Mission control 101 how to use multiple desktops on a mac

Do you open vast numbers of windows on your Mac? Had trouble keeping track of any of them? Then you need to know about Mission Control, which displays all of your windows currently open, and then gives you ways to arrange them. Here, you will learn how to create and use multiple desktops on Mac.

Thus one of your Mac’s most powerful features is its ability to have multiple desktops. But there are a lot of Mac users who don’t know about this feature and could really use it. It is particularly useful if you have only one screen, as do most MacBook or iMac users. You can use this to simulate multiple displays and it can help you clean up your workspace and make it more efficient. So, here’s how to create and use multiple desktops on Mac.

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How to Create and Use Space (Mission Control/Space)

Meanwhile, on your Mac, you can use Mission Control to have several virtual desktops for yourself. Each desktop will display different windows of the application to make it appear as if you have more than one display. Some desktops can have full-screen windows or split view windows.

If the desktop on your Mac is cluttered with open app windows, you can use Mission Control to create additional desktops, called spaces, to organize windows. When you’re operating in a room, you see only the openings that are in that area.

Furthermore, Often this feature is called Mission Control. It is called Spaces, often. Others call it Multiple Desktops or use a number of desktops on a Mac.

Create Spaces on Mac

You can access multiple desktops in a number of ways:

Step 1. To create a space or desktop, Press Control + Up arrow or Swipe upwards on your trackpad with three or four fingers.

The easiest way to start Mission Control is by pressing the Mission Control key on your keyboard – this is typically the F3 key.

The main Mission Control window shows all of your open tabs, programs, and windows, but you can also see all of your desktops towards the top of the panel. By default, macOS has a single desktop, that appears in the Mission Control toolbar as a thumbnail.

Create Multiple Desktops on Mac

Step 2. To add a second additional desktop, simply click the “+” at the top right-hand corner. After clicking the “+” icon the second desktop will appear as “Desktop 2″.

Create Spaces on Mac

You can create as many desktops as you want by clicking the “+” icon, for instance, a desktop for taking notes and a desktop for browsing or watching videos.

How to Move Applications Between Desktops

If you’ve created two or more desktops, you can run apps separately of each desktop, e.g. if you move to Desktop 2 and then launch pages, then the Pages app will only appear on Desktop 2.

You can also migrate already open applications which are especially useful if your original desktop is out of reach. For instance, if you wanted to switch an app from Desktop 1 to Desktop 2 then you would have to. Here’s how to move apps from one desktop to another desktop:

Step 1. Make sure you’re in Desktop 1.

Step 2. Launch Mission Control by pressing the F3 key or Control + Up arrow.

Step 3. Find the app and drag it onto the Desktop 2 icon or Desktop 3 icon.

Create Multiple Desktops on Mac

How to Switch Between Desktops

After creating several desktops on Mac, it’s time to learn how to switch between desktops. You should only open Mission Control to switch between desktops and then click on the desktop you want to access. However, it is much easier to use the Control + Right Arrow and Control + Left Arrow keyboard shortcuts or to swipe three fingers to either left or right. These will move your desktops automatically.

• On a trackpad, swipe left or right with three or four fingers.
• Press the Control key and the Right or Left arrow key.
• Press Control + Up Arrow, move the pointer to the top edge of the screen, then click a desktop.

How Do I Get Rid of Multiple Desktops on Mac?

• Press Control + Up arrow or Swipe upwards on your trackpad with three or four fingers to open Mission Control.
• Place the mouse pointer over the desktop icon you want to delete, then click the Delete button “×” that appears.

What is a Virtual Desktop?

A virtual desktop can be compared to a multi-monitor screen, each part of the “desktop” total. So basically this will offer multiple Desktops to your Computer.

Your mouse and apps can switch from one monitor to the other, which essentially allows you much more workroom (the use of multiple monitors has been around for decades on a Mac this way). Imagine getting Phrase, Excel, and your eMail program all open, and you can see them all in full size at a glance, without having to turn windows around.

