Spaces For Mac

Spaces^[1] was a virtual desktop feature of Mac OS X, introduced in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. It was announced by Steve Jobs during the opening keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference on August 7, 2006. As of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, it has been incorporated into Mission Control.

TotalSpaces2 is a desktop manager aims to re-create the classic 2D 'spaces' grid functionality on macOS. You can use Mac Spaces to keep your programs and windows organized in one dedicated location. Then you can use a few key moves to navigate your Mac Spaces: To view all your spaces at once, press the F8 key on your keyboard. Just click on a space to enter. You can drag spaces around.

The Mac may not get the biggest blockbusters, but you can play many of the best indie hits on your MacBook or iMac. Even if you think you “get” how difficult space travel is.

Overview[edit]

Spaces enables users to create multiple virtual desktops suited to the unique needs or work habits of the user. A user could, for example, create and assign a 'space' to office work, enabling him or her to leave a work-related application (such as a word processor or a spreadsheet) running full screen and then switch to a different space designated for browsing the Internet or navigating file structure in Finder windows. Up to 16 spaces can be created, and applications can be bound to specific spaces. There are various ways to navigate between spaces, including user-configured, function-key combinations, hot corners (via Exposé), or by dragging windows and applications — in the direction of the desired space — to the corresponding edge of the screen and holding for a moment until the space switches. The Dashboard functions as a separate space, on the left of the other spaces by default.

Use[edit]

In Mac OS X 10.5 LeopardSystem Preferences, a checkbox labeled 'Enable Spaces' must first be checked in the 'Exposé & Spaces' preferences, under the 'Spaces' tab. Then, as many as 16 spaces can be created by adding rows or columns. Application assignments may be added and bound to specific spaces listed, by their corresponding numbers, in the right-hand column. When an assigned application is launched, it will open on the designated space and remain in that location unless it is moved manually to another space.

There are a few settings for activating and switching between spaces. A checkbox at the bottom of the panel allows switching spaces automatically when switching between applications bound to spaces. This is achieved either by clicking on application icons in the dock, or by pressing ⌘ (Command) + Tab, and Spaces will jump directly to the space that the chosen application has been assigned to. A limitation of Spaces lies in the fact that some applications featuring tool palettes and/or multiple open document windows (such as Adobe Creative Suite or Microsoft Office applications) cannot be consistently bound to a specific (numbered) space. In such cases, the 'switching' function responds to the most recently active document, regardless of which space it has been opened upon, so it is usually more efficient to avoid assigning such applications to a specific space and to run them unassigned, opening documents in the desired space.

Function-key combinations can also be configured to activate the full-screen Spaces grid view, switch between spaces directionally, or switch directly to a specific space by number. A function allows applications or windows to be moved into (or through) adjacent spaces by dragging and holding the window (or document) at the edge of the screen. During a transition to a new space, a small, translucent image representing the Spaces grid configuration will be shown in the center of the screen for a few seconds, with arrows representing the movement, and the active space highlighted.

When viewing the full-screen grid, spaces themselves may be re-arranged by dragging and dropping (requires clicking on the blue 'desktop' area, instead of on a window within it). This does not change the application assignments, but is equivalent to manually moving a window or document to a new space. The application will retain its assignment and when launched at a later date, will run on the originally assigned space.

Spaces also works effectively with Exposé, another Mac OS X feature, where you can designate a 'hot corner' to activate the full-screen feature of Spaces, showing a 'zoomed-out' grid of scaled-down thumbnails for each space. Also, when the Spaces grid has been activated, Exposé may be additionally deployed to reveal the active windows or documents on each space.

Comparison[edit]

Although Spaces was a new feature for Mac OS 10.5, virtual desktops existed for quite some time on other platforms, such as Linux, Solaris, AIX and BeOS. Virtual desktops also existed for Windows^[2] and for the Mac OS via third party software.,^[3] and it has been a standard feature on Linuxdesktops for a number of years.^[4] The first platform to implement multiple desktop display as a hardware feature was the Amiga 1000, released in 1985.^[5] Virtual Desktops were finally added to the Windows platform with Windows 10 in 2015.

References[edit]

1. ^'Leopard Sneak Peek - Spaces'. Apple Inc. Archived from the original on July 10, 2007.
2. ^Multiple Desktop Support in Windows
3. ^'Spaces: A look at Apple's take on virtual desktops'. ComputerWorld. November 21, 2006. Archived from the original on October 22, 2007.
4. ^redhat.com: Red Hat Linux 6.1 Getting Started Guide, 1999.
5. ^http://www.faqs.org/faqs/amiga/books/ Screens - Amiga Related Books FAQ, 3.3 Amiga Specific

External links[edit]

Optimized Storage in macOS Sierra and later* can save space by storing your content in iCloud and making it available on demand. When storage space is needed, files, photos, movies, email attachments, and other files that you seldom use are stored in iCloud automatically. Each file stays right where you last saved it, and downloads when you open it. Files that you’ve used recently remain on your Mac, along with optimized versions of your photos.

* If you haven't yet upgraded to macOS Sierra or later, learn about other ways to free up storage space.

Find out how much storage is available on your Mac

Choose Apple menu  > About This Mac, then click Storage. Each segment of the bar is an estimate of the storage space used by a category of files. Move your pointer over each segment for more detail.

