Quick Tip: Mastering Mission Control

Quick Tip: Mastering Mission Control

on Jul 11th 2012 with 16 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Topics: Mission Control, Window Management
  • Difficulty: Beginner
  • Estimated Completion Time: 10 Minutes

Mission Control is an awesome way to keep your OS X working environment organized. It helps you save your sanity, cut the clutter and push productivity to the max by providing you with an incredibly robust way to manage all of your application windows.

Not only will run through a quick overview of how it works, we’ll also dive deep and discover some customization options and tricks that even advanced users might not know about.


Mastering Mission Control

Shortcut Overview

Here’s a quick run down of some of the tips and shortcuts that we go over in the video. Keep in mind that some of the gestures and shortcuts might be set different on your machine. Hit up System Preferences>Mission Control if something isn’t working.

Launching Mission Control

  • Trackpad: Swipe up with three fingers
  • Magic Mouse: Double tap with two fingers
  • F3 (changes depending on your keyboard setup)
  • Control + Up Arrow
  • Set up a Hot Corner to launch Mission Control quickly with your cursor

Getting Around

  • Click and drag desktops to rearrange them
  • Drag a window to the top right to create a new desktop

Customization Options

  • Disable automatic rearranging of your desktops in System Preferences>Mission Control
  • Assign apps to desktops by right clicking on their icon and going to “Options”
  • Change your Mission Control shortcuts in System Preferences>Mission Control

Mission Control Tips and Tricks

  • Switch Active Desktops: Option-click thumbnail or swipe left/right (three fingers on a trackpad, two on the Magic Mouse)
  • Hold the Option key for more options
  • Spread Out a Group of Windows: Swipe up while hovering (two fingers on a trackpad, one on the Magic Mouse.)
  • Enlarge a Window: Hit space while hovering
  • Move All Windows for an App: Click and drag the icon below the window group

Expose

  • Launch Exposé: Swipe down with three fingers on a trackpad
  • Switch apps: hit tab or tilde

What Did I Miss?

Now that you’ve seen my Mission Control tips and tricks, it’s time to jump into the conversation and add your own. Leave a comment below and let us know about any hidden features that you’ve discovered.

Josh Johnson is secondfret on Graphicriver
 
Enjoyed this Post?

Subscribe to our RSS Feed, Follow us on Twitter or simply recommend us to friends and colleagues!

By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

Equal parts editor, writer, designer, & photographer. I work for Envato and run Design Shack.  

Plus Premium
 
 
Note: Want to add some source code? Type <pre><code> before it and </code></pre> after it. Find out more
  • http://kevinlorenz.com/ verpixelt

    Nice quick tip with some little tricks i didn’t know. I guess i should start to use workspaces more often.

  • http://www.premiergamingnetwork.com Alex Devine

    I have picked up some great tips watching the video, thank you :)

  • Michiel

    Not sure if I manually set this but on my macbook air opening mission control is swiping up with four fingers on trackpad instead of three.

  • http://www.dustyhansen.com Dusty

    I understand using Mission Control to see a view of all open windows and to switch between them. I do not, however, understand the need for multiple desktops or any good use cases. Can someone elaborate?

    • rasiquiz

      If you have Photoshop on one desktop and your image library on the second.

    • http://www.youtube.com/prakshash Prakhar

      It makes it easy to separate workspaces. For example, I tend to have my different projects (I’m a student) on different desktops. I know some people who’ll separate work stuff from home stuff as well. Just helps to compartmentalize.

  • e.lee

    I love the multiple desktops! I leave email on one, photoshop on another, indesign on another, etc – makes switching between applications super fast.

  • http://kevinlorenz.com/ verpixelt

    i learned to use them to set up different workspace for example MBP Display shows my code editor and the second one the browser window. On another desktop via mission control i setup Photoshop on the one display and a preview of images and my text-documents i need on the other screen. Before i learned to use this virtual desktops i switched between all these apps with cmd + tab. I took a bit of time but i have to say it is a lot more organized and cleaner then the workflow before.

  • http://www.skaremedia.com Chris

    @dusty – Once you start using spaces in combination with mission control you will never go back. as Verpixelt said its good to organise your applications in different virtual desktops to keep things organised and clean. I keep my email inbox in one, my browsers in another, my coding app in another, miscellaneous measurement apps, tools, and text editor in another, and my finder windows in another, when I get one someone elses machine and they arent using mission control or spaces I cannot understand how they manage to find anything!

  • Dirk

    Great video! I would like to add, that it is possible to drag files between desktops or fullscreen apps by simply dragging them to the left or right screen edges.

    • http://mac.tutsplus.com Josh Johnson
      Author

      Good tip!

  • Andrei

    Thanks, Dirk! That’s good to know. I found that you can also switch between desktops using arrow keys while holding down Control key. It works in Mission Control as well as in desktop mode. Very useful.

  • andrew

    I understand this “quick tip” is just for newest os version? I have os x 10.6.8 and don’t see half of the functions presented in this video (even “mission control” has different name here: “Expose & Spaces”).

    • Andrei

      Your right, Andrew. “Mission Control” is only awailable from OS X 10.7. Older OS X versions have “Expose & Spaces” which unfortunately lack most of these functions presented in this tutorial.

  • Andrei

    I’m not sure if it was mentioned here, but anyway, while holding Control key you can enter into mission control using Up key and into App Exposé using Down key.

  • Scott May

    I made a wallpaper that helps out a bit – its a free download and you can customize it (psd file) http://www.behance.net/gallery/Organizing-Lion-Wallpaper/3091103