Wrapping Up

This is how you can create and use multiple desktops (Space) on a Mac. By creating multiple desktops on, you can easily organize your tasks much easier. You can use note-taking apps in one desktop and doing some Word or Excel tasks in another desktop. Overall, it’s a handy feature to use, if you’re a multi-tasking person.

Even if you feel like you’re most productive when you’re multi-tasking, you don’t want to get to the point where you have so many apps open that you seem to spend most of your time hunting down a particular window.

If this sounds familiar, then in this article I’m going to show you how to make your multi-tasking slightly less chaotic, by organizing your windows into multiple, self-contained desktops.

Create Multiple Desktops

You access the multiple desktop feature via macOS’ Mission Control. Depending on your model of Mac and how it’s setup, there’s several ways that you can access Mission Control:

• Press the ‘F3’ key on your keyboard, or use the ‘Control + Up’ shortcut.
• Select the ‘Mission Control’ icon in your Mac’s Dock (where available).
• Swipe upwards on your trackpad with three or four fingers.

The main Mission Control window displays all your open tabs, applications and windows, but towards the top of the screen you’ll also find all your desktops. By default, macOS has a single desktop, which appears as a thumbnail in the Mission Control toolbar.

You can create additional desktops, by clicking the ‘+’ icon (where the cursor is positioned in the following screenshot).

Once you’ve created at least two desktops, you can switch between these desktops by selecting the corresponding thumbnail in the Mission Control toolbar. To switch back to your original desktop, simply launch Mission Control and then select ‘Desktop 1’ from the toolbar.

You can create as many desktops as you want by clicking the ‘+’ icon, for example you may want to create a desktop for work and a desktop for all those distractions that keep you away from work; or desktops dedicated to specific tasks such as a desktop for making notes and a desktop for working on your first draft.

Moving applications between desktops

Once you’ve created two or more desktops, you can launch applications in each desktop independently, for example if you switch to Desktop 2 and then launch Pages, then the Pages app will appear in Desktop 2 only.

You can also relocate applications that are already open, which is particularly useful if your original desktop has got out of control. For example, if you wanted to move an app from Desktop 1 to Desktop 2, then you’d need to:

• Make sure you’re currently viewing Desktop 1.
• Launch Mission Control.
• Find the application you want to relocate, and drag it onto the Desktop 2 icon.

Mastering Mission Control’s Multi-Desktop

Once you’ve got to grips with the essentials of creating and managing multiple desktops, there’s some additional tricks that can help turn you into a multi-desktop power user.

1. Switch between desktops with ease

Mission Control provides a hub where you can create additional desktops, and then drag and drop applications between these desktops. However, once you’ve finished with this prep work, why not cut out the middle-man and switch between desktops directly?

You can move to the “next” desktop in the series (i.e move from Desktop 1 to Desktop 2), by pressing the ‘Control + Right’ keys, and you can switch to the “previous” desktop (move from Desktop 2 to Desktop 1), by pressing the ‘Control + Left’ keys.

2. Assign applications to specific desktops

If you’ve created desktops for very specific purposes, then you might want to assign certain applications to each desktop, so that they always launch on their assigned desktop. This can also help ensure you don’t get distracted – even if you give into temptation and try to launch Safari from your “work” desktop, it won’t appear in this desktop if you’ve assigned it to your “distractions” desktop.

To assign an app to a specific desktop:

• Make sure you’re viewing the Desktop where you want to assign this application.
• Launch the application in question.
• Control-click the application’s icon in the Dock.
• Select ‘Options > This Desktop.’

If you want to restore the application’s default behaviour at any point, then simply repeat the above steps, but this time select ‘Options > All Desktops.’

3. Using Multiple Desktops with fullscreen mode

You can view most apps in fullscreen mode by clicking the little green icon towards that app’s upper-right corner (where the cursor is positioned in the following screenshot).

In fullscreen mode, the Mac menu bar, application toolbar and Dock all disappear, and the application window takes up every pixel of available screen space. This mode may give you a fullscreen experience, but it does make it difficult to switch between applications – unless you use Mission Control’s multiple desktop feature.

macOS treats fullscreen applications as stand-alone desktops. If you put an application into fullscreen mode and then launch Mission Control, you’ll see that this application appears in the toolbar, as though it’s an additional desktop.

