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Efficiently use Spaces (10.5)
Spaces enables you to create a use multiple virtual desktops so that you can show different applications on each one. You can create up to 16 desktops or spaces - click the Apple menu then Expose and Spaces, then select Spaces. Click the plus and minus symbols next to Rows and Columns to increase or decrease the number.
You'll see that the desktops are shown as a grid with rows and columns. You can quickly switch desktops by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing the arrow keys, so press Ctrl+Right to step to the desktop on the right or Ctrl+Down to step to the desktop below in the grid. You can also switch spaces by holding down the Ctrl key and pressing a number, such as Ctrl+3 for space/desktop 3. Creating lots of spaces uses up a little memory, but it won't bother you if you have a gigabyte or more of RAM.
Start applications in their own Space
If you use the Spaces feature in OS X 10.5 to create multiple desktops you'll be used to starting applications and then moving them to a nice clean desktop to avoid the usual clutter of windows and palettes on the screen. You can save yourself time and effort by configuring applications to automatically start up on a specific desktop or Space as Apple calls them.
To configure an applications, click the Apple menu at the left-hand side of the menu bar at the top of the screen and select System Preferences. Click Expose and Spaces in the Personal section, and then choose Spaces.
When Spaces is enabled you can click the Plus button just below the Application Assignments list to add a new application. The contents of the Applications folder is displayed and you can choose any of the programs listed there (or anywhere else for that matter). Click Add and it will be added to the Application Assignments list.
To assign the application to a specific space, click in the Space column and a pop-up menu enables you to select the space to use. There's also an option to select all spaces too, so it appears everywhere. Add more applications if you wish and assign them to other spaces or the same space. Assigning applications to the same space means they appear on the same virtual desktop, but of course, that's only if you actually run them at the same time.