Click the Manage button to open the Storage Management window, pictured below. This button is available only in macOS Sierra or later.

Manage storage on your Mac

The Storage Management window offers recommendations for optimizing your storage. If some recommendations are already turned on, you will see fewer recommendations.

Store in iCloud

Click the Store in iCloud button, then choose from these options:

• Desktop and Documents. Store all files from these two locations in iCloud Drive. When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your Mac, so that you can easily work offline. Files stored only in iCloud show a download icon , which you can double-click to download the original file. Learn more about this feature.
  
• Photos. Store all original, full-resolution photos and videos in iCloud Photos. When storage space is needed, only space-saving (optimized) versions of photos are kept on your Mac. To download the original photo or video, just open it.
  
• Messages. Store all messages and attachments in iCloud. When storage space is needed, only the messages and attachments you recently opened are kept on your Mac. Learn more about Messages in iCloud.

Storing files in iCloud uses the storage space in your iCloud storage plan. If you reach or exceed your iCloud storage limit, you can either buy more iCloud storage or make more iCloud storage available. iCloud storage starts at 50GB for $0.99 (USD) a month, and you can purchase additional storage directly from your Apple device. Learn more about prices in your region.

Optimize Storage

Click the Optimize button, then choose from these options.

• Automatically remove watched movies and TV shows. When storage space is needed, movies or TV shows that you purchased from the iTunes Store and already watched are removed from your Mac. Click the download icon next to a movie or TV show to download it again.
  
• Download only recent attachments. Mail automatically downloads only the attachments that you recently received. You can manually download any attachments at any time by opening the email or attachment, or saving the attachment to your Mac.
  
• Don't automatically download attachments. Mail downloads an attachment only when you open the email or attachment, or save the attachment to your Mac.

Optimizing storage for movies, TV shows, and email attachments doesn't require iCloud storage space.

Empty Trash Automatically

Empty Trash Automatically permanently deletes files that have been in the Trash for more than 30 days.

Reduce Clutter

Reduce Clutter helps you to identify large files and files you might no longer need. Click the Review Files button, then choose any of the file categories in the sidebar, such as Applications, Documents, Music Creation, or Trash.

You can delete the files in some categories directly from this window. Other categories show the total storage space used by the files in each app. You can then open the app and decide whether to delete files from within it.

Learn how to redownload apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books.

Where to find the settings for each feature

The button for each recommendation in the Storage Management window affects one or more settings in other apps. You can also control those settings directly within each app.

• If you're using macOS Catalina, choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, click Apple ID, then select iCloud in the sidebar: Store in iCloud turns on the Optimize Mac Storage setting on the right. Then click Options next to iCloud Drive: Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders setting. To turn off iCloud Drive entirely, deselect iCloud Drive.
  In macOS Mojave or earlier, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, then click Options next to iCloud Drive. Store in iCloud turns on the Desktop & Documents Folders and Optimize Mac Storage settings.
• In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences, then click iCloud. Store in iCloud selects iCloud Photos and Optimize Mac Storage.
• In Messages, choose Messages > Preferences, then click iMessage. Store in iCloud selects Enable Messages in iCloud.

• If you're using macOS Catalina, open the Apple TV app, choose TV > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Files. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
  In macOS Mojave or earlier, open iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Advanced. Optimize Storage selects “Automatically delete watched movies and TV shows.”
• In Mail, choose Mail > Preferences from the menu bar, then click Accounts. In the Account Information section on the right, Optimize Storage sets the Download Attachments menu to either Recent or None.

Empty Trash Automatically: From the Finder, choose Finder > Preferences, then click Advanced. Empty Trash Automatically selects “Remove items from the Trash after 30 days.”

Other ways that macOS helps automatically save space

With macOS Sierra or later, your Mac automatically takes these additional steps to save storage space:

Spaces For Mac Os X

• Detects duplicate downloads in Safari, keeping only the most recent version of the download
• Reminds you to delete used app installers
• Removes old fonts, languages, and dictionaries that aren't being used
• Clears caches, logs, and other unnecessary data when storage space is needed

How to free up storage space manually

Even without using the Optimized Storage features of Sierra or later, you can take other steps to make more storage space available:

Design Spaces For Mac Download

• Music, movies, and other media can use a lot of storage space. Learn how to delete music, movies, and TV shows from your device.
• Delete other files that you no longer need by moving them to the Trash, then emptying the Trash. The Downloads folder is good place to look for files that you might no longer need.
• Move files to an external storage device.
• Compress files.
• Delete unneeded email: In the Mail app, choose Mailbox > Erase Junk Mail. If you no longer need the email in your Trash mailbox, choose Mailbox > Erase Deleted Items.

Learn more

• The Storage pane of About This Mac is the best way to determine the amount of storage space available on your Mac. Disk Utility and other apps might show storage categories such as Not Mounted, VM, Recovery, Other Volumes, Free, or Purgeable. Don't rely on these categories to understand how to free up storage space or how much storage space is available for your data.
• When you duplicate a file on an APFS-formatted volume, that file doesn't use additional storage space on the volume. Deleting a duplicate file frees up only the space required by any data you might have added to the duplicate. If you no longer need any copies of the file, you can recover all of the storage space by deleting both the duplicate and the original file.
• If you're using a pro app and Optimize Mac Storage, learn how to make sure that your projects are always on your Mac and able to access their files.