By combining multiple desktops, fullscreen apps and keyboard shortcuts, you can switch between fullscreen applications with ease. Simply put two or more apps into fullscreen mode, and then switch between them by pressing ‘Control + Right/Left.’ Alternatively, you can place one app in fullscreen mode, and then have your ‘normal’ desktop, and switch between the two using the ‘Control + Right/Left’ shortcut.

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Mission Control offers a bird’s-eye view of all your open windows, desktop spaces, and any apps in full screen or Split View, making it easy to switch between them.

Open Mission Control

• Swipe up with three or four fingers on your trackpad, or double-tap the surface of your Magic Mouse with two fingers.
• Open the Mission Control app, which is in your Applications folder.
• Press the Mission Control key on your Apple keyboard or Touch Bar.

Add spaces and switch between them

The Spaces bar at the top of the Mission Control window contains thumbnails of each desktop space and each window that is in full screen or Split View.

To add a space, move your pointer to the Spaces bar, then click the add button on the right:

When you have multiple spaces, you can switch between them by clicking the thumbnails the top of the Mission Control window. Or use these methods, which work even when you’re not in Mission Control:

• Swipe left or right with three or four fingers on your trackpad, or swipe left or right with two fingers on your Magic Mouse.
• Press Control–Right Arrow or Control–Left Arrow on your keyboard.

Move windows to spaces

When you have more than one space, you can move windows to and from each space. Just drag the window onto the other space’s thumbnail in the Spaces bar.

If you drag a window onto an empty area of the Spaces bar, that window opens in full screen in its own new space:

If you drag a window onto the thumbnail of a full-screen app, that window joins the other window in Split View:

Move or remove spaces

To move a space, drag its thumbnail to the left or right of another space in the Spaces bar.

To remove a space, press and hold the Option key, then click or next to the space’s thumbnail in the Spaces bar. Any windows in that space then automatically move to your first desktop space.

Justin Pot has been writing about technology for over a decade, with work appearing in Digital Trends, The Next Web, Lifehacker, MakeUseOf, and the Zapier Blog. He also runs the Hillsboro Signal, a volunteer-driven local news outlet he founded. Read more.

If your Mac has multiple monitors, and you run Windows inside macOS using Parallels, you know how great a full-screen virtual machine on the second display can be. It’s almost like you’ve got two computers using the same mouse and keyboard: one running Windows, the other running macOS.

But sometimes you only need Windows, meaning your second display isn’t doing anything for you. And as it turns out, it’s possible to use both displays for your virtual machine, allowing you to multitask in Windows the same way you do in macOS.

To get started, open the Parallels Control Center. Make sure your Windows virtual machine is shut down (not suspended), then click the gear icon.

This will open up the settings for your virtual machine. Head to the Options tab, then the Full Screen section.

Here you’ll see the option to “Use all displays in full screen.” Check this. By default a second option, “Activating virtual machine shows all its spaces,” is also checked; we’ll get back to that later, but for now you can leave it checked.

Once you’ve changed the settings, start up your virtual machine, then click the green Full Screen button.

The virtual machine will launch in full screen on both displays.

You can switch back and forth between Windows and macOS in Mission Control.

By default, switching to Windows on one display will also switch the other display over. If you use the default Mission Control settings, you likely won’t even notice this happening, but if you’ve enabled the “Displays have seperate spaces” option in Mission Control, this can be jarring.

To make Parallels behave like the rest of your programs, head back to the virtual machine’s settings and toggle the “Activating virtual machine shows all its spaces” option we talked about earlier. You may occasionally lose track of a Windows program and feel confused, which is probably why Parallels doesn’t make this the default, but it’s good to have the option.

Multiple displays aren’t just for Windows: the feature works with any virtual machine you can get up and running in Parallels. Here’s how it looks on my desk with Ubuntu.

