Count me as another one that uses Spaces constantly. I've loved it since it debuted in (pretty sure) Leopard. If you haven't already, check it the heck out, peeps! You're missing one of the best and most Mac-ish things about the Mac!
For me the dealbreaker with Spaces is that I will be unceremoniously dumped out of Spaces if I press something that nobody ever presses. Esc. Geez. How the hell do I stop Spaces from dumping my window out of Spaces if I press Esc?!?!?
I've used Spaces for years, remapped my gestures, use the majority of my high-involvement apps fullscreen... I'm honestly not sure how I'd live without it.
The things that I hate most about all of it:
1. The tendency for apps to un-fullscreen themselves when hitting escape for any reason. This causes me big, huge rage. 2. The fact that when you're using multiple desktops, Cmd-Tab still looks at all apps across all desktops, not just the one you're working on. I want to find the other apps _on this desktop_ not the ones in some other location.
One feature of Spaces that they quietly killed in High Sierra (I think? Maybe it was just Sierra) was that you could drag an app from the desktop up to the Spaces bar and it would automatically become fullscreen. This was incredibly helpful because I'd launch a bunch of apps and then want to organize them into my standard ordering, but now I have to fullscreen them one-by-one and then open the Spaces view to do the reordering.
Seems to me Apple has broken Desktop Pictures for Spaces in Mojave. Used to be able to set a different picture for each Desktop (Space). You still can, but it doesn't stick. Each space is seemingly randomly set to a different picture every now and then, especially when you set a picture for a different space. Mojave seems to want to set one of the Desert pictures (day or night) when it decides to change the picture for a space. Anyone notice this behavior? Am I missing something here? Thanks.
Apple broke Spaces years ago when it decided to line them all up instead of using a grid. TotalSpaces stepped up with an app to bring back that lost functionality, but then Apple broke _that_ in Mojave by blocking it from modifying the parts of the system needed to make it work. Apple could fix this by opening up the Spaces API. I wish they would - it's so cumbersome now to move windows between spaces; TotalSpaces made it a snap.
I've always found Spaces pretty unconfusing, though I was mildly frustrated with the inability to name my spaces. I've been a Linux user for years, and that's where I developed a taste for workspaces (you've been able to name them there for years!). On my Macs, I've been using five spaces: one for Firefox (personal mail and tasks, etc.), one for Chrome (business mail and tasks, etc.), one for Atom and Gimp, one for admin stuff (Finder, etc.), and one for Spotify. Not having names wasn't really a problem, as I always remembered, for instance, that Finder was four from the left, since I always change spaces with the keyboard shortcut (CMD+left or right arrow). I guess it became a sort of physical memory, rather than a mental one.
All was good until today, when I read this, and foolishly tried the four-finger swipe up thing to create named spaces that you revealed. Sure, it did work, and foolish me, as soon as I'd created my five named spaces, I deleted my five unnamed ones. Only then did I realise that all my spaces were still full-screen, so I went to each one and clicked the green buttons to make them non-fullscreen again. Imagine my disappointment to find that I no longer had *any* spaces, and that now I have to create them all again. (I should have realised that from your last last couple of paragraphs, but didn't read them closely enough.
So now, I'm re-creating my five spaces and re-setting which apps I want to open in which spaces, and perhaps I'll also add each space's custom wallpaper.
Sometimes you should just leave well-enough alone. Nevertheless, I do look forward to Apple upgrading Spaces a bit, though if so few people are actually using it, I wonder if they won't just ditch it altogether. I hope not.
Comments
The things that I hate most about all of it:
1. The tendency for apps to un-fullscreen themselves when hitting escape for any reason. This causes me big, huge rage.
2. The fact that when you're using multiple desktops, Cmd-Tab still looks at all apps across all desktops, not just the one you're working on. I want to find the other apps _on this desktop_ not the ones in some other location.
One feature of Spaces that they quietly killed in High Sierra (I think? Maybe it was just Sierra) was that you could drag an app from the desktop up to the Spaces bar and it would automatically become fullscreen. This was incredibly helpful because I'd launch a bunch of apps and then want to organize them into my standard ordering, but now I have to fullscreen them one-by-one and then open the Spaces view to do the reordering.
All was good until today, when I read this, and foolishly tried the four-finger swipe up thing to create named spaces that you revealed. Sure, it did work, and foolish me, as soon as I'd created my five named spaces, I deleted my five unnamed ones. Only then did I realise that all my spaces were still full-screen, so I went to each one and clicked the green buttons to make them non-fullscreen again. Imagine my disappointment to find that I no longer had *any* spaces, and that now I have to create them all again. (I should have realised that from your last last couple of paragraphs, but didn't read them closely enough.
So now, I'm re-creating my five spaces and re-setting which apps I want to open in which spaces, and perhaps I'll also add each space's custom wallpaper.
Sometimes you should just leave well-enough alone. Nevertheless, I do look forward to Apple upgrading Spaces a bit, though if so few people are actually using it, I wonder if they won't just ditch it altogether. I hope not.