Mac Spaces: Create Separate Virtual Desktops for Different Tasks

Spaces is a macOS feature that lets you create multiple separate virtual desktops — called Spaces — on your Mac. Each Space has its own set of open windows and apps, so you can keep different types of work completely separate without everything piling up on a single desktop.

Imagine having two physical desks side by side. On one desk you keep your work — email, spreadsheets, documents. On the other desk you have your personal things — photos, a browser with news, music. Spaces does the same thing digitally. Switching between desktops is instant: a three-finger swipe on the trackpad or a keyboard shortcut takes you from one Space to another, and all your windows are exactly where you left them.

This is genuinely useful for people who do different things on their Mac at different times of day. A teacher might keep their lesson preparation in one Space and their personal web browsing in another. A small business owner might keep accounting software in one Space and email in a second Space. Seniors who want a less cluttered screen appreciate being able to put just a few apps on one desktop rather than having everything visible at once.

Spaces can also run apps in full-screen mode, which gives each full-screen app its own dedicated Space. When you make Safari full-screen, for instance, it gets its own Space, and you can swipe between your normal desktop and the full-screen browser without the browser window overlapping anything else.

Spaces is managed through Mission Control. Creating, rearranging, and deleting Spaces all happen from the Mission Control view, which you reach by swiping up with three fingers on the trackpad.