Quick Tip: Moving Open Windows Between Spaces

spaces iconI love the fact that Spaces is included in the Leopard OS; many would not think that this would be a useful feature. I used to be one of those who found it to be a waste.

For the average Mac user, it may be, but for those of us who are demanding or hate clutter, the ability to create multiple workstations is invaluable.

Those of you who use Spaces probably know that you can click on the Spaces icon in your dock to invoke your spaces (see Picture 1). In this view, you can move your open apps, files, or folders from one space or workstation to the next. However, since I am a big supporter of mac’s philosophy of productivity, I would rather use shortcuts in order to achieve the same goal but much quicker than having to go to my dock and invoke Spaces.

spaces

One way to achieve this is by positioning your cursor where you can manipulate the window of the open app, file, or folder you want to move (preferably at the top of the window). Then what you should do is hold down your clicker and use your trackpad or mouse to drag that app’s window all the way to the left, top, right, or bottom of your desktop in order to move it to the desired space or workstation.

Now, even though this is quicker than clicking on the Spaces icon in your dock, this is not quick enough for me. So then, there is a second and even quicker way to achieve this as well. Again, position your cursor at the top of the window or app you would like moved. Then, hold down your clicker and invoke the key command for moving to a different space or workstation (mine is Command + arrow keys) and drop it in the space or workstation so desired.

This is definitely the quickest way to move any window to another space or workstation.

Comments

8 Responses to “Quick Tip: Moving Open Windows Between Spaces”

  1. Harish Mallipeddi on January 22nd, 2008 7:29 am

    Sweet. This is a lot faster than the other 2 methods (F8+drag-n-drop and nudging windows towards the edges of the screen).

  2. Mark Milian on January 22nd, 2008 1:35 pm

    Interesting! I didn’t realize you could nudge the windows or use the keystroke to move to another Space. I’d been using F8 all this time. Pretty handy tip!

  3. Theo on January 22nd, 2008 4:52 pm

    Hi Joshua,

    You forgot maybe the fastest combo available. Holding down the “clicker” as you put it, on the top of the window, and then pressing Ctrl – 1, or Ctrl -2, you get the idea :)

  4. AC on January 31st, 2008 12:05 am

    Theo’s tip worked like a charm. Also easier to pull off.

  5. Moving An Open Window to a New Space on December 22nd, 2008 5:50 pm

    [...] quick tip, I learned here, is to click on the window you want and then to use the command you have set up in Spaces (like [...]

  6. Squarenine [Sq]9 » Quick Tip: Moving Open Windows Between Spaces | MacApper on January 28th, 2009 1:15 am

    [...] Quick Tip: Moving Open Windows Between Spaces | MacApper. [...]

  7. pandu on June 28th, 2009 1:38 pm

    quick tip: if your using adobe air applications you can do the quick 2 methods above, you have to use f8 or you spaces app in the dock.

  8. mir on October 5th, 2009 3:30 am

    neat :D thanks for this one

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