Virtual Desktop Manager for OS X

July 21, 2009 11:57 AM

Is there an actively developed virtual desktop manager for OS X that lets you assign windows and documents (rather than applications) to different desktops?

Spaces apparently only lets you assign an entire application to a space, which I suppose is OK if all of your different projects break down across application lines, but fails if you might have spreadsheets or textfiles for each activity you're interested in. I've poked at a few others (like VirtueDesktop) but they either seem to not have made it past the trial project phase or seem to have been dropped from active development when Spaces was announced. Is there any competition for Apple here?

posted by namespan to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: You certainly can have different windows of the same application in dtfferent spaces---just drag the window to the space you want it in. Fir example, I often have a TeX window, a Safari window, and a graphics window in the same space, while the rest of Safari is open in a different space.
posted by leahwrenn at 12:09 PM on July 21, 2009 [1 favorite]

Hyperspaces ?
posted by namewithoutwords at 12:19 PM on July 21, 2009

Response by poster: You certainly can have different windows of the same application in dtfferent spaces---just drag the window to the space you want it in.

This is good news, but it's not at all clear to me how you drag a window into the space I want it in.... don't see anything for that in Spaces Preferences, can't seem to drag a window onto the pager in the top bar, and trying to drag a window past a screen boundary doesn't seem to do anything.

What's the secret?
posted by namespan at 2:18 PM on July 21, 2009

Best answer: F8 to show all your desktops at once, then just drag 'n' drop windows to your heart's content.
posted by contraption at 2:40 PM on July 21, 2009

Response by poster: Thank you, everybody. I'll try to get along with Spaces with this new information.

Still open to other suggestions if there's any worthy competition, tho'.
posted by namespan at 3:47 PM on July 21, 2009

I'll try to get along with Spaces with this new information.

Be sure to try unchecking the "When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application" setting in the Exposé & Spaces preferences panel. I'm a task-oriented Spaces user, and this made Spaces far more useful to me. John Gruber's article Spaces in 10.5.3 explains all the details.

trying to drag a window past a screen boundary doesn't seem to do anything.

Try holding the window at the edge of the screen for a moment. After about a second, the window should move to the next space. (This only works if there's a space adjacent to whatever edge you're against; it doesn't "wrap around.")
posted by wnodom at 1:09 AM on July 22, 2009

If you want to be able to move windows from one space to another with your mouse like wnodom describes, I think you need to install warp.
posted by scalefree at 9:26 PM on July 24, 2009