by If you make your living working on your computer, as I do, you probably look for ways to be more productive. If you use your Mac just for fun or for basic tasks, you still want to be more efficient. We use a lot of apps on our Macs, and one of the things that can slow us down is rooting through the many windows of multiple applications to find just the right one. Mountain Lion’s Spaces can make your work more efficient and productive by letting you set up virtual desktops, each one clean and tidy, so that you can focus on what you want and not be distracted by windows from other apps.
Spaces are a part of Mission Control, your Mac’s built-in feature for getting a visual on every currently open app and window on your computer. As a reminder, you can enter Mission Control in several ways: Click the Mission Control icon in the Dock to display all your spaces, or press Control-Up Arrow, or, if you prefer, perform a three-finger swipe straight up on a multitouch trackpad. I have a hot corner set to display Mission Control as well.
If you’ve never used Spaces, you first need to grasp exactly what this feature does. Look at your Mac’s display: You may see a few windows, some overlapping others, and you may spot your Desktop behind them. Sometimes you may move a window here or there to get a better view of something: a website in Safari, a bunch of files on the Desktop, or your Twitter app. Little as those movements might be, they add up—and the sum total is your time.
A better way
With Spaces, you can organize your apps and windows so that they’re all visible on separate desktops, instead of all on the same desktop. When you want to view a specific app, you can switch to that app, or to its space, and see it without obstructions. And, using Mission Control, you can get a bird’s eye view of all your spaces, and all your windows. Here’s what my Mac looks like in Mission Control:
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