Too Many Programs Open? 2 Tips to Make Your Life Easier!

A cluttered desktop. Thanks to the powerful way Mac OS X manages memory, it is easy to have several applications open at one time.

Posting to your blog, listening to iTunes, burning a picture DVD, monitoring your feed reader, etc...
Your desktop can become VERY cluttered indeed!

How can you keep track of all those programs? Well, aside from seeing them on you dock, Mac OS X Leopard has two features that allow you see each window open and select the one you wish. You can even have several desktops further organizing your workflow.

Exposé
When you want to see hidden windows on your desktop, quick keystroke or even a mouse movement will separate them so you can see them all.

As you can see above, three applications can be viewed at once. Simply click on the one you wish to switch to! (Of course you can Command-Tab to swich applications, but this allows you to select a different window.)

Spaces

Even further in an effort to keep your work organized, Apple has written Spaces so that you can even have up to 16 'desktops' on your Mac. (Much like Linux.)

Windows can be moved between desktops simply by dragging. (Tip: without opening Spaces, drag a window to the edge of your desktop and it will move to the adjoining space.) You can even set certain applications to open in the specific space you choose!

Simply open System Preferences and enable these tools. You may find it very useful.

Have you found these useful? How many desktops do you keep?

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