Assign Applications to “Spaces” in OSX Lion
July 21, 2011 27 CommentsI was a happy user of Spaces in OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard. You could assign certain applications to certain spaces and with a quick keystroke, flip between them. I used it to keep my email and calendar separate and run windows using Parallels in full screen mode and easily bounce back and forth between mac and windows. After working with OSX Lion for a few days, I have been a bit frustrated with the new Mission Control concept. The magic mouse gesture is nice, but you can only move left and right. Previously I had 4 spaces arranged 2 by 2, so I could go up and down, left and right to quickly go where I wanted to. Now you have to potentially flip past several screens to get where you want to go. Not quite as efficient, and I’m all about efficiency. There’s lots to do today and I need to get my work done fast!
One big gripe: I can no longer assign applications to specific “spaces”. The settings panel that used to let me do this is gone! Now when I reboot, all my apps get mashed onto the first screen.
** EDIT: Previously I thought I found a workaround, but it seems after reboot, everything goes back to the first space. I hope apple comes out with a fix for this.
Here’s How to set spaces (although they will reset after a reboot):
- Right click (or ctrl click if you don’t use the secondary mouse click) on an app in the dock.
- Under the “Assign To” category, select the desktop you want to keep it on, or use “This Desktop” for the current one.
- OSX will remember this setting the next time you fire up that app.
Thank you! This was driving me crazy! You’ve been much help!
Although…
Still not quite what I was expecting for the latest & greatest. Since when you close the desktop from mission control the system looses your setting. Which means, you have to reassign, or never close the space you’ve assigned an application to.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the new mission control / spaces combo, with the many new multi-tough gestures… But I don’t think it went quite far enough…
i.e.
If you don’t keep the program’s space open, when the application is “closed,” you have to swipe through empty spaces to reach the program you want.
Instead, It should be able to remember your preferred space assignments, if the program isn’t open and the space is blank, skip the blank space and go to the next space with an open application. I just think this would be more fluid of an action.
However, I do understand that if the space is more than 1 or two over, you “should” use mission control to switch to the space you want, but this just seems a little overwhelming.
If you’ve got your top 5-10 apps assigned to a space, the apps don’t change the “Title” of the space in mission control to the app assigned to the space. So instead, you are looking at “Desktop 1″ “Desktop 2″ “Desktop3″ but if the app is the only assigned app it should be “Finder” “Chrome” “iTunes”…
Just my 2ยข.
Maybe in the next version… ;Or I’ll just get used to it.
OSX will remember this setting the next time you fire up that app.
Sometimes…
I too am frustrated by this. If Lion can reopen windows were open prior to a reboot, why can’t it remember what desktop they were on?
Unfortunately the inability to permanently assign an application to a space is a downgrade in my opinion. Apple needs to fix this.
Thanks for all the responses. I too and growing frustrated with different things I keep finding in OSX Lion that are missing. A new OS should bring the promise of added functionality, not loss of it! I’m going to start a new post listing the things that are missing. Maybe Apple will update some of them.
Actually, I am finding that most of the time the setting is simply ignored. That is, I launch the application expecting it to end up on desktop X, the application ends up in (random) desktop Y instead, I check the setting and see that the application was in fact aware of having to be on desktop X, the setting was simply overridden. So, “assigning” does not really do anything, in fact.
Another aspect that changed from the previous desktops handling is that applications that where assigned to all spaces (ex: Safari) stayed put in their current location when switching desktops. In Lion the application slides with the sliding out desktop screen until the full new desktop is displayed, then displays in a flash. This is not only quite ugly but it’s also very distracting. On top of it if the application was the active one it looses the focus to the benefit of any other application already in the newly activated desktop.
for what its worth in the previous Spaces setup I had assigned command keys like CMD+1 to go to space 1. You can do the same thing with mission control in Keyboard Shortcuts in System Preferences, easily allowing you to directly go to a certain desktop much faster than swiping. Thanks for your tip!
I also used a 2×2 grid before, and I really liked being able to get to any one space with ease. The new lateral layout is making me crazy! So much less efficient . . . and although I can’t quite figure out why, it also seems harder on the eyes! It’s like I get motion sickness scrolling sideways a whole bunch of times :p
I admit that I find the with the combination of mission control to go between apps, and app expose to go between app windows, I don’t need quite as many spaces as I used to in order to work effectively everyday. But I would still like to be able to assign applications to different spaces and have other options for layout besides just horizontal.
I hate Mission Control. Spaces was one of the most ground-breaking and productive things Apple ever introduced. I could literally not work without it……then the upgrade.
I find it really slows me down having all the screens at the top.
Apple you really need go back to the grid and have applications PERMANENTLY assigned to spaces.
