except it had some REALLY nice transitions to go with it.

Found it. http://www.yousoftware.com/desktops/desktops.php

I never registered, but it seemed to work for me when I was on the trial version. I could set applications to a certain desktop, have different folders and icons between them, and different backgrounds. I was too cheap.

Plus, I could set it to not auto-snap-to every time I open an app. (if I set to open parallels in it's own Space, the auto-snap-to crashes it) I wish I could get around this in Spaces. That's one use I think I could actually justify having Spaces for.
 
I've also never been able to develop an appreciation for virtual desktops. I like having all my apps "in play" on the same desktop. Even if only an edge of a window is visible it can still be really useful. I just rarely have the desire to compartmentalize my work and I guess I prefer just juggling all my activities at once instead of time-slicing my attention.

That said -- virtual desktops are a love-it-or-hate-it sort of proposition, and it's really great that Apple finally have an option for folks in the "love it" side of that equation.
 
Big-TDI-Guy said:
There was some program for Tiger that gave you "Spaces" except it had some REALLY nice transitions to go with it.

Found it. http://www.yousoftware.com/desktops/desktops.php

I never registered, but it seemed to work for me when I was on the trial version. I could set applications to a certain desktop, have different folders and icons between them, and different backgrounds. I was too cheap.

Plus, I could set it to not auto-snap-to every time I open an app. (if I set to open parallels in it's own Space, the auto-snap-to crashes it) I wish I could get around this in Spaces. That's one use I think I could actually justify having Spaces for.
Click to expand...

virtuedesktops was another one and there is another that i cant recall off top of my head
 
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