topic Re: mac "spaces" in Collaboration with other software

mac "spaces"

Erika Epstein — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:24:41 GMT

Would any care to share how they are using spaces on the mac?
thanks in advance,

Re: mac "spaces"

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:30:44 GMT

Pretty simple usage for me. I have dual monitors and have the space below my main desktop set up to be where my Parallels Windows XP VM lives. (You can assign applications to any space [default] or one particular Space.) I have my Stickies set up to show in all Spaces, so that my desktop looks the same in both.

I may run apps in either space... but of course, ArchiCAD doesn't work with Spaces (see other threads), so I have to be careful about switching spaces if AC is running, depending on what it is doing. I would probably use spaces more if AC behaved properly. (There are some reports that some erratic spaces behavior are issues on Apple's side, in GS's defense.)

Cheers,
Karl

Re: mac "spaces"

Dwight — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:25:51 GMT

Sometimeiusethemtokeepwordsapart.

Re: mac "spaces"

Karl Ottenstein — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:17:54 GMT

Dwight wrote:
Sometimeiusethemtokeepwordsapart.

Re: mac "spaces"

Erika Epstein — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:35:11 GMT

Karl wrote:
Dwight wrote:
Sometimeiusethemtokeepwordsapart.

Re: mac "spaces"

Eduardo Rolon — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:06:38 GMT

Mostly Arranged by tasks

S01= AC, SketchUp
S02= Modo, C4D, Artlantis
S03= Adobe CS 3
S04= Mail, Yojimbo, Yep, MailSteward
S05= Safari, NetNewsWire, Firefox
S06= iWork, Office
S07= Things, On the Job, Superdupper!!
S08= Fusion, Final Cut Studio
S09= Activity Monitor, Console, Terminal

all spaces= iTunes, Quicktime, Finder, VLC, Nice Player, Preview

Re: mac "spaces"

Dwight — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:56:06 GMT

So real answer now:

Spaces: Not at all. They seem closed off from one another.

I have so much going on right now with an Archicad project, a public art pitch [Word], the Artlantis book with writing [Word], illustrating [Artlantis and Photoshop and Bridge] and laying out each book article [InDesign]. Then there's research and communication where I'm extracting things from Safari and Mail. It is a big mess on the desktop - the one space I'm using has around fifty windows open.

I manage all this mess with Command-Tab. This function spreads open application icons in a band across mid-screen - twenty-two open right now. It makes it easy to toggle between the last used application that is a frequent demand of mine. It USED to be that when an application came forward ALL of its windows did, but now individual windows interleave beautifully.

Re: mac "spaces"

vistasp — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:14:36 GMT

Are you guys referring to what Win/Lin users call "virtual desktops"?

Re: mac "spaces"

Eduardo Rolon — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 12:24:57 GMT

Yes.

Re: mac "spaces"

Chazz — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:54:45 GMT

Dwight wrote:
I manage all this mess with Command-Tab.

This feature was stolen by Apple from Windoze, yet I'm amazed at how few users of either platform actually use it. Command-Tab rocks.

I'm a fellow non spaces user, and proud of it.

Re: mac "spaces"

vistasp — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:20:24 GMT

Chazz wrote:
This feature was stolen by Apple from Windoze

You mean Steven actually copied something from William?

Re: mac "spaces"

Karl Ottenstein — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:03:12 GMT

I never found any of the Windows virtual desktops as functional as Spaces, which has an Expose-like view that permits seeing all desktops for switching, but also for dragging any window from any desktop to another.

But, still, if I did not have a button of my multibutton Logitech mouse assigned to display spaces, combined with ctrl-arrows for switching, I probably wouldn't use them either. I use cmd-tab often as well. Speaking of which - alt-tab on windows can be made a lot more functional with the 'alt-tab replacement' powertoy from Microsoft downloaded from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/Downloads/powertoys/Xppowertoys.mspx
gives you a thumbnail of the other windows, rather than just an icon. Also, Microsoft's version of a virtual desktop manager.

Cheers,
Karl

Re: mac "spaces"

Erika Epstein — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:36:13 GMT

vistasp wrote:
Are you guys referring to what Win/Lin users call "virtual desktops"?

Thanks all of you for sharing. I too didn't know about the virtual desktops that Vistasp mentioned.
Karl, thanks as always for giving such an instructional overview of both.

Re: mac "spaces"

vistasp — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:39:47 GMT

Apart from the link that Karl gave, windows users interested in a Virtual Desktop Manager might want to read descriptions of these two applications.

The first, Dexpot, is free for personal use (10 Euros for commercial use) and is a very polished product. The second, VirtuaWin, is hosted on Sourceforge. Typically, it is very powerful with lots of plugins etc. but needs some figuring out to use. Both are better than Microsoft's offering which I found a bit buggy.

I've tried using different virtual desktops in the past but have always reverted to plain old Alt-Tab. Maybe it's just the way I work.