You can even enable this feature in the the free version of Parallels, called Parallels Desktop Lite, so any Mac-owning Linux fans who want to give this a try don’t even need to pay for Parallels.

Geoffrey_Carr

Sok ablakot nyit a Mac-jén? Valaha gondolja, hogy nyomon követi mindet? Akkor tudnia kell a Mission Control-ról, amely megmutatja az összes jelenleg nyitott ablakot, majd megadja azokat a módokat, amelyekkel megszervezheti őket.

A Mission Control egyike azoknak a Mac-funkcióknak, amelyeket könnyű figyelmen kívül hagyni, de mindent megtesz, ha megtudod róla, főként a több asztali funkció miatt. A mester ezeket használva, és a gyors módja annak, hogy váltson köztük, és akkor csodálkozni fog, hogy valaha is használta a Mac-et más módon.

A Mission Control megnyitása

Számos asztali számítógépet többféle módon is elérhet. A hozzáféréshez csúsztassa ujját három vagy négy ujjal a trackpadon – az ujjainak száma, amelyeket használni szeretne, attól függ, hogyan állította be a trackpadot. Egyszerűen csak érintse meg az F3 gombot a Macen, a Mission Control ikonon a dokkban vagy a billentyűzeten a Control + Up billentyűk lenyomásával.

Az új MacBook Pro-on lévő érintőképernyőn nincs ilyen gomb a Control Stripen, de tetszés szerint hozzáadhat egy gombot.

Miután megnyitotta a Mission Control funkciót, megmutatja az összes nyitott ablakot, így könnyebben átválthat közöttük. Ez hasonló az Exposé nevű funkcióhoz, amely a macOS régebbi verzióiban szerepel, de ma már a tetején több asztali szolgáltatás is érdekel.

Több asztal használata a Mission Control alkalmazásban

Vigye az egeret a képernyő tetejére, ahol az “Asztal 1” és az “Asztal 2” felirat olvasható, és két asztali számítógépet fog látni.

Igazából az ablakokat húzhatja az egyik asztali számítógépre, ha szeretné, akkor kattintson rá az ablakra.

Számos asztali számítógéppel megszervezheti a munkafolyamatot, lehetővé téve, hogy olyan dolgokat hajtson végre, mint egy asztalon végzett kutatás, miközben egy másikra ír. És annyi asztalt is hozzáadhat, amennyit csak szeretnél, a “+” gombra a jobb szélen.

Az asztali gépek közötti váltáshoz csak a Mission Controlt lehet megnyitni, majd kattintson a megnyitni kívánt asztalra. Sokkal gyorsabban használhatja a Control + Right és a Control + Left billentyűkódokat, vagy három ujját balra vagy jobbra. Mindkettő azonnal átkapcsolja az asztalokat, és kellemes dicséret a korábban említett billentyűzet és egérmutatókhoz.

Ha azt szeretné, hogy egy adott alkalmazás mindig jelenjen meg egy adott asztalon vagy akár minden asztalon, egyszerűen kattintson jobb gombbal a dokk ikonra, majd lépjen a Beállítások almenübe.

Innen lehet hozzárendelni egy alkalmazást egy adott asztalhoz, vagy akár megjelenhet minden asztalon.

Teljes képernyős alkalmazások

De várj . még több van. Tudja a teljes képernyős gombot? Ez a zöld minden ablak bal felső részében.

Kattintson erre a gombra és az aktuális alkalmazás teljes képernyős módba lép, ami azt jelenti, hogy a dokk és a menüsor eltűnik, és az aktuális ablak veszi fel a teljes képernyőt.

Lehet, hogy úgy gondolod, hogy nem használhatsz más programokat, ha a teljes képernyős mód aktív, vagy nem tudsz két programot egyszerre teljes képernyőn megjeleníteni, de kiderül, hogy a Mission Control mindezt lehetővé teszi. Amíg a Mission Control-ban vagy, a teljes képernyős alkalmazás saját desktopként működik; az összes jelenlegi asztal jobb oldalán található.

A teljes képernyős alkalmazás által elfoglalt területhez húzhatja az ablakokat is.

