In today’s fast-paced world, it’s typical that you will often be running several or more applications at the same time. And even more typical is that the more applications that you have running, the more likely it is that you will find your workspace to become so cluttered and confusing that you have a hard time staying focused and organized. This is the beauty of Mission Control, and often overlooked featured by many Mac users.
When running multiple applications, of course you can navigate between them by simply clicking on the application window or the dock icon. You can even utilize the multi-tasking keyboard shortcut Command + Tab to quickly switch between applications on your screen. However, often you will find that you just need to take a quick peek of everything that you on your screen to help you get organized and stay on track. This is where Mission Control comes in.
To access the Mission Control feature, either click on the icon in the dock or simply press the F3 button on your keyboard. By doing this, you will see all of the applications that you currently have open tile out, giving you a quick snapshot of everything you have going on at the moment. From here, all you need to do is just click on whichever window you would like to be active, and that window will now come to the top and become active.
However, to truly take advantage of what Mission Control has to offer, using a touch-sensitive pointing device such as the Magic Trackpad or Magic Mouse will make life much easier for you. To quickly access Mission Control with a trackpad, simply place four fingers on the surface of the trackpad and swipe up. From here you can select a window to become active or swipe down to return to leave Mission Control and return to normal. Likewise, if you’re using a Magic Mouse, all you need to do is tap twice on the surface of the mouse with two fingers, and all the windows will tile out. Tap twice again to return, or select a window to become active.
The Mission Control feature in Mac OS X also allows for you to arrange windows into several different screens (or spaces) that you can quickly switch between. This is a great solution if you find that you often have multiple applications running with multiple windows cluttering your screen, as it allows you to utilize multiple desktops to feel as if you have more than one display. When in Mission Control, if you move your mouse all the way over to the right at the top of the screen, a plus button will appear. Clicking on this plus button will allow you to create additional or new desktops (spaces). Once you have created additional desktops, you now have the ability to drag and drop windows from one desktop to another, which is particularly useful when working on a laptop.
Once you have your desktops set up, you can quickly move between them in several ways. On your keyboard, you can hold the control key and hit your arrow keys either left or right to flip between these spaces, however if you are using either a Magic Trackpad o Magic Mouse, you will find navigating between desktops to be much easier. If you’re using a trackpad, you can place four fingers on the trackpad and swipe left or right to quickly jump between desktops. Or, if you use a Magic Mouse, you can place two fingers on the surface of the mouse and swipe left or right to navigate as well.
Once you begin using Mission Control, you will find that desktops (spaces) are really handy and a great way to keep your screen organized.
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