Making Mac OS work for me

yuvismahi2 · Jul 25, 2020

Hey Everyone, I'm really interested in getting a MacBook. I've been disappointed in the build quality and hardware of windows machines and I'm looking to switch. I'm not sure if this is the right subreddit, but I feel like you guys are power users and really know Mac OS, so that's why I'm here.
I borrowed a friend's old macbook air and explored Mac OS a bit. A couple things poped as not being intuative for me and I was wondering how you guys work in Mac OS.

Opening an App that's open in another desktop If Safari is open in desktop 1 and I want to launch Safari in desktop 2, why instead of opening a new window in desktop 2 why does Mac OS change desktops and show me the Safari window in desktop 1?

-How to see minimized windows in exposé If I minimize a window how can I see that window? When I use exposé the minimized windows are hidden.
-command-tab Command tab on Mac OS is so weird for me. If all chrome windows are x-ed out chrome still shows up in command tab. So command tabbing to it just shows my my desktop. Ideally I'd like command tab to show my open windows and not open programs.
-Show Desktop When I take a screenshot and it saves to my desktop, I have to minimize every open window to see my desktop. Is there a minimize all option?

Resizing windows A strange thing I noticed was that when Resizing a browser page I was that when you go less than 50% of the screen instead of trying to rearrange the page to show everything it just cut off the information.

I feel like the work flow on Mac OS is a bit different than on windows. Ideally I want each desktop to be self contained. If I command tab in desktop 1 it shouldn't show me what's open in desktop 2. If I open a app in desktop 3 it should open in desktop 3. I'm really looking for solutions, shortcuts, or utilities that fix these problems. I find it really hard to feel efficient on Mac OS with these issues. It slows me down quite a bit. Thanks everyone!
https://19216811.cam/ https://1921681001.id/ https://jpgtopdf.onl/

ferrarr · Jul 25, 2020

What version of Mac OS X/OS X/macOS is the MBA running? What options are available in System Preferences > Mission Control? On Mac, you can have multiple "spaces", https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204100, and swipe between them effortlessly. You will want to look in System Preferences > Trackpad, for swiping options.

Also, macOS are not winOS so they will always behave differently, just like black is not white, or apples are not oranges, you can not expect the same thing. If you try, you will get used to the difference, and you will enjoy the differences.

MacInWin · Jul 25, 2020

Welcome to the forum.

I think the reason you get returned to Safari is that you don't need to relaunch another version of safari to have as many safari windows open as you may need. In Safari, to open a new window, just click on the "File" option beside "Safari" on the top menu bar, then "New Window" and you get a new window in Safari that you can then drag anywhere you want.

You called it command tab, but your question was about why applications continue to appear. The red "X" does NOT close an app, it just pushes it into the background, still running. So when you close all Chrome windows, Chrome is still running, just not visible. You can see that on the Dock across the bottom, where a little dot appears below the Chrome icon. CMD-Tab shows all running applications, open windows or not. If Chrome has no open windows and you CMD-Tab to select it, you get the desktop, as you might expect with no open windows. To open a window, click on the icon on the Dock.

You can organize your Desktop so that you have a better idea of where the screenshot is going to end up appearing. That way you can just move windows out of the way to see the icon for the screenshot. Or you can use another desktop to get to the image. To get another desktop swipe four fingers up on the trackpad and at the top you will see a "+" in the upper right corner. Click that to add another desktop. With no application windows on it, but all the Desktop icons.

Browsers work that way, as far as I know. You can shrink until you get to the minimum size (mostly for images) and then it starts to cut off.

Maybe this link to the Use Guide for macOS will help: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/welcome/mac

it's for Catalina, but most of it is the same in recent versions of the OS.

Hope that helps some.

IWT · Jul 25, 2020

A warm welcome to Mac-Forums, yuvismahi2. Thanks for your post.

Let's talk Desktops first as you mention this twice.

When you first open an app, it appears in the Dock (that is the long line of app icons at the bottom of the screen).

If you Right Click on the newly opened app and then look at "Options". You can assign this app, say Safari, to open on All Desktops, This One, or None.

"All" means all Desktops. "This" means that Safari, in this example, will always open on that specific Desktop. "None" means the app will open in the currently active Desktop.

See here for more info on Spaces, Creating Multiple Desktops and assigning apps:

https://www.lifewire.com/assign-mac-apps-to-open-in-specific-desktop-space-2260812
https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...tly-ignored-macos-mojave-productivity-feature

Ian

NSMacGuru · Jul 25, 2020

You can set a gesture on your trackpad to "show desktop" - i.e., move all windows out past the margins temporarily.

I have this set on my iMac as 'hot corner'; my bottom-left corner is "show desktop", my top-left corner is "start screensaver", top-right is "lock screen"; bottom-right is "show all application windows"... customizable. Look in the "Desktop Screensaver" System Preferences --> Screensaver --> Hot Corners.

pm-r · Jul 25, 2020

IWT said:
Let's talk Desktops first as you mention this twice.

I had to chuckle at myself a bit here and was wondering what all the talk about was about "Multiple Desktops" when running Mac OS, and then I realized you must all be talking about and using Mission Control.

No wonder it seemed a bit strange to me as I don't think I have ever used Mission Control in all my years of Mac use.

I always seemed to find it too confusing. Maybe the OP could try doing the same If it would simplify things for them???

Just a thought...

;-)

- Patrick
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MacInWin · Jul 25, 2020

Well, multiple desktops is more of a u*ix appellation, but since Apple refers to Desktops in Mission Control, it makes sense. I have no idea why Apple decided to use Mission Control--we're not going to the moon. But I do use multiple desktops all the time for having multiple large windows open. It's almost second nature now to do the swipe up to get to a different desktop. You can also do a three or four finger swipe r-to-l to go to the "next" desktop, which if all you have is two, is the OTHER one. Or l-to-r to get to the number 1 desktop in Mission Control. Lots of options available, as usual.

ferrarr · Jul 25, 2020

I have two displays, one display usually has only two apps on it as desktop spaces. The other has usually 3+ apps open to full screen as spaces. Swiping <(l) or >(r)