Ez lehetővé teszi két teljes képernyős alkalmazás futtatását egymás mellé, az úgynevezett megosztott nézet módban.

Ez akkor tökéletes, ha csak annyi helyet szeretne, amennyit csak lehet, csak két alkalmazással dolgozhat, például amikor magas színvonalú webhelyet böngész és jegyzeteket készít.

A Mission Control konfigurálása

A Mission Control többnyire konfiguráció nélkül működik, de lehetséges, hogy néhány dolog róla bosszant. Menj a Rendszerbeállításokhoz, majd a Küldetésvezérlés szakaszba.

Innen megtalálja a Mission Control főbb lehetőségeit

Íme egy gyors lebontás, amit ezek a lehetőségek:

• Alapértelmezés szerint a Mission Control automatikusan rendezi a helyeket, az alapján, hogy mit gondol. Ez nagyon zavaros lehet, ezért kapcsolja ki a “Automatikus átrendezés a legfrissebb felhasználási területeken” opciót, ha folyamatosan elveszíti az ablakok nyomvonalát.
• Ha a Command + Tab parancsát használja, akkor valószínűleg át akarsz ugrani egy aktív ablakra. A “Kapcsolódás egy alkalmazásba, váltson át egy nyílt ablakkal rendelkező területre az alkalmazáshoz” biztosítja, hogy ez akkor is megtörténik, ha az ablak egy másik asztalon van.
• A “Csoportos ablakok alkalmazással” opció, ha be van jelölve, biztosítja, hogy az ugyanazon alkalmazásból több ablak jelenjen meg egymás mellett a Mission Control alkalmazásban.
• A “Kijelzőknek külön terek” opciója több monitort tartalmazó számítógépekre vonatkozik. Alapértelmezés szerint az asztali gépek átkapcsolása egy másik kijelzőn is meg fogja változtatni a másikat, de ezzel az opcióval ellenőrizni fogja, hogy minden kijelző rendelkezik-e saját asztali számítógéppel.
• Végül bekapcsolhatja a haszontalan irányítópultot, akár saját térként, akár fedvényként.

Az alábbi lehetőségek közül megadhat egyéni billentyűzetet és egérmutatókat a Mission Control indításához.

Question

I use a remote desktop on my mac for work. I am wanting to get it to use all the desktops i have in mission control as it works for the mac desktops. It’s like having multiple monitors that you can swipe with your fingers between. Anyone know how to do this? I have already right clicked the app and selected use all monitors. This will mirror the remote on all the desktops but not use them as their own monitor.

All replies

According to your description, it seems that you want to open a connection with the MS RDP for Mac app in a dual-monitor setting.

Please try the custom full screen mode and see how it works. The custom full screen mode enables the multi-monitor feature.

To change the full screen mode, edit a remote desktop connection and select an option from the drop down menu for the “Full screen mode.”

Also check if you have disabled “Displays have separate Spaces” in Mavericks (System Preferences > Mission Control) go to Preferences > Resolutionin the Microsoft Remote Desktop client and configure
the setting using the same option.

Meanwhile, please check the information in the link below:

How do I switch between desktops and full screen apps when accessing a remote machine via Screen Sharing?

Please Note: Since the website is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Check out How To Use Multiple Desktops On Your Mac at YouTube for closed captioning and more options.

Comments: 32 Responses to “How To Use Multiple Desktops On Your Mac”

I’ve been using Mac’s for years. I STILL learn something almost every time I watch one of your videos!

You said: “If you click on an icon (?) on the Dock …” at 10:48, what do you click on?

Jacques: I say “If you control click on an icon in the Dock…” So any icon in the Dock.

I have a iMac purchased in December 2018. It does not support multiple windows. It appears that II can not create multiple desktops

Riley: It definitely can. What are you trying (steps) and where is it going wrong?

Gary, as usual a great presentation. When I control click on a Dock icon, under options I only get All desktops This desktop or None. what am I doing wrong?

Whitehead: Switch to the Desktop you want to use for that app first, then choose This Desktop.

Why does it not show the same options you show in the presentation??

