Spaces have been extremely useful for me and my tiny 17-inch iMac. My screen is small so I get lost with open applications all the time. That’s why I’ve started using Spaces and dropping at least one application into each Space. So here’s a little tutorial and description of my Spaces setup:
1. In the Dock, click on System Preferences.
2. In the System Preferences window, click on Exposé & Spaces
3. Setup Spaces. Now you’re ready to set up your Spaces any way you like, but first you need to enable Spaces. Just click the check box next to Enable Spaces to turn them on.
4. Spaces icon in the Menu Bar. If you’d like to see the Spaces icon in the Menu Bar, just check the box next to Show Spaces in menu bar (up by the clock). This option gives you a quick way to switch spaces by clicking the icon, then the Space you’d like to view. Easy.
5. Rows & Columns. To add or remove rows and columns, click the plus (+) and minus (-) signs in the black area. You can have just 2 Spaces or up to 16. I go with four because I don’t use many applications at once and it’s easy to manage and remember which Space holds a specific application.
6. Application Assignments. I don’t mess with this area, but feel free to fool around with it. All it does is assign current applications to a specific Space. You can do this much easier and quicker by dragging and dropping applications when in the “Spaced-Out” view of your Spaces.
7. Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts. The only options I changed are the To Activate Spaces dropdown menus. The first one I set to blank because I don’t use the F-keys, and the second option I set to Middle Mouse Button because I use a two-button mouse with a clickable scroll wheel. This setup lets me click down on the scroll wheel to show all my Spaces. Feel free to set it up however it works best for you.
8. Drag & Drop Applications. Now that your Spaces are set up, you can open a few applications and drag & drop them when in the “Spaced-Out” view.
P.S. Spaces is only available in the newest version of Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard: Order today and get free shipping at the Apple Store!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Almost good. At #6 everything fell apart. Didn’t show HOW to set up spaces. Geezzzzz
I have 4 accounts with the same website each account has a different password, when setting up spaces it is ok but when I reopen the website it keeps going back to the last account I closed so I have to setup my other accounts again in the other 3 spaces spaces remembers the website but not the different accounts