Spaces just got a whole lot better!

I use Spaces a lot and today it just got a whole lot better! Back in the olden days I used VirtueDesktops which in my opinion was way better than Spaces, but the project died and we were left with Spaces. In the beginning Spaces sucked a lot and it would move you to another desktop in a seemingly random way. This behavior is still the default for new installs of Leopard!  8-O Well… Apple finally fixed it ¹ and gave us an option called:

When switching to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application

This option is checked by default and should have been named “mess up spaces”, believe me you do not want this option to be checked ². Spaces is also rather limited in how you can configure the hotkey that switches from space to space, and it is in this area that Spaces just got way better. Will Henderson recently released a little tool called MultiClutch that will let you bind a three finger swipe to a keystroke. Download it, install it and follow this little guide and soon you will be swiping from space to space!

1. Disable whatever hotkey you currently have configured for Spaces ³
2. Open the MultiClutch PreferencePane and select the “Global” application.
3. Add a new gesture by clicking Add ⁴ in the bottom right corner. “Swipe Left” is the default, double click in the “Key Command” column and press your preferred “go left” hotkey ⁵
4. Add a new gesture by clicking Add in the bottom right corner, change “Swipe Left” to “Swipe Right” and then click in the “Key Command” column and press your preferred “go right” hotkey ⁶
5. Repeat for Up and Down
6. Open the Spaces PreferencePane and re-enable your preferred hotkey
7. Swipe away!

MultiClutch will also let you configure other multi-touch gestures such as pinch open and close. If you find it useful please consider giving a small donation to the developer.