Using Spaces for virtualized workspaces makes almost too much sense.
I also give Rob a "5" for pointing out one of the best uses of Spaces- for screenshots. I hadn't thought of that. I do a lot of them for documentation of procedures. I often find myself hiding all other apps to get a clean screenshot. No more.


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I don't quite get how this is any better than Expose?

Even in full screen mode in Parallels, I can use Expose to switch to other windows.

The only benefit I can see is that having OS X in one space, Windows in another, and maybe something else in a third, doesn't half look cool when you display your spaces (F whatever, or a hot corner) in front of a Windows user!

Mark

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Well, for one, you can arrange your windows as you want them, and not have them screwed around with by other apps. I often have a workspace setup with a variety of windows from different applications arranged for easy access. But I also need my email and chat clients, and I don't want them getting in the way of my workspace windows.

If I wanted to do this all with Expose, I would constantly be futzing around with selecting window after window in Expose. Why? I can instantly silde to a space, and its all there. And I can reserve a space for temporary work, like file management.

Expose is like Spotlight. It lets you control your chaos without eliminating it. Spaces is like Finder. It lets you setup and use a neatly organized workspace.

Frankly, I use spaces constantly, and almost never touch Expose anymore.

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Actually that's helped me understand Spaces no-end, thanks.

I think the reason I don't see Expose and Spaces as very different is that I run almost everything full screen because of my relatively small screen (MacBook Pro). Given that, there's not a lot of difference between the two - they are both just a collection of full screen windows with no layout as such.

If I had enough room on my monitor to arrange collections of related windows together (e.g. for dragging images from finder to a word doc), then spaces could become very useful. As it is, I just drag from one full screen window, to bottom right (Expose hot corner), hover over the window I want to drag to, then to that window.

Mark

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I never saw the use of Exposé (or Spaces) hot corners until you explained what you use them for: drag & drop. This is GENIUS. Thanks!

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I'm a little surprised by using Spaces to help with Screenshots. Maybe I'm just weird, but I almost never make ones that cover more than one window (and have never done one that included the menu, I suppose). It does beg a related question, though... Is there any way to do a screenshot that covers all (or at least more than one) Spaces at a time?

Not sure if I'd ever want to do it, but it seems like an interesting idea... and I still need to see how Spaces interacts with multiple monitors.

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I tried this the other night but ran into some problems. I could hit Control -> or Control-2 to go into my Parallels space but Control <- or Control-1 wouldn't get me back.

I think it's because I told Parallels to swap my Control and Command keys (in my head the Command key is Windows' Control key, so it makes sense to hit Command-P in Windows to print). Has anyone tried this and found a workaround? I haven't bought the Parallels 3.0 upgrade, yet. I'm not sure it's worth it.

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This (much to my surprise) even works with Virtual PC (for those of us still using G4s or G5s).

It's the first time I've ever found the full screen mode useful.

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