Terrific – I am so glad to see how this works. On a few occasions my laptop automatically has gone to another screen when in full screen mode. I could not exit with esc. I discovered that clicking on one of the apps that’s open on the original brought me back to the original screen. I see how to have the screens with the 3 finger swipe. Thank you so much!!

Whitehead: Which options? What is the time in the video you are talking about? Also, which version of macOS are you using?

10:48 in the video. I am running Catalina 10.15.5 The video shows Display 1….4

Raymond: It shows 1, 2 and 3 because I have 3 displays (I say that right at that point in the video). If you only have one display it will just show 1, not 3 of them.

Hi Gary, Great video, I’ve been using multiple desktops since SCO Xenix days, (showing my age). Q. I have a use case where I want to perform functions of work in a particular desktop e.g. Monday Morning: Open Numbers > open spreadsheet, then Open Browser > Navigate to bank account > log into account > copy balances to Numbers. Obviously some of this is manual copying, however, how much could you automate opening of files and apps in a specific desktop?

Gary, great video, thank you. It would be great to have this shown in the context of multiple screens and multiple desktops. I have a 27″ Monitor on my 27″ iMac and get so confused how things work between them, especially when using the command-tab app switcher, it often feels a little random as to which screen the app switches too, even though the iMac is the primary monitor. Thank you for your help.

Hi Gary; love your Macmost videos. When I try to create another desktop by clicking the + button, I get an exact duplicate of all the folders that were on the original desktop, In your example, the new desktop is empty, and this would be far more useful. What am I doing wrong?

Chris: That’s all going to be difficult to automate. I’d really think about how long it takes you vs how long it will take you to learn the coding and tools you need (not sure of your current level) and work on a solution. Even then it will only be semi-automatic and need regular updates as things change. Probably not worth it.

Ian: For multiple screens you really need to pay attention to the settings I show in the video in System Preferences. There is a logic to it, but you’ve got to understand that based on your settings there.

Terry: The files and folders on the Desktop are what his in your Desktop folder in the file system. You’ll see those on all of your desktops. That’s separate from the app windows that I am mostly discussing here. If you want the Desktop to not have those, then move them all into your Documents folder and keep your Desktop clean and empty like I do.

Hi Gary, I just want to add that you can move windows between multiple desktops by dragging them to the left or right screen edges.

Something you didn’t mention + a tip:
You can also switch between desktops by swiping with 2 fingers on the Magic Mouse.
And…I use 6 desktops to which I have assigned certain apps. I can distinguish between those desktops easily because I have assigned different background picture to each one.

Good info, Gary;
I have an 2017 iMac with 4.2 GHz, quad-core i7, 40 GB of RAM and an 8 GB video card.
I have 16 desktops that are all used. Ctl + [1-0] will move focus to one of 10 desktops numbered 1 to 0. Ctl + Opt + [1-6] will move focus to one one of 6 desktops numbered 11 to 16. Don’t know why the difference in available desktops. Never bothered to check. I have looked to see if there is a hidden command to add more desktops, but, alas . . .

Thought your viewers might like to have this

When I control-click on a Dock icon, Option, I do not see any desktop assignment options.

coachbb94: Do you have a second desktop? The options won’t appear if you aren’t using more than one.

I really like the idea of using mission control. However, using Control-up arrow does NOT activate mission control. I have to click on the icon in the dock. I think I’m missing a setting somewhere. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
Note: I’m using an Apple bluetooth keyboard.

IdahoGuy: Maybe you switched off or changed the default shortcut. Check in System Preferences, Keyboard, Shortcuts, Mission Control.

Thanks Gary. I didn’t think to look there. Yes, they were changed. Don’t remember changing them (comes with old age). Restored the defaults and works great. 🙂

Gary, just wanted to mention that creating a desktop for each app I have open in a maximized window, it names each desktop based on that app. ex Safari, Mail etc. Then when you move the desktops around the name stays with the desktop, as opposed to having Desktop 1, 2 etc. Thought some folks might wanna try that configuration.

