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Stage Manager is a mf-ing game changer

C

c84216

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 15, 2006
221
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Probably just duplicating another thread, but I didn't see one immediately.

I did not understand Stage Manager from the demos. It didn't make sense and I didn't see how I'd use it. Now I've used it.

Stage Manager is a game changer for someone like me who lets their windows pile up and get away from him and whose desktop gets rapidly out of control. It keeps everything at the quick ready but out of the way. I don't feel like I need to go hunting to find anything or clip an app icon in the dock then sort through things. Its all just there and it all just works. And grouping windows/apps is just the chef's kiss on it all.

As well as it works on my 24" iMac, and I can only imagine this will be a boon on the portables.

Well played, Apple. Well played. This is (and I mean it) one of the best macOS improvements in years.

EDIT: Don't judge the macOS implementation if you've tried the iPad implementation first. I just tried it on my (12.9" M1) iPad Pro and couldn't switch it off fast enough. That's an all engulfing petroleum refinery fire with explosions where the less that is said, the better.
 
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I think its a case by case basis. For me and my use case, I found Expose/Mission Control didn't do the world's most amazing job cutting through my window clutter in the same way Stage Manager has. Perhaps its a personal preference and that's certainly understandable and okay.
 
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I'm on the fence. It seems to work well on large screens but when you are working an a laptop screen and alternating between multiple full screen apps it can get a bit confusing as it doesn't integrate with full screen apps at all. I should be able to view the strip by mousing to the left at all times for example.

It also seems to be missing more 'pro' features like right click menus, keyboard shortcuts, some form of window snapping and being able to scroll through the strip would be useful as well as often you forget you have windows open.

So yes it's certainly useful but it feels half baked at the moment.
 
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tomtad said:
I'm on the fence. It seems to work well on large screens but when you are working an a laptop screen and alternating between multiple full screen apps it can get a bit confusing as it doesn't integrate with full screen apps at all. I should be able to view the strip by mousing to the left at all times for example.

It also seems to be missing more 'pro' features like right click menus, keyboard shortcuts, and being able to scroll through the strip would be useful as well as often you forget you have windows open.

So yes it's certainly useful but it feels half baked at the moment.
Click to expand...
I tried using it on my Apple Studio Display and I still don't see the point. The idea is great, to be able to group apps together and be able to bring them up front when you need them. The implementation sucks. There is no way to group apps together so that they always stick together. There is no way to have an app belong to two different groups. Stage Manager with full screen apps is also bad. The Mac doesn't need Stage Manager.
 
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I'm finding it a bit irritating that it resizes the Safari screen every time I open the app. It also feels slightly weird having the main app in use of ton the right of the screen rather than centred. Agai, if I centre the app it won't stay centred. It would be really useful if Stage Manager could be accessed at any time just by moving the mouse pointer to the left of the screen. This seems to work sometimes but not all the time. I've only been using Ventura for an hour and quite like Stage Manager so maybe I've missed something.
 
ELI5 a use-case scenario of Stage Manager on a Mac. No, really, I fundamentally do not get the point of it. It reduces the useable screen area of an application and just shoves things to one side. How is this in any way, shape, or form, better, or provide any functionality that wasn't already present or better in the MacOS through other means like Expose, Mission Control?
 
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A really nice idea but poorly and haphazardly implemented by the likes of Fettucine, who probably really doesn't work for a living with his $1K jeans and $ 250 haircuts. And it shows.

Actuate SM and try to drop a file into Gmail. It won't let you. You have to back out of SM and then do it. Now something basic like this suggests that no working man ever touched the design of SM.

SM groups by apps -- not by subject matter which would have been more salient. Again untouched by people who actually work for a living.

Everything else in 13 is a ripoff of capabilities long available in Google Maps, Gmail and Chrome -- and I don't even like Chrome OS.
 
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preetb said:
A really nice idea but poorly and haphazardly implemented by the likes of Fettucine, who probably really doesn't work for a living with his $1K jeans and $ 250 haircuts. And it shows.

Actuate SM and try to drop a file into Gmail. It won't let you. You have to back out of SM and then do it. Now something basic like this suggests that no working man ever touched the design of SM.

SM groups by apps -- not by subject matter which would have been more salient. Again untouched by people who actually work for a living.

Everything else in 13 is a ripoff of capabilities long available in Google Maps, Gmail and Chrome -- and I don't even like Chrome OS.
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You're awfully bitter. If you don't like Stage Manager, don't use it. It's not like you NEED it... you've never had it before and you managed (presumably) just fine.
 
