Sunday, April 20, 2008

Spaces rules - or how to navigate on your Mac OSX Leopard

Today I worked through the configuration of my keyboard shortcuts and discovered, that Mac OSX 10.5 Spaces is actually useful - if you know your keys :)

For my setup, I've:
  • F12: Exposé (all windows)
  • F11: Exposé (application windows)
  • F10: Show desktop
  • F9 : Spaces

I discovered, that Spaces is (like Exposé) useable with your cursor keys!
When I press F9, Spaces is launched with a total of 9 spaces - now that's a lot of screen space :)

Finally I can control all important applications my Mac entirely with the keyboard:
  • Mac OSX: APPLE+TAB = switch between all applications
  • Mac OSX: OPTION+TAB = (looks like APPLE+TAB) switch between all open windows on this space (you need witch installed)
  • Mac OSX: F12, CURSOR KEYS = (more impressive display) switch between all open windows on this space
  • Mac OSX: OPTION+CURSOR KEYS = switch between neighbor spaces
  • Mac OSX: F9, CURSOR KEYS, RETURN = navigate directly to the space
  • In Firefox: OPTION+APPLE+CURSOR KEYS = switch between tabs
  • In Adium: APPLE+CURSOR KEYS = switch between chat tabs
  • In TextMate: OPTION+APPLE+CURSOR KEYS = switch between tabs (only available with projects)
Just don't forget which key does what ;)