Looking into Desktop
Manager after reading an article about it, I find it to be the
best tool to really produce quality work.
Think: You're writing a quarterly income report for your boss in
Pages, working on the company website in iWeb (you have a lot of
jobs), need to edit some photos in Gimp 2.2 or Photoshop (which
depends if you feel like buying or using open source), and to top
it off you have your favorite Led Zeppelin tune going (pick your
band, but that's what I'm listening to at the moment).
Instead of cluttering your desktop, wouldn't it be nice to have
different workspaces?
That's something we'll all gain with the Spaces feature in
Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), but Desktop Manager works right now
with OS X 10.3 and 10.4.
Personal Experience
At this moment, I'm running Adium X 1.0 (a beta chat client),
Safari, Pages, and iTunes - all this on a 13.3" MacBook screen - and would you
believe that I only have one window up without any minimizing or
hiding?
If you don't, then you didn't read the first paragraph.
Desktop Manager is the perfect program for those who have a
million things to do but don't own two 30" screens (wouldn't that
be nice!). The program has helped me out a great deal since I
downloaded it (it's free - another bonus).
I've been able to open any four programs (you can have more than
four virtual desktops, but I only have four right now), and you can
switch "desktops" with a simple keystroke, Option + Command + the
right or left arrow.
One very cool feature is "Program per Desktop" (I made that name
up; I don't know what else to call it).
Let's say I have Safari open on one desktop and Pages on another
while I'm writing a report and need to look something up. Instead
of switching tasks manually, if the programs are on different
desktops, Desktop Manager automatically detects what is on which
desktop and switches for you. Now that's convenience!
Professional Use
The ability to work on many projects at once definitely helps
when planning big (I'm working on three articles at the moment). A
program like this can come in handy when juggling the quarterly
report, the presentation you forgot to do for the meeting in 20
minutes, maintenance to the corporate website, and the email to
your wife explaining why you'll be late for dinner for the third
time this week.
This is a very good program for those who juggle several things
at once and have a limited workspace. That's just about everyone.
Link: Desktop Manager
