What is the point of Mission Control?

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Level 1

4 points

What is the point of Mission Control?

I have been a Mac user since 1987, when I got my first SE/30. I understand a LOT about the Mac OS, and I consider myself and expert. For the life of me, however, I cannot figure out the point of Mission Control (or Exposé or Spaces, for that matter). Let me explain, and ask if anyone here can clear this up for me.

As I understand it, the point of Mission Control is to make it easy to access various open applications in an uncluttered workspace/desktop. If this is the case, then how is this better than, say, Quickeys, which I have used forever?

In other words, I typically use the following applications, all open at the same time: Word, Mail, Safari, my office accounting program, iTunes, iChat, and maybe one or two more. I use Quickeys and have assigned a keyboard shortcut for each - for example, control-E for mail; control-s for Safari; control-W for Word, etc. It is second nature for me to immediately go to, say, Mail by pressing control-E. Bringing the app to the front is literally instantaneous.

I "get it" that, say, Safari can show below Mail, or iTunes can show behind Word, but that (multiple windows partially overlappiong each other) has never bothered me - indeed, I've never even considered it something worthy of worry.

Thus, my question is, how does Mission Control do this - navigation of open applications - better than Quickeys? Is it simply and only to avoid the "behind the window clutter"? If so, is the contortion needed to activate Mission Control - removing fingers from keyboard, clicking mouse, navigating mouse to proper desktop, and returning keys to keyboard - worth it? If so, how? There has to be something else to this Mission Control that I am just missing.

Could one of you enlighten me?

Thanks!

Posted on Sep 27, 2011 11:11 AM

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Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

362,001 points

Sep 27, 2011 11:17 AM in response to cjaubert

See:

OS X Lion - The world's most advanced OS.

Mission Control - A bird's-eye view of everything.

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Answer 2

cjaubert Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 27, 2011 11:26 AM in response to Kappy

Forgive me, please, Kappy, but I have read these links, and they don't really address my question.

Maybe my question was not well stated - how about this rephrasing: WHY would I want to, say, see a thumbnail of all my open apps more slowly in MIssion Control, when I could see it more quickly and more easily using Quickeys? Presumably, I know what applications are open, and if I want to see, for example, what Word documents are open, or what webpage Safari is on, I can get there faster and easier by just pressing control-W or control-S than by navigating the attendants steps necessary to get to the same information in Mission Control.

More to the point, I just don't understand how Mission Control (a) does something more quickly than Quickeys; (b) does something more easily than Quickeys; or (c) does something different than Quickeys?

In this regard, I'm curious - do you use Quickeys? If not, perhaps my questions would not make much sense. Also, if you do use Quickeys, I wonder if I can set up keyboard shortcuts to get me to specific windows in Mission Control? If nothing else, this would eliminate the "clutter" that doesn't bother me anyway.

Sorry if my questions are not making sense.

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Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

362,001 points

Sep 27, 2011 11:35 AM in response to cjaubert

Like many things in OS X there may be different ways for doing the same things. If you prefer using QuicKeys then by all means use it. You don't have to use Mission Control. However, Mission Control does incorporate the feature of creating multiple desktops were that something of use to you. In general, Mission Control combines the features of Expose and Desktops into one utility. Since it is an application it does not do anything unless you use it specifically. Mission Control is not really something that competes with a utility like QuicKeys which is a keyboard macro utility.

In some regards I think you are trying to compare apples with oranges. If you find QuicKeys provides all the features you need for your uses, then why worry about what Mission Control does or does not do.

And, to answer your last question, I have used QuicKeys as well as several of its competitors. Personally, I find trying to remember keyboard macros and shortcuts to be a pain in the neck. But given my uses I findi that I neither need Mission Control nor keyboard macro utilities. And, that's one less third--party utility that may prove incompatible with OS X.

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Answer 4

cjaubert Author

Level 1

4 points

Sep 27, 2011 11:39 AM in response to Kappy

Thanks again, Kappy.

Regarding your comment, "If you find QuicKeys provides all the features you need for your uses, then why worry about what Mission Control does or does not do," that misses my point. My point was not to compare apples and bananas; my point was to try to learn IF there were something that Mission Control did that either I did not see, or, could not be done more easily and more quickly than something else. I don't care to use, or not use, Mission Control; I just want to understand what it does and why it's even there.

Thanks!

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Answer 5

First Magus

Level 7

21,299 points

Sep 27, 2011 11:47 AM in response to cjaubert

I find mission control very easy to get to and fast to switch between screens and apps. I programmed a hot corner so a quick mouse jog too the corner and I am in Mission Control. The best reason I can see to use it over Quickeys is the price. Why would I pay money for an app when Mission Control works fine and is built into Lion. $59.95 isn't cheap in my opinion. That is the latest price on the Quickeys web page.

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Answer 6

Kappy

Level 10

362,001 points

Sep 27, 2011 11:55 AM in response to cjaubert

As I said Mission Control is combination of Expose and Spaces that was part of Snow Leopard's preferences. It's been created as an application in Lion. If you know about Snow Leopard's Expose then you pretty much know what Mission Control does and why it is there. There's much written about it elsewhere, so perhaps you could Google it. Certainly if you know what Expose and Spaces was on Snow Leopard then you pretty much know Mission Control.

For example, this article on CNet goes through the basics of what Mission Control does. There are lots of YouTube demos of it, too. i'm not sure how much more I can add to answer your question.

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Answer 7

K T

Level 7

23,889 points

Sep 27, 2011 12:01 PM in response to cjaubert

Apple seems to be moving away from the desktop metaphor. MC is yet another attempt to persuade users to focus on their content and forget the Finder. Consider it a mid-point in an effort that will see iCloud take over more as 10.7 matures.

I expect iTunes to be the new desktop eventually.

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Answer 8

Kappy

Level 10

362,001 points

Sep 27, 2011 12:04 PM in response to K T

And, this is based on what, exactly? I'm afraid i don't see the logic. Were Apple persuading us to focus on content and forget the finder, then why would they move away from the "desktop metaphor" to the iTunes metaphor? That seems like just a sideways movement, not a move forward.

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Answer 9

dwb

Level 7

33,214 points

Sep 27, 2011 2:07 PM in response to cjaubert

Different people have different ways of working