Nick: Yes. Those are called “Full Screen Apps” as opposed to Desktops though. You don’t really have a desktop there as the app is everything.

I just got a new macbook air and I use google chrome as my browser. On my pervious macbooks, I used desktops to be signed in to one google account and then another google account for work in a new window. I would keep them separate by desktops. For some reason, now when I drag my other google chrome window to a new desktop, it mirrors across all desktops and it’s letting me place one window in one desktop and one in another. Any tips? is there a new place to configure this and I’m missing it?

Mary: Mac Desktops don’t do anything special with Chrome and Google accounts. These are just separate windows whether or not they are windows on the same Desktop or you are using them on different Desktops or they are full-screen windows. Not sure what you mean by “mirrors” — you see the exact some thing in each Chrome window? Either way, it is a Chrome issue, or maybe a Google account issue and nothing to do with Desktops. Maybe Google changed how you can log into multiple accounts at the same time?

Is there a way to save my mulitple desktop layouts? I love using it, but when I restart my computer, I have to set them all back up again.

Robin: No. But, first, you shouldn’t need to restart your Mac on a regular basis. Second, if you have your System Preferences set to not close windows when you quit an app, then it should relaunch those windows when you restart, and things should return to how they were, more or less.

Geoffrey_Carr

Åpner du mange vinduer på din Mac? Har du noen gang problemer med å holde styr på dem alle? Deretter må du vite om Mission Control, som viser alle dine åpne vinduer, og gir deg muligheter til å organisere dem.

Mission Control er en av de Mac-funksjonene som er lett å ignorere, men gjør alt bedre når du lærer om det, hovedsakelig på grunn av funksjonen for flere skrivebord. Master bruker dem, og de raske måtene å bytte mellom dem, og du vil lure på hvordan du noen gang brukte Macen din på en annen måte.

Hvordan åpne Mission Control

Du kan få tilgang til flere skrivebord på en rekke måter. For å få tilgang til den, sveip opp med tre eller fire fingre på styreflaten. Antall fingre du må bruke, avhenger av hvordan du har styresporet opprettet. Du kan også bare trykke på F3-knappen på din Mac, Mission Control-ikonet i dokken, eller ved å trykke på Control + Up på tastaturet.

Berøringslinjen på nye MacBook Pros har ikke en slik knapp på kontrollstripen, men du kan legge til en knapp hvis du vil.

Når du åpner Mission Control, vil det vise deg alle dine åpne vinduer, så det er lettere å bytte mellom dem. Dette ligner på en funksjon som heter Exposé, som er omtalt i eldre versjoner av macOS, men i dag er vi interessert i flere skrivebordssystemer langs toppen.

Bruke flere skrivebord i oppdragskontroll

Flytt musen til toppen av skjermen, der det står “Skrivebord 1” og “Skrivebord 2”, og du vil se to skriveborker avslørt.

Du kan faktisk dra vinduer til en av disse skrivebordene, hvis du vil, så bytt til vinduet ved å klikke på det.

Med flere skrivebord kan du organisere arbeidsflyten din, slik at du kan gjøre ting som forskning på ett skrivebord mens du skriver på en annen. Og du kan legge til så mange desktops som du vil, ved å klikke på “+” knappen helt til høyre.

For å bytte mellom skrivebord, kan du bare åpne Mission Control og deretter klikke på skrivebordet du vil åpne. Det er imidlertid mye raskere å bruke hurtigtastene Control + Right og Control + Left, eller å trekke tre fingre til venstre eller høyre. Disse vil begge bytte skrivebordene dine med en gang, og er et fint kompliment til tastaturet og snarveiene jeg nevnte tidligere.

Hvis du vil at et bestemt program alltid skal vises på et bestemt skrivebord, eller på alle skrivebord, bare høyreklikk på dock-ikonet, og flytt deretter til undermenyen Alternativer.

Herfra kan du tilordne et program til et bestemt skrivebord, eller til og med få det til å vises på alle skrivebord.

Fullskjermsprogrammer

Men vent . det er mer. Vet du om fullskjermknappen? Det er den grønne i nærheten av toppen til venstre i hvert vindu.

