Do you have more than one desktop in OS X Mountain Lion? If so, what is your setup?
Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
1–10 of 11 posts
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#2No. Multiple virtual desktops confuse me.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#3No. Multiple virtual desktops confuse me.
Agreed. So much better with a second monitor when I need it. Otherwise alt-tab is fine.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#4Yes absolutely. I have an 11' Air and I really like being able to transition between known desktop layouts with just a three finger swipe.
Below is a picture and description of how I keep my desktops organized.
+---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
| F | | T | |EF | |Ch | | G | |Pdf|
+---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
T = full screen terminal. I use the basic terminal included with OSX. I keep a bunch of tabs open on it. This window/desktop is the home base for my development work that touches any of my servers.
EF = Emacs and Finder. I spend a lot of time on this desktop since I use a GUI Emacs for all my local development and org-mode for all my notes/lists, etc. I also like having finder here to look for/organize files on the filesystem. This desktop is conveniently located between my terminal and webbrowser.
Ch = Google Chrome, open with documentation, tutorials, and other resources for development. This gets its own desktop since I will often keep multiple windows open with many tabs each. Each chrome window will relate to a different project that I'm working on.
G = The Gimp (also occasionally Inkscape or other image editing software)
Pdf = full screen PDFs that I'm reading like books. I could have many of these open, and I leave them open all the time so I don't loose my place.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#5I use it once in a while. My problem is that I want some apps to show up on the current desktop, while others should be tied to a specific one. Because that isn't possible (as far as I know), something like an instant messenger will constantly throw me off by switching my desktop for no good reason.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#6Yes absolutely. I have an 11' Air and I really like being able to transition between known desktop layouts with just a three finger swipe. Below is a picture and description of how I keep my desktops organized. +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ | F | | T | |EF | |Ch | | G | |Pdf| +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ F = All my "fun" windows. Chrome with facebook, hn, reddit, etc; iTunes; Other programs that I open a…
I have a 15' Mac book pro and this is almost exactly how I have it most of the time. Three finger swipes to change window is more effective than alt-tabbing for me.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#7I use it once in a while. My problem is that I want some apps to show up on the current desktop, while others should be tied to a specific one. Because that isn't possible (as far as I know), something like an instant messenger will constantly throw me off by switching my desktop for no good reason.
If you two-finger click the application, it will give you the option to assign it to a specific desktop.
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#8Yes absolutely. I have an 11' Air and I really like being able to transition between known desktop layouts with just a three finger swipe. Below is a picture and description of how I keep my desktops organized. +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ | F | | T | |EF | |Ch | | G | |Pdf| +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ F = All my "fun" windows. Chrome with facebook, hn, reddit, etc; iTunes; Other programs that I open a…
How do you keep your desktops separate? It seems that any change made in one is automatically made in the others. I have found that you can limit an application to one desktop, but if that is true, then how do you use two separate Chrome tabs in two different desktops?
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#9I use it once in a while. My problem is that I want some apps to show up on the current desktop, while others should be tied to a specific one. Because that isn't possible (as far as I know), something like an instant messenger will constantly throw me off by switching my desktop for no good reason.
If you two-finger click the application, it will give you the option to assign it to a specific desktop.
Oh that's cool, I never knew there was an "All Desktops" option. Would have saved me a bunch of grief a few days ago..
Re: Ask HN: Do you use the virtual desktops feature in OS X Mountain Lion?
#10I use it a lot in my 13" Air, I switched from PC+Ubuntu desktop to MacOS and having multiple desktops makes perfect sense to me since day one. But I've got a weird issue with multiple monitors and extended desktop, when I switch from a virtual desktop to another one, monitor shows a gray background and I can't place windows on it making multiple monitors plus virtual desktops totally useless.