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I wish I’d had your success. I tried using Spaces for a while but they can’t be named (or couldn’t when I was trying it) so I’d end up cycling through similar l

I wish I’d had your success. I tried using Spaces for a while but they can’t be named (or couldn’t when I was trying it) so I’d end up cycling through similar looking spaces trying to recover my place all the time. Being sent back to another space when I go to open, say, a new terminal but it’s already open somewhere else was a pain too. If I’m in a space I want to be able to start apps there without doing a time wasting dance. I never have more than 2 spaces open now, and rarely. Feels like a missed opportunity to me from one more half-finished good idea by Apple.

mulmen 6y ago
I had to fiddle a lot of defaults to make it work. > Being sent back to another space when I go to open, say, a new terminal but it’s already open somewhere else was a pain too. If I’m in a space I want to be able to start apps there without doing a time wasting dance. Take a look at your mission control settings and uncheck "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application". I put a lot of energy in to "getting" spaces a couple years ago and there was a learning curve for a couple weeks but now I have a model that works with the features that exist. The effort definitely paid off. I think spaces are a fairly polished idea from Apple actually. The problem is they create features that work well for a specific use case but then don't clearly explain what that use case is or how their solution works. You very much have to "hold it right" and it's up to you to figure out what "right" is. I figure MacOS is a tool, like a hammer, I should learn how to "swing" it. The lack of named spaces is ok for me, I can tell from context what each space is for and I consider them ephemeral. I do not let MacOS rearrange my spaces based on use (this is another option, "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use") because I have them sorted by my own mental model of priority. The left most space is always a general desktop space with a browser and mail and IM, etc. The right most space is a "system" space with things like task manager, system preferences and a terminal window with homebrew commands and whatever invocation of jamf commands it takes to get back on the corporate network. Any time something in space #1 requires more than a couple browser tabs or an email I tend to throw it into a new space. I also arrange it somewhere in the existing stack by importance. This means I am almost always doing productive work in space #2. Before a meeting or call I will open up the relevant email thread(s), invite, browser tabs, etc in a new space so I have the full context without distractions.
- brigandish 6y ago
  This is exactly why I allow myself the odd moan on HN, more than occasionally (and more than I deserve) I get a very helpful response like this. Even just the "When switching to an application…" setting is a gem, it's always easy to miss things like that (that's my excuse:) I'll give it another go! Thanks. Just in case anyone from Apple with the power to implement this happens by, I'd still like the ability to name my Spaces though.

mulmen 6y ago

I had to fiddle a lot of defaults to make it work. > Being sent back to another space when I go to open, say, a new terminal but it’s already open somewhere else was a pain too. If I’m in a space I want to be able to start apps there without doing a time wasting dance. Take a look at your mission control settings and uncheck "When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application". I put a lot of energy in to "getting" spaces a couple years ago and there was a learning curve for a couple weeks but now I have a model that works with the features that exist. The effort definitely paid off. I think spaces are a fairly polished idea from Apple actually. The problem is they create features that work well for a specific use case but then don't clearly explain what that use case is or how their solution works. You very much have to "hold it right" and it's up to you to figure out what "right" is. I figure MacOS is a tool, like a hammer, I should learn how to "swing" it. The lack of named spaces is ok for me, I can tell from context what each space is for and I consider them ephemeral. I do not let MacOS rearrange my spaces based on use (this is another option, "Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use") because I have them sorted by my own mental model of priority. The left most space is always a general desktop space with a browser and mail and IM, etc. The right most space is a "system" space with things like task manager, system preferences and a terminal window with homebrew commands and whatever invocation of jamf commands it takes to get back on the corporate network. Any time something in space #1 requires more than a couple browser tabs or an email I tend to throw it into a new space. I also arrange it somewhere in the existing stack by importance. This means I am almost always doing productive work in space #2. Before a meeting or call I will open up the relevant email thread(s), invite, browser tabs, etc in a new space so I have the full context without distractions.

brigandish 6y ago
This is exactly why I allow myself the odd moan on HN, more than occasionally (and more than I deserve) I get a very helpful response like this. Even just the "When switching to an application…" setting is a gem, it's always easy to miss things like that (that's my excuse:) I'll give it another go! Thanks. Just in case anyone from Apple with the power to implement this happens by, I'd still like the ability to name my Spaces though.