Klikk på denne knappen og det gjeldende programmet kommer inn i fullskjermmodus, noe som betyr at dokken og menylinjen forsvinner, og det nåværende vinduet tar opp hele skjermen.

Du kan tenke at du ikke kan bruke andre programmer mens fullskjermmodus er aktiv, eller at du ikke kan bruke to programmer på full skjerm samtidig, men det viser seg at Mission Control gjør dette alt mulig. Mens du er i Mission Control, fungerer et fullskjermsprogram som sitt eget skrivebord; Den er plassert til høyre for alle nåværende skrivebord.

Du kan også dra et hvilket som helst vindu til plassen tatt av et fullskjermsprogram.

Dette lar deg kjøre to fullskjermprogrammer ved siden av, i det som kalles delt visningsmodus.

Dette er perfekt når du vil ha så mye plass som mulig for å jobbe med bare to programmer, for eksempel når du surfer på en høy kvalitet nettside og tar notater.

Slik konfigurerer du oppdragskontroll

Mission Control fungerer for det meste uten noen konfigurasjon, men det er mulig at noen ting om det irriterer deg. Gå til Systemvalg, deretter Mission Control-delen.

Herfra finner du de viktigste alternativene for Mission Control

Her er en rask oversikt over hva disse alternativene gjør:

• Som standard vil Mission Control organisere mellomrom automatisk, basert på hva den mener du vil ha. Dette kan være veldig forvirrende, så slå av alternativet “Automatisk omarrangering av rom basert på siste bruk” hvis du stadig mister oversikten over Windows.
• Når du bruker Command + Tab for å bytte applikasjoner, vil du sannsynligvis også bytte til et aktivt vindu. Alternativet “Når du bytter til et program, bytter du til et mellomrom med åpne vinduer for programmet” sikrer at det vil skje selv om vinduet er på et annet skrivebord.
• Alternativet “Gruppevinduer ved søknad”, når de er merket, sikrer at flere vinduer fra samme program vises side ved side i oppdragskontroll.
• Alternativet “Skjermer har separate rom” gjelder for Mac-maskiner med flere skjermer. Som standard bytter desktops på en skjerm også den andre, men med dette alternativet merket, vil hver skjerm ha sitt eget sett med stasjonære datamaskiner.
• Til slutt kan du slå på det ubrukelige Dashboard, enten som eget rom eller som overlegg.

Under disse alternativene kan du angi egendefinerte tastatur- og musekortveier for å starte Mission Control.

Mission Control offers a bird’s-eye view of all your open windows, desktop spaces, and any apps in full screen or Split View, making it easy to switch between them.

Open Mission Control

• Swipe up with three or four fingers on your trackpad, or double-tap the surface of your Magic Mouse with two fingers.
• Open the Mission Control app, which is in your Applications folder.
• Press the Mission Control key on your Apple keyboard or Touch Bar.

Add spaces and switch between them

The Spaces bar at the top of the Mission Control window contains thumbnails of each desktop space and each window that is in full screen or Split View.

To add a space, move your pointer to the Spaces bar, then click the add button on the right:

When you have multiple spaces, you can switch between them by clicking the thumbnails at the top of the Mission Control window. Or use these methods, which work even when you’re not in Mission Control:

• Swipe left or right with three or four fingers on your trackpad, or swipe left or right with two fingers on your Magic Mouse.
• Press Control–Right Arrow or Control–Left Arrow on your keyboard.

Move windows to spaces

When you have more than one space, you can move windows to and from each space. Just drag the window onto the other space’s thumbnail in the Spaces bar.

If you drag a window onto an empty area of the Spaces bar, that window opens in full screen in its own new space:

If you drag a window onto the thumbnail of a full-screen app, that window joins the other window in Split View:

Move or remove spaces

To move a space, drag its thumbnail to the left or right of another space in the Spaces bar.

To remove a space, press and hold the Option key, then click or next to the space’s thumbnail in the Spaces bar. Any windows in that space then automatically move to your first desktop space.