Single

Mission Control (Single Monitor)

Given that there may be at any time, multiple apps open concurrently in a variety of formats, Mission Control is a tool that presents all open applications in an orderly fashion. At this point, it is important to explain the concept of a Desktop which is a virtual space in which programs reside. One way to think of it is through the previous example of bulletin boards. The desktop is a separate bulletin board on which one or more programs can be displayed.

If a program is maximized, that desktop is known as a space. That "bulletin board" is now considered full. As such, each maximized program is a separate space which is given the name of the program (except for browsers in which case the space is named with the open website). MacOS allows a maximum number of 16 separate spaces (i.e. 16 separate open apps that are maximized).

If a program is not maximized (i.e. it has been resized to take up a portion of the screen), all open non-maximized apps occupy the same desktop. These apps may or may not overlap one another. The space that these apps occupy is named Desktop. There is no limit to how many non-maximized apps may be open at the same time. (having too many apps open at the same time however, will slow down the processing speed of the computer). When there are too many apps sharing the same desktop, it can become challenging to find the app that you are looking for. Certainly, it is possible to click on the app icon in the desktop. However, there are other ways to navigate from one app to another.

Mission Control takes all of the open apps and presents them in an orderly fashion. There are several to activate Mission Control, some of which require setting up:

1. Clicking F3 (default)
2. Swipe up with three or four fingers (this requires setting up in System Preferences - Trackpad)
3. Creating a hot corner shortcut which activates when the cursor is dragged to the desired corner (requires setting up in System Preferences - Mission Control)
4. Creating a shortcut in the Dock (requires setting up Mission Control as a shortcut)
5. Using the existing shortcut (Control-Up arrow) or creating a keyboard shortcut (requires setting up in System Preferences - Keyboard)

When Mission Control is activated (see screenshot below), the desktop is shown along with all other desktops (named after the app that occupies that space). All resized apps that occupy the desktop space are sorted in a manner where each app window is visible in its entirety even if they are overlapping on the physical desktop. Simply click the desktop that you want to navigate to and Mission Control directs the user to that maximized application. Spaces can be minimized within Mission Control. Minimized spaces are added to the Desktop space in a resized format. Additional desktops can be created by clicking on the '+' symbol at the far right in Mission Control. This desktop will be blank but any apps opened will be stored in that Desktop (labelled Desktop 2). Although the default Desktop can never be deleted, additionally created Desktops can be by clicking the 'X' in the top left hand corner in Mission Control. Open apps that are in the deleted Desktop get transferred to the default Desktop.

Navigating between Spaces

Spaces (apps that have been maximized and which occupy one singular desktop space) can be manipulated easily using gestures or keyboard shortcuts:

1. Use three or four fingers to swipe right or left to move from one space to another. (set up in System Preferences - Trackpad)
2. Use two fingers to swipe on a Magic Mouse.
3. Press the Control and Right or Left key.
4. Use Mission Control to view all spaces and click on the desired space.

Navigating between Desktops

By default, one Desktop exists on which all open (non-maximized) apps reside. These apps can be resized and repositioned so that they don't overlap one another. They can be organized vertically or horizontally but this requires a lot of manual resizing and repositioning. It can be overwhelming when there are too many apps open on one Desktop. At this point, it may be beneficial to create a new Desktop which is labelled Desktop 2. Create a new Desktop by entering Mission Control and click on the '+' sign in the Spaces bar (top right hand corner). Move apps from one desktop to another by:

1. Dragging the app window to the edge of the screen where the next Desktop is located. After a few seconds, the app moves to the new Desktop.
2. Place the pointer over the window’s title bar. Press and hold the trackpad or mouse, then press the Control key and the Right or Left arrow key.
3. From the space that has the window you want to move, enter Mission Control. Then drag the window up to the space you want to use.

Using Apps in Split View

Split View is the name given when two apps are placed side by side which greatly facilitates cutting/copying and pasting, referencing, and multitasking. Split view is generally supported across most apps but there may be some occasions where an app can not be put in Split View. There are several ways of using Split View:

1. With at least two applications running on the same desktop, hold down the green button in the top left hand corner. The screen will split in two vertical halves. You can drag the application to either half and the other application will automatically align to the other side. If there are multiple applications open, once the first application has been assigned to one half of the screen, the other open apps will reposition themselves in an organized manner. Click on the app that you would like assigned to the other half of the screen.
2. With two separate displays in full screen mode, go into Mission Control and drag one display onto the other.

Further actions may be taken within a Split Screen View:

• resize the ratio of the two apps by sliding the separator line to the right or to the left
• navigate between Spaces. The Split Screen View is considered a Space of its own and behaves like any other Space. Navigate between Spaces with a three or four finger swipe to the right or left, two finger swipe with a Magic Mouse, or Control-right or Control-left.
• reveal the Dock (if it is hidden) by moving the cursor to the bottom of the screen

To exit Split View mode, select either of the two apps and click o the Green resize button.

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