TMO Quick Tip - Leopard: Using Expose with Spaces

by , 7:30 AM EST, November 30th, 2007

Exposé is great for finding specific document windows, and Leopard's Spaces feature is great for organizing your application windows on their own virtual Desktops. Put the two together, and you have an even better tool for keeping track of everything you are working on.

If you aren't already using Spaces you can enable the feature in the Mac OS X 10.5 System Preferences applications.

• Choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
• Click Exposé & Spaces.
• Check Enable Spaces.

Use System Preferences to enable Spaces.

Invoking Spaces is easy: Just tap the F8 key. All of your virtual Desktops, or Spaces, will appear on your display. You can drag open windows from space to space, and click on a window or Desktop to switch to a specific space.

Use F8 to view your Spaces....

To view all of your open windows in every space at the same time, first press the F8 key, and then press the F9 key. First, all of your spaces will appear, and then every window in each space will arrange for easy viewing. If the contents of a window is too small to make out, just roll your mouse pointer over that window to see the document or application name.

...and F9 to activate Exposé in Spaces.

I tend to have lots of Mail message windows open at once, and sometimes those windows are scattered across several virtual Desktops. Using Exposé along with Spaces lets me quickly find just the document or email message I need without spending much time hunting -- regardless of which virtual Desktop it may be hiding on.

Jeff Gamet is TMO's Morning Editor and Reviews Editor. He lectures, teaches and speaks on Mac OS X and design-related topics, and is the author of The Designer's Guide to Mac OS X from Peachpit Press.

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