Spaces is a great addition to OS X that helps you add order to all your open applications. In previous posts we explained how to get started with Spaces, how to assign an application its own Space, and then how to move from one Space to another with just your mouse.

All of those features make Spaces a great addition to OS X but Part 4 of hints and tips for getting the most of of Spaces will provide the final tip to have ultimate control over what Spaces you want your applications in.

Although you can assign an application its own Space, sometimes you just want to move a few of the open windows you’re working with to their own space. Spaces makes this easy.

We mentioned in previous article that pressing F8 (Or fn + F8 with the new Apple Keyboards) will display all your spaces at once and include an outline of the open Windows in each space.

To move one of your open application windows to a new space, press F8 and then simply click on one of the windows and drag it to the space that you’d like the window to sit in. You can have multiple windows from the same application open in different windows.

Hit return when you’re finished moving each space to its ideal window and cycle through each space to make sure the windows are where you want them to be.

We recently described a new feature in OS X Leopard, Spaces. Spaces allows users to take advantage of multiple desktop areas to help them stay organized and to de-clutter their desktop. and move application windows between each of the different desktop Spaces.

Part 1 of this tutorial explained how to enable Spaces through System Preferences. Next we’ll show you how to assign an application its own Space. Doing so opens applications to their assigned Space on every launch.

Its a great way to keep your internet browsing and media management separate from your work tasks in Microsoft Office or iWork.

Assign An Application A Space

With Spaces enabled, assigning an application a space is quick and easy. The following steps will guide you through the process of assigning an application to a Space:

1. Click the Apple Icon and open System Preferences
2. Select Expose and Spaces and then the Spaces Tab
3. Click the + button Below the Application Assignments table
4. Select an Application on your computer and then select the Space you’d like to assign that Application to.

Now that you’ve assigned an application to a Space, open the application and switch to its assigned Space to verify that it opened in the correct location. Repeat the process for all the application organization you’d like.

To see all your Spaces and what applications are open in each simply click the function key (fn) + F8. Once you’re viewing all your spaces, click the expose shortcut (F3 on new Apple Computers) to display all open windows in each Space.

Be sure to check back here at Maciverse.com for Part 3 of Getting the most out of Spaces.

Apple noticed that despite their effort to continually increase the minimum monitor size of their iMac models to 20 inches that users were struggling to have enough desktop space to keep all of their running applications organized.

To help solve this problem, Apple has enhanced the desktop with OS X 10.5 Leopard by adding the technology they have titled Spaces.

The basic idea behind Spaces is to create a number of different desktops that users can switch between to help them focus on the application they’re currently working with.

But there is more to Spaces than just additional desktop area and over the next few days we’ll help show you what Spaces can do for you with 4 tutorials on how to get the most out of Spaces.

Enabling Spaces

To take advantage of Spaces you need to have the OS X Leopard installed on your Mac. From there, enabling spaces is just a few steps away:

1. Click the Apple icon on the menu bar
2. Select System Preferences…
3. Click Expose & Spaces under the Personal Section
4. Click the Spaces tab
5. Verify the Enable Spaces box is checked
6. OPTIONAL: Click Show Spaces in Menu Bar

Switching Spaces

Now that you’ve enabled Spaces you can get a quick feel for how it works by switching between the 4 default Spaces. There are two default keyboard shortcuts that allow you quick move from one Space to another:

1. control + 1,2,3,4 – Each number represent the 4 default spaces. To move to Space 2 click and hold control and press 2.
2. control + arrow keys – To move from one space to another hold down control and press the arrow keys to move from one space to another.

Once you’ve moved to a new space you can open applications and windows that will remain in that space and will help you stay organized. Play around and get comfortable with using spaces.

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