Mac Goodness: Spaces – Every Space option

This is the second article in my Mac Goodness category. As I mentioned in my last article, these articles are to capture really interestingly cool things/features that I’ve learned about the Mac or OS X. Today’s article is on a configuration settings on the Spaces feature in OS X.

I’ve been using OS X’s Spaces feature since I first got the OS. I find it indispensable in my day to day work. For the complete Mac beginner out there, Spaces is a desktop virtualization software that comes bundled with OS X.

In any event, I have a dual monitor setup which one would think should give a person ample room to work. However, I find that even with two monitors, one can still run out of screen real estate. Using Spaces, I’ve created 6 different workspaces. I know, seems like over kill to have, in effect, a 12-monitor setup. However, I assure you.. it’s not.

One of the really great features of Spaces is the ability to assign programs to certain workspaces. This way you can provide some order to the number of applications and windows you have opened.

So in my setup i have the following workspace setup:

This has worked out very well. However, both Adobe and Microsoft need to get with the program on how to write Spaces-aware products. I can hot-key my way to any of my workspace very quickly and get down to work.

However, I recently dug a little deeper into the Spaces preferences and I discovered a really cool setting that I missed the first time. You can setup the application to show up in Every Space:

As it’s name implies, it allows for an application to show up in every space. This is useful for programs like Adium – we’re I want to be able to hold a chat conversation on any particular workspace. This feature alone has made me fall in love with my Mac again. No more hot-keying back and forth just to keep a conversation going – or manually dragging the Adium window into the current workspace.