Inside the mysteries of Mission Control

#1 Macworld

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 05:01 AM

Post your comments for Inside the mysteries of Mission Control here

#2 NikoNikorocksComxfn3

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 06:04 AM

Psssttt... btw, the "multiple desktops" have been dubbed by Apple as "Spaces". For those that actually know a little bit about the subject. (Silly MacWorld.)

#3 Strawtag

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 06:09 AM

I think this article is packed with useful information. Thanks!

And for understatement of the season, I vote for this:
(..."up to 16 desktops.")
"You’ll probably find that, as a practical matter, desktop control becomes unwieldy before you reach that limit."

#4 teramezo

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 06:22 AM

Sometimes Lion feels slower than it should. Here are some possibilities.

How to speed up the Mission Control animations:
http://osxdaily.com/...tions-mac-os-x/

To speed up the fullscreen animations:
http://www.appleshee...to-guide/33855/

I would like to see Apple making these preferences easier accessible in future OS X releases. Until then I'm using the hints from above.

Maybe the editor of this article could add the question "How do I speed up animations in Lion?"

#5 Organizer

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 08:01 AM

Does anyone know why the desktops in Lion are available in a linear sequence only, in Snow Leopard one can choose for rows and columns with a max of 4 each. I use all 16, I have one "main "space" (With Devonthink and Bookends and can easily step aside for related activities in Devonthink, Safari, Finder, several Articles in Preview, Scrivener and Curio, while I have some spaces available for Mail, Ical etc. Still my 3.06 gHz Imac I3 (2010) is quick and responsive. It is not unwieldy at all, you just have to know what you're doing, I dread the step to the mountain!

#6 Scholle McFarland

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 08:39 AM

NikoNikorocksComxfn3, on 21 May 2012 - 06:04 AM, said:

Psssttt... btw, the "multiple desktops" have been dubbed by Apple as "Spaces". For those that actually know a little bit about the subject. (Silly MacWorld.)

Though Lion's Mission Control lets you work with multiple workspaces much like Spaces did in previous versions of the Mac OS, the two don't have exactly the same features. You can use a $12 utility called TotalSpaces (previously named ReSpaceApp) to make Mission Control work more like Spaces if you want some of that functionality back.

#7 Organizer

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 08:57 AM

Scholle McFarland, on 21 May 2012 - 08:39 AM, said:

NikoNikorocksComxfn3, on 21 May 2012 - 06:04 AM, said:

Psssttt... btw, the "multiple desktops" have been dubbed by Apple as "Spaces". For those that actually know a little bit about the subject. (Silly MacWorld.)

Thank you very much, I missed that one completely. And a whole community too share commiserations with that!

#8 HaiWooTanixld

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 09:14 AM

The "weirdest and strangest" thing is, with all the advances and new features of each newer Mac OS X version, I have yet to really make use of Spaces/Mission Controls. I am so use to just shrinking any unuse app for the moment into the Dock

#9 craydale

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 12:25 PM

The article missed the main feature of Mission Control - it is broken by design.

Lion introduced the idea of applications reopening the windows they had open when they were quit; and of reopening all your apps when you log back in.

Now open a few applications and arrange their windows nicely on your different desktops, say a desktop for each of a number of tasks you are working on.

Now log out and log back in again - a quick way to quit everything.

Lion will open all your apps, and all their windows, and all on the first desktop. What a mess.

To call this borked is being kind. What were they thinking?

#10 scottbayes

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 01:49 PM

craydale, on 21 May 2012 - 12:25 PM, said:

I've submitted feedback to Apple a few times, requesting that Space/Desktop assignments be remembered and restored (if those Spaces/Desktops still exist) when the app is relaunched. Having to manually move Finder and Safari windows to the desired Spaces/Desktops is the number 1 reason I hate logging out or shutting down.

Submit your feedback on this issue at http://www.apple.com/feedback/

#11 elroth

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 02:05 PM

"Just grab the window by its title bar as if you were going to move it, and press the keyboard shortcut for moving left or right in your desktop line-up (the defaults are Control-Left Arrow and Control-Right Arrow)."

That's a pretty funny visual on a 15" laptop - grab on to the title bar with one hand, then try to press Control-Right Arrow with the other. Or maybe you could grab the title bar with the right index finger, hold down Control with a finger on the left hand, and at the same time slide the right little finger out to hit the Arrow key.

#12 elroth

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 02:08 PM

The default key combination for moving spaces in Snow Leopard is Command-Right or Left Arrow (instead of Control-). That's a bit easier.

#13 SharonZardetto

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Posted 21 May 2012 - 02:26 PM

NikoNikorocksComxfn3, on 21 May 2012 - 06:04 AM, said:

Psssttt... btw, the "multiple desktops" have been dubbed by Apple as "Spaces". For those that actually know a little bit about the subject. (Silly MacWorld.)

I find that most of Apple's references to desktops as "Spaces" are items left from pre-Lion OS that actually used Spaces. Apple's Help system is not only ugly and slow, but also not thoroughly updated. Same with its Preferences - there's a ref to "spaces" but also one to Exposé in one spot and to "application windows" in another. It's a mess. With Mission Control thumbnails labeled as Desktops, not Spaces, and many references in Apple's stuff to "desktops" - it makes more sense to stick with the newer nomenclature than to confuse either newbies who never used Spaces as a separate entity or oldies who need to transition to Lion terminology. (silly me)