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One of the best features introduced in 10.5

Snow Leopard has been out there for a little while now, and most of the little things that aren’t perfect are getting worked on, I’m sure. But the introduction of Snow Leopard reminded me of a presentation I did a while back when Leopard (10.5) was introduced, and I had to quickly get all the new features down. One of the features that I tried out has been extremely useful for me since I’ve adopted it, and that’s Spaces. It took a little getting used to, but it’s been a huge productivity / organizational tool for my daily work.

So, what is “Spaces”?

Those of us who work using two displays (or more!) know how much we love having that extra screen “real estate” to work with. Need to open up some more browser windows in Safari? No problem – open it up and drag it over to the other screen so that you can refer to it while working on that proposal. If your day is like mine, you can easily have 5 – 10 open conversations going in iChat, and the 2nd screen makes it easy to park them over to the side while you’re working on something else.

So, what if you don’t have the budget to pick up a 2nd Display? One option is to enable “virtual” desktops, where you can have additional desktops available for parking those applications, documents, windows, etc. and have them run while you’re focusing on the primary display. When you want to see what’s on that other desktop, you simply tell the system that you want to look at one of the other screens and it brings it up for you. Being virtual, they’re basically free, and you’ve accomplished much of what you would by having a 2nd display attached to your computer. “Spaces” is Apple’s version of virtual desktops, but with some really cool twists on it.

An old idea updated

Virtual Desktops are really nothing new, having been around for a long time in other operating systems. I have faint memories of them being used in SCO Open Desktop, and it’s common to see them setup in the various flavors of Linux. It’s an X11 thing, and it’s survived because it’s a good idea, at least in my opinion.

Like many things in OS X, Apple did a good job of making virtual desktops easier to use, easier to setup, and easier to understand when things get going. I really like how easy it is to move from one virtual desktop to another with the arrow keys (hold down control), to drag a browser window from one virtual desktop into another, and how the desktops can automatically shuffle as things happen in each of them. For example, let’s say you’re working on a project in one Space, but you get an incoming chat message; the system switches you back to the Space that’s running iChat. If that gets annoying, you can always drag the window over to the Space you’re working in.

Getting Organized

One thing that I’ve found to be really helpful is to group similar applications into similar Spaces. You can have the system open up applications in pre-designated Spaces by entering the info in the System Preferences Pane for Expose and Spaces. Like other OS X dialogue boxes, you simply click on the Plus sign, enter in the application and choose a space for it to open up in. When you fire up the application, it automatically switches you over to the appropriate Space. The picture below shows the preferences pane:

The Expose/Spaces Preference Pane

You can tell the system how many Spaces you want to create. For me, I’ve found that 4 is sufficient, however your mileage may vary. If you do have multiple displays connected to your computer, Spaces will show two physical screens for each virtual desktop. This kinda threw me for a minute when I first saw it, but it does work. If you’re a fan of Expose keys, then you’ll be glad to know that you can see all your Spaces at one time by hitting the F8 key (unless you’ve changed it). On my setup, here’s how my screen looks when I hit the F8 key with a bunch of things running:

Showing all Spaces with F8

I like to setup my #1 Space with all my communications applications and windows (mail, iChat, iCal, Web, etc.) so that I can find them fast when things get busy. Our company also has a number of applications running in FileMaker, and these can generate a number of open windows in the course of using them, so I have all my FileMaker applications running in Space #2. These two Spaces get the most use, but I’ve also got mine setup so that Modo opens up in it’s own space, and music applications open up in another.

Moving Around

To get from one Space to another, you have some choices. You can use the F8 key which will show all the Spaces, and you can simply click on the one you want to use. This is pretty much the “Expose” approach, as it’s much like selecting applications and windows using the F9 key. Speaking of which, it has a slightly new look in Snow Leopard. Very nice…

Another way to get to a different space is to hold down the “control” key and pressing the arrow keys to move from one to the other. You’ll get a little display in the middle of the screen that shows how many spaces you have, how they’re laid out, and which one you’re currently in. When you press the arrow keys, it will move from one to the other on the little display and on the main display as well. It’s harder to explain that it is to try.

If you’ve setup applications in specific Spaces, then all you have to do is click on the application in the doc. The screen will then either open up the application in the appropriate space, or simply move to the Space if the application is already running. If you don’t have a specific space setup for an Application, then it will simply open up in whatever Space you currently inhabit. This is handier than you might think at first.

Again, if you like you can drag one window into another space. I use this a lot when I’m trying to get something done and somebody wants to have an iChat conversation. If I’m working in FileMaker and somebody wants to chat, I simply drag the chat window to the right side of the screen and it moves it over to the 2nd Space. Another common task is to open up a web site of a manufacturer so that I can snag the part number of a device, then search for it in our own inventory system. Having the website open next to the inventory database makes it easy to cut and paste, and all I had to do was drag the window over to the edge of the screen.

Summary

Again, this is not a new feature, but it’s something that’s been working for me since the Leopard release. I’m surprised more people don’t use it regularly, but I’m guessing it’s because they haven’t had a chance to set it up and tweak it. So, my suggestion is to give it a shot, think about how you might organize things, and take a couple minutes to set it up in System Preferences.