Too Many Spaces

With only 13.3" screen, you can run out of space pretty fast on a Macbook. The new Leopard operating system has a neat feature that gives you more space to store running programs. Spaces has the ability to add up to 15 more screens to your system. 16 total screens is overkill, but two or three more screens can help you get work done faster without the need to minimize and expand. Multiple screen has been around for some time. Users of Linux operating systems have had this feature built in for many years. Popular operating systems have not adopted this layering system until now.

BPS users will have to look for Spaces. Spaces was not placed in your Dock by default. You can startup spaces from your application folder or (command + space bar) and type spaces. Once activated you can select the number of rows and columns (in system preferences). The default is two rows and two columns. I find it easier to limit to one row and two or three columns to start. Once you have become used to the feature you can go wild. The best way to keep Spaces ready to use is to add it to your dock. When running, right click (control+click) and select "keep in dock."

Once Spaces has been activated and configured you can slide application to the side of your screen or click on Spaces in the dock and drag application where you want. Moving from one screen to the next can be done in two ways. Pressing (control) and either the left or right arrow key will switch your view to the next screen. You can also add a Spaces icon to the Menu Bar in Preferences. The Menu Bar Icon will allow movement with a click. Spaces allows you to change your mind and move applications from window to window whenever you like. Spaces preferences also allows you to specify which screen an application will load in (press + to add applications). This is a nice feature once you get used to using it. Spaces comes in handy with Parallels. You can run Windows XP full screen in one space and other applications in the rest. One caution, using several applications at once will reduce your memory resources. Try not to over do it.