Spaces?!?! I'm going crazy!!

I've spent the past hour and a half reading forums trying to figure out how to get spaces (or whatever they're called now on Lion) onto my computer. I just bought a Mac Mini for work and for some reason no matter what I do I can't seem to get it to work.

What is the proper procedures for doing this on a new computer?

Spaces?

Link? Example? Better description?

My work computer has it setup so that whenever I go to the bottom right corner of my screen it brings up 2 rows of 3 little screens (like individual desktops). I can have iTunes opened up in one and whenever I need to access it I just go to the bottom right corner and click on that screen.

I read that in Lion that these "spaces" are now called "Desktops"...but I can't seem to figure it out.

Im not sure what you're even talking about.

The only thing close to what I would think of what you're referring to would be when you minimize a window, it goes on the bottom, in your app launcher (by the trash can)

For example: if you open up iTunes (you can do this now) and then minimize it, you can watch it go on the dock down there by the trash can.

Safari will go there, all open, but minimized windows will go down there...

One other thing is if you swipe three fingers upwards on the trackpad, it will show you all the open windows.

Hope that helps.

You get to them through Mission Control. Launch Mission Control and your desktops will be at the top. Move your mouse to the right and you'll see a plus sign allowing you to add another desktop which you can easily get rid of my hovering your mouse over and clicking the x that appears in the top left hand corner for that desktop.

Here's a decent video example of Mission Control and Desktop Spaces. Like vansmith said the plus sign on the right will add a new desktop. Also if you want a program to open on one desktop always you will have to right click (control + click) and select options > this desktop or all desktops or none (whatever you prefer for the application and desktop you are using.) You can move apps between desktops as well by opening Mission Control and dragging them to another desktop at the top. Also in the system preferences for Mission control on the bottom left there are Hot Corners. You can set these to do several things, like show Mission Control, Launchpad, Desktop, etc. This should get you started.

vansmith said:

You get to them through Mission Control. Launch Mission Control and your desktops will be at the top. Move your mouse to the right and you'll see a plus sign allowing you to add another desktop which you can easily get rid of my hovering your mouse over and clicking the x that appears in the top left hand corner for that desktop.

Click to expand...

This will work, but it's SOOOO inelegant compared to Spaces in previous OS's. I completely understand the OP's frustration, it's a step backward for sure.

No doubt the separation of spaces and expose allowed for more control (especially for those who used one and not the other). I don't think we'll see that separation anytime soon though.

frostbyte32, take a look here to learn about some keyboard shortcuts that you might like.

Is spaces something Apple would bring back?

frostbyte32 said:

Is spaces something Apple would bring back?

Click to expand...

I agree with vansmith. It's unlikely to go back to previous functionality.

frostbyte32 said:

Is spaces something Apple would bring back?

Click to expand...

Not in it's old form. I think it's safe to say that spaces, in its current form, is how it will be from here on out. Unfortunately, the *nix nerd in me doesn't like that this goes against the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well.

I didn't use it quite as much when I had dual displays, but now that I'm on a single monitor I was pretty sure I was going to go crazy.

I haven't researched it yet, but what would it take (if it is even possible) to do a dual display on a mac mini?

All I do to move from one space to another is hit control and the right arrow. Works just like it always has, but I haven't had any need to "manage" my spaces once I got them set up in Lion (Mission Control) the first time.