MacOS – Full-Screen Auto-Location Change in OS X 10.10

desktopmacosmission-controlspaces

I'm using a MacBook Pro with Retina, currently at OS X 10.10.3.
I use it for both personal and work related matters, more often than not, at the same time. As such, I have 6 desktops ready to go at any given time.

I have the "Auto-Arrange" option switched off, so I don't lose my mind going through the desktops.

My problem lies in switching an app into full screen. The default behavior of course is for the space to go to the far right of all the desktops, and in cases where I'm only using 2 or 3 desktops, I end up having to swipe into mission control and either manually rearranging for every app I switch into full-screen, or when I'm in "auto-mode", I just end up swiping 4 times or so to get to the space…

Any behavior can be changed, just a matter of finding a way.
Anyone know how to change it so that full-screen apps show up on the left of the other desktops/spaces (same as where the dashboard is), instead of being added to the right of them?

Best Answer

I've never found any way to get full-screen apps to go to the left. At least they don't drop randomly in the middle of other Desktops like they used to, so at least you now know where they're going to be.

My workaround has been to use the default ctrl/number key commands in System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control, as below, which in my case makes the first full-screen app accessible by Ctrl ⌃ 6 then Ctrl ⌃ → or one swipe.

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Related Solutions

MacOS – keyboard shortcut to jump directly to a particular full screen app in Lion

If you want this for a specific app, you could use an application like Keyboard Maestro to set up a shortcut to switch to that application.

If you want this for every app, I don't think it is possible at the moment. It may come with an update (as the ability to manually re-arrange spaces in Mission Control).

Waiting for a better solution, you can still use ⌃→ and ⌃← to navigate between spaces (including fullscreen applications).

How to make an app go full screen to the LEFT of the desktop

If I have understood your question correctly, you can achieve this by the following:

1. Launch Mission Control
2. Add a new desktop by clicking Add to the right
3. Drag the desktops in order of preference
4. Exit Mission Control
5. Navigate to the desktop you want an app to open on then right-click the app icon in the dock, choose Options and select This Desktop underneath Assign To (this assigns the selected app to the active desktop in either full screen or normal maximised views)

Note that when you drag the desktops, the naming will always be ordered numerically from left to right. So if you began with a single desktop, adding any subsequent desktops will change the name of the original desktop to Desktop 1. If you drag another desktop to the left of Desktop 1 then Desktop 1 will become 2.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – keyboard shortcut to jump directly to a particular full screen app in Lion

How to make an app go full screen to the LEFT of the desktop

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