A really poor ‘upgrade’ in my opinion
when I right click on the dock I do not get the assign to option! What to i do!
Sally, if you don’t have right click enabled you may need to use ctrl + click. If you’re doing that and you don’t get the menu, are you sure you’re using osx lion? It only affects lion. Also, try it in different apps. I’m not sure all applications have the option.
consider yourself lucky, my version doesn’t let me assign applications when I right click on the dock icon.
Sally and David:
In my experience, you have to create an additional desktop before right clicking and getting the Assign To options.
Lion doesn’t even remember the assigned desktop even without rebooting. If I create desktop 3 in mission control and assign iPhoto to it, and launch iPhoto, it will open on desktop 3. But if I then close iPhoto, close desktop 3 in Mission control, then re-create desktop 3, iPhoto will not open in desktop 3 when launched. It will open in whichever desktop was the active one. This is a complete annoyance. Apple needs to fix this problem so that once assigned, an application will open in the assigned desktop without having to go into mission control to create the new desktop. If I have assigned iPhoto to open in desktop 3, I want it to open in desktop 3 even if I have only desktop 1 active. Lion should automatically create both desktop 2 and the needed desktop 3. Spaces permanent assignment is so much better than Mission Control. What’s the point if you have to go in and create the desktops and assign the apps each time you launch the app?
Fix the problem Apple!
I’m surprised no-one mentions that Ctrl-number will take you directly to that number of Desktop. Ctrl-3 switches to Desktop 3, for instance. But I do agree that it should be possible to assign apps to a particular desktop, and to name the desktops accordingly (to whatever I want).
Thanks for all the responses everyone! It sure seems like this is a common complaint. I’ve updated OSX this week but I still see the same issue too. #Lowell, I think if you delete the space, you lose any memory of it. If you leave the space there, it should bounce back…until a reboot at least.
Personally, I used to use a 2×2 grid of spaces. Now I use 3 in mission control. I miss having my email on a separate screen. It’s now mashed up with safari and other common windows. I do, however, like the magic mouse gesture. Flipping back and forth is pretty fluid.
Please write to Apple here and tell them to fix this problem!
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html
Yes, this is still a problem, even with the latest Lion update.
Different windows of the same application can be assigned to different desktops. But upon rebooting, only the Finder remembers which windows were in which spaces.
All windows are now in the first space (Desktop).
And there is *still* no way to rename Desktops?!!
I found an app called Flying Windows – it will auto-minimize other apps when I switch between apps. You can even set exceptions. I had to tweak some settings (both in the app and in dock prefs), but it seems to do what I need. Hope this helps.
So this was always there and available.
go to sys prefs
mission control
uncheck the checkbox next to “Automatically rearrange spaces based on most recent use”
I hate Mission Control too! Spaces is so important to my work-flow that I’m considering reverting to Snow Leopard.
Why can’t they just have spaces, mission control, launch control, and full customization of single and multi finger gestures optional for the user to choose? That would be the best way. The ‘tap tap + lift’ fingers off of mouse is awkward to expose the windows. I would like to tap tap and rest my fingers back on the mouse, it’s way more comfortable, and the action wouldn’t happen by accident. Not having a shortcut for the application switcher is missing too. And why does entering full screen mode create another space and move the app to a far off window? That messes the flow up even more, then you have to re-arrange the spaces to get them next to each other again.
This was bothering me too!… I found the fix. It’s in two steps.
1) Read this on how to enable “apps for different spaces”: http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/27/using-spaces-on-os-x-lion/
2) Once you do this you’ll see that it doesn’t work! Well, it does, but the default value does not match the option check box for any given app. In other words, to make an app appear across Desktops (when the Option is “All Desktops” and it doesn’t work now) all you need to do is change the Option value to something else then back to “All Desktops”, thus “re-entering” the value into the system and it worked for me.
Don’t know if it’ll stick after a reboot though…. Haven’t gotten that far but at least it can be done.
Hope this helps!
Hi Gyan,
Thank you for that link, the only issue is ‘Full Screen Apps’ essentially use their own Space when operating in Full Screen Mode.
This setting is not remembered when you launch the App Anew.
I think the fundamental problem with Lion and it’s Window management is the poor integration of the Full Screen Apps system – this alone should have it’s own System Preference Pane so you can manage them correctly – an OS blanket appliance so Software obeys specific rules – this has always been the way with OS X, why change that now?!
I am a new Apple user and i have a question: aside from apps, can I also assign folders to be moved/opened in a specific desktop? For example, I would like my Pictures folder to be on desktop 3? Is that possible? Thanks!
Sarah – as far as I know, that’s not possible. Finder itself is one app, and you can assign that one a desktop as a whole, but not individual folders.