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Run An Application In Multiple Spaces On Your Mac
By Dave Taylor
Expert Author
Article Date: 2008-07-25
I've become a big fan of Apple's Spaces system which lets me have a bunch of virtual screens on my laptop. This is particularly helpful when I'm playing games and (trying to) working at the same time. Thing is, I really want to have a few apps appear on all my Spaces, not just one. Is that possible?
Dave's Answer:
I have also been a fan of virtual desktop managers for aeons , actually a really long time because I started using them when I was using the X Window System on Unix systems back in the late 1980s. Yes, they've been around that long (and yes, so have I :-)
It's nice to have more than one monitor, of course, but that costs money and can be prohibitive when you're traveling too, needless to say. As of yet, I haven't seen anyone set up a multiple-monitor setup at the local caf either, but I imagine that's just a matter of time. I mean, us "digital nomads" tend to establish base camp at our tables as it is, so some additional hardware wouldn't be a huge stretch. :-)
More seriously, it's very cool that Mac OS X includes Spaces, a feature you can enable by going to Apple --> System Preferences... --> Expos and Spaces. It looks like this:
Click on "Enable Spaces" to get started and as you can see, I have three Spaces defined, horizontally adjacent. Switch between then with Control-arrow (either Ctrl + -> or Ctrl + <- moves you around) and, as you know, whatever Space you're in when you start an application is where its window lives.
Except....
Notice on this same window that you can add Applications and assign them to spaces. What isn't obvious is that one of the assignment possibilities is "all spaces". Click on the "+" button to select an application (it'll show you a list of the apps you have running currently and "Other..." to select something else), then click on the tiny up/down arrows to pop up the assignment menu, as I've done that with Twitter utility application Twhirl here:
If you want to assign your Finder windows to live in all Spaces too, it's a bit more tricky, because you have to find the Finder in the first place (cute, eh?) You can do that by looking for Finder in the folder "System : Library : Core Services".
That's all there is to it. Very nice, eh?
Comments
About the Author:
Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is
internationally known as an expert on both business and technology issues.
Holder of an MSEd and MBA, author of twenty books and founder of four
startups, he also runs a strategic marketing company and consults with firms
seeking the best approach to working with weblogs and social networks. Dave
is an award-winning speaker and frequent guest on radio and podcast
programs.
AskDaveTaylor.com
http://www.intuitive.com/blog/
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