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c84216 said:
Probably just duplicating another thread, but I didn't see one immediately.

I did not understand Stage Manager from the demos. It didn't make sense and I didn't see how I'd use it. Now I've used it.

Stage Manager is a game changer for someone like me who lets their windows pile up and get away from him and whose desktop gets rapidly out of control. It keeps everything at the quick ready but out of the way. I don't feel like I need to go hunting to find anything or clip an app icon in the dock then sort through things. Its all just there and it all just works. And grouping windows/apps is just the chef's kiss on it all.

As well as it works on my 24" iMac, and I can only imagine this will be a boon on the portables.

Well played, Apple. Well played. This is (and I mean it) one of the best macOS improvements in years.

EDIT: Don't judge the macOS implementation if you've tried the iPad implementation first. I just tried it on my (12.9" M1) iPad Pro and couldn't switch it off fast enough. That's an all engulfing petroleum refinery fire with explosions where the less that is said, the better.
Click to expand...
Agree, amazing on OSX and not nice on iPadOS
 
I've been using it for only couple of hours now. I get the idea and I kinda like it but I'm wondering - why do we need to have those extra windows on the side? Why cannot it behave in a stage mode using just our Dock? It seams to me like it's duplicating Dock with not exactly extra features. I know that I can put more than one window into one "screen" of the stage manager but it seems to me like that's not very usable since I have no practical way how to easily switch between those two windows, do I? If I use Expose, I get all the windows...
 
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It’s a step backwards for me. If they were going to integrate it all, they should have used the Dock rather than a sidebar. The Dock is the most obvious place to hold apps and folders, not another UI element.

It’s not intuitive either. Try dragging a window over to a stack, like you would expect it to just work…

Even hiding the desktop items by default is a complete head-scratcher - you gain nothing from it.
 
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I'm still trying to figure out how it works. It is not intuitive at all, I can understand why it's not enabled by default.
If any one from the macrumors team is reading this, please make a video on how to use it because I find it confusing af. I'm using a Mac mini with 2 displays, the stack things bounce from one display to the other, its weird.
 
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Apple Knowledge Navigator said:
It’s a step backwards for me. If they were going to integrate it all, they should have used the Dock rather than a sidebar. The Dock is the most obvious place to hold apps and folders, not another UI element.
Click to expand...

Totally agree on this one. Why introducing another UI element that is essentially Dock? But, I found out that you can actually hide the recent items in the Settings. It will still appear if you move your cursor to the left but it's not getting in the way and you can still use Dock for switching apps while getting only one window at the time (which is actually quite nice for me, as I said).
 
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I used SM this morning for the first time, agree with the OP. For somebody that loses oversight while working, expose was my friend.
But SM works more natural (automatic) for me.
Also agree on the people above my post, they should combine it with the dock.

I have my dock on the left, SM defaults on the right, thats good (also on my second screen that is on the right, it has its own SM, awesome!)

But my desktop icons are on the right as well, and they look out of place now... i can't figure out how to move them to another location on the desktop.
 
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Today I tried using Stage Manager one more time and I understood it better. What it basically does, is to hide all irrelevant windows, so that there is a clean workspace available, only with the windows important to you visible. It's not bad, but seems to be a solution for a non existent problem on macOS. There are namely many ways to deal with windows on macOS. Anyway, at least I don't think it's as bad as I thought it was yesterday.
 
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Been using it for a couple months now and I love it. Don't use it all the time but when I need multiple apps for a single project it's outstanding. It just takes practice using it and getting it set up properly makes all the difference.
 
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GlenK said:
Been using it for a couple months now and I love it. Don't use it all the time but when I need multiple apps for a single project it's outstanding. It just takes practice using it and getting it set up properly makes all the difference.
Click to expand...
I am using spaces for work, especially when I work on specific tasks. They are much better than Stage Manager for that and take zero time to configure. Just select the apps that should always start on the specific space, and you are ready to go.
 
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The biggest downside for me is that it is touchpad only workflow and there is no keyboard shortcuts for using it.
but I guess it's targeted at ipad and iphone users. Not some nerds using i3 on dwm on their other machines.
 
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Stage Manager probably is the most annoying feature on new MacOS Ventura.

I immediately turned it off but I think it's still eating up some memories which is already precious since Apple only give us 8GB
 
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