Spaces

If you use your Mac a lot but don’t use Spaces, you should.

I’ll admit, I don’t use Spaces quite as much as I should, but sometimes it comes in quite handy.

Basically, Spaces allows you to have multiple windows open on other “screens.” The Mac OS says, “Spaces lets you organize your windows into groups to reduce desktop clutter.”

Spaces is very helpful if you need to switch quickly between two windows, and lets face it, minimizing just doesn’t cut it.

So, how do you utilize these Spaces? I’m glad you asked. Open System Preferences… (located in the Apple menu on the menu bar). Open Expose & Spaces. Make sure the Spaces tab is selected (I will talk about Expose in future posts).

First, make sure Enable Spaces is checked; if it’s not, click the box to enable Spaces.

You can also check the box beside Show Spaces in menu bar to place a box on your menu bar indicating which Space you are currently in. Clicking on this box also lets you switch directly to a particular Space, and it let’s you Open Space Preferences…

Now, by clicking the plus or minus signs, you can add or subtract rows and columns to have as little as two Spaces or as many as 16 Spaces. If you feel really bold or if you’re a super multitasker, go ahead and have 16 Spaces. Personally, that’s too much for my taste. I think 4 to 6 Spaces is a plenty. I have 4 Spaces on my Mac.

You can also add Application Assignments so every Firefox window, for example, will show up in a particular Space.

You can also assign keyboard keys and a mouse button to Switch to Spaces.

So, if you haven’t already, go ahead and enable Spaces. It’s a lot of fun, and it can make you more efficient.

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