Mission Control & Stage Manager

MacOS has some great tools for taking control of your desktop spaces

an excellent bird’s–eye view of what’s open on your Desktop, including those in full–screen or Split View. Click on the window you want to use and Mission Control closes, with the chosen app on top and active. It’s great for when you have lots of overlapping windows open at once. To activate Mission Control, swipe up with three or four fingers on your trackpad, double–tap with two fingers on a Magic Mouse, or press F3 on your keyboard.

MWith Mission Control open, you can add another desktop, or space. Move the pointer to the Spaces bar at the top of the screen, and it expands. Now every Desktop currently available to you is shown. You can add a new Desktop with the “+” on the right– hand side of the Spaces bar, and delete one by hovering over it and clicking the “X” in its corner. Click on a Desktop to switch to it, or with Mission Control closed, move between Desktops by swiping left and right with three or four fingers on a trackpad or with two fingers on a Magic Mouse. Alternatively, press Ctrl+[right arrow] or Ctrl+[left arrow] on your keyboard.

Stage Manager is a new way to organize your Desktop, introduced with Ventura. It’s designed to keep the app you’re working with front and center, with other apps in the left-hand side of the screen, clearing up the rest of your desktop. To turn it on click the icon in Control Center (a rectangle with three dots to the left). To switch apps, click on one in the left menu; you can also adjust the size and position of apps; and you can even group apps that appear in the centre.