This is the best tutorial I've seen for SM. It's for iPad but works pretty much the same on MacOS.
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Stage Manager is a mf-ing game changer
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That’s gotta be a Chrome issue. It’s the one program I’ve ever seen on a Mac that got to circumvent the system behavior of CMD + Q (it will tell you to hold it down to quit). So because they’re clearly not following the window management design guidelines I think it’s likely in their court to fix unfortunately.
Yeah, it need some tweaks, like the possibility to open an app in the current group, that way you can perform a simple task like you mentioned before. For now the only way is, open calc, select safari from the stage manager thumbnail, drag calc outside of stage manager or press "shift" + click calc from stage manager and the two apps will be grouped.
So I don't leave Stage Manager on all the time and it 100% has areas where I'd like it improved. HOWEVER, I am getting some utility out of it with certain projects.
For example, I'm downloading a series of Twitch streams to archive so I have a Safari window with a handful of tabs open, Downie open, and two Finder windows (for Downloads and then my external drive). I'll likely add Plex in after. All of those windows were cluttering my "main" work area with another Safari window and another application. I was about to create a new desktop and drag all the windows open, but then I'd have to swipe across three spaces as I already have a desktop created dedicated to music and a few other media apps.
Instead, I enabled Stage Manager and dragged all my Twitch project windows into a single "Stage" and can just flip between my active work and this Twitch workspace as needed on the same desktop without swiping multiple desktops. Of course I can accomplish the same thing WITH multiple desktops - so this is just another option to accomplish the same thing, but I kind of like having all of my active projects visible at once.
That said - I wish we could customize workspace "template" and didn't have to remake them manually, I don't care for the slanted 3D "pile" on the left (not sure how'd I'd change it, but I know I don't care for it), and I find the swooping animation when switching piles a bit excessive.
For example, I'm downloading a series of Twitch streams to archive so I have a Safari window with a handful of tabs open, Downie open, and two Finder windows (for Downloads and then my external drive). I'll likely add Plex in after. All of those windows were cluttering my "main" work area with another Safari window and another application. I was about to create a new desktop and drag all the windows open, but then I'd have to swipe across three spaces as I already have a desktop created dedicated to music and a few other media apps.
Instead, I enabled Stage Manager and dragged all my Twitch project windows into a single "Stage" and can just flip between my active work and this Twitch workspace as needed on the same desktop without swiping multiple desktops. Of course I can accomplish the same thing WITH multiple desktops - so this is just another option to accomplish the same thing, but I kind of like having all of my active projects visible at once.
That said - I wish we could customize workspace "template" and didn't have to remake them manually, I don't care for the slanted 3D "pile" on the left (not sure how'd I'd change it, but I know I don't care for it), and I find the swooping animation when switching piles a bit excessive.
After trying out Stage Manager for a little while so far I’d have to say I don’t really get it. It doesn’t really do much for my work flow and if anything seems to hinder it. I don’t feel like there’s anything I can do with it that can’t be done with app expose and command-tab.
Yeah I really like Stage Manager. It seems trivial, but when you install a program Stage Manager moves all the extra install windows out of the way so you focus on the current one.
Also, not having to gesture Mission Control and instead just click an icon on the left is so much quicker.
I don’t like how Stage Manager will shuffle the icons to the most recent. I would rather have them stay put so I can remember their position on the screen.
Also, not having to gesture Mission Control and instead just click an icon on the left is so much quicker.
I don’t like how Stage Manager will shuffle the icons to the most recent. I would rather have them stay put so I can remember their position on the screen.
That's a feature in Chrome, Edge and Firefox. You can easily turn it off via the application menu or app preferences of those browsers (I know in Edge, it's in the Edge menu - you just "un-check/de-select" it).
I can see where the feature could be useful to some people, particularly those who have multiple screens and a whole bunch of apps open (to prevent them from accidentally quitting the browser when they meant to quit some other app).
The fact that you’re using a key combination for window management in the first place puts you out of the realm of “typical” users.
I see it this way, Stage manager is for “normies” who don’t know how computers work, but just use them.
The more “advanced” features like Expose *still* mystify my users who I know have been working on Macs for 10+ years.
I know this sounds absurd to us, the self selected tech nerds who populate Internet forums (which should tell you from the start that we are not “normal” users), that such basic features are seemingly outside the reach of non-computer people, but that kind of user is precisely who Stage Manager is for.
No kidding. I still can't believe how many people I know (who are fairly smart people, BTW) that think hitting "that little red button in the corner of the window" Quits the app.
That’s exactly who I’m talking about. And that’s not a knock on them, there are people that understand computers (and a wide spectrum within that group) and then the vast, vast majority of people that just use them but for all intents and purposes it’s a black box that does things.
I've had so many bad experiences with new ideas lately (Modern Comments in MS Word, too much white space on my bank's website revisions) that I was very skeptical about Stage Manager on my Mac. But wow, within minutes of turning it on yesterday I understood how it reduces stress by improving focus. I have two 27" screens and in the past I used different Spaces for different functions, each with several windows open. I still use Spaces, but Stage Manager allows me to focus within each Space. Brilliant stuff. Well done, Apple.
Another nice Stage Manager feature - is that I have found that if you have it on and you get spinning wheel of death, you can click on another app and when it takes the stage, the spinning wheel doesnt infect the other app. From there you can either wait it out, or click the apple for a normal force quit (sometimes the force quit keyboard shortcut is slow to respond when the app that caused it is in the foreground).