Quick Tip: Moving Open Windows Between Spaces
I 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.
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.
Sweet. This is a lot faster than the other 2 methods (F8+drag-n-drop and nudging windows towards the edges of the screen).
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!
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
Theo’s tip worked like a charm. Also easier to pull off.
[...] 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 [...]
[...] Quick Tip: Moving Open Windows Between Spaces | MacApper. [...]
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.
neat
thanks for this one
very nice short cuts, I had been looking for something like this for a while and Im happy to have finally found them. BUT anything that involves moving the cursor to the top of a window and holding down the “clicker” is not really a keyboard short cut. I know Ubuntu has the short cut “ctrl-shift-arrow” or “cmnd-shift-arrow” (depending on your settings), thats soooooo much more convenient
These should save you a bunch of time if you’re doing them right. Great tips!
If you have a Magic Mouse, download Magic Prefs (free from the Apple site) and then you can bind mouse actions to Spaces. I have my “middle click” assigned to it, so whenever I middle click, I get to see all my spaces. Click it again to go back to whatever space I was on, or point/regular click to go to one.
I have recently shifted to a Mac OS and everyday has been a discovery. I started using Spaces and was desperately looking for a shortcut to move application windows to different spaces and finally discovered the answer here. This is an invaluable tip! Love it! Thank you very much.
I recently started using MacOS X and I must say that spaces are pretty lame as compared to what any decent GNU/Linux distributions offer. Why do I even need to use my mouse? What I’d want is cmd+ to move window to given space and -F to switch to that space.
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Thanks for the tips!
I personally hate key commands that take two hands. I also don’t like my window positions to change when moving from one Space to another…
A solution that works well for me is to activate spaces (I have that set to Cmd + F3) and then Expose all windows (which for me is Alt + F3) and THEN drag whichever application window to whichever space I want… Using Expose inside spaces like this causes any dragged window to maintain it’s position in the new Space.
All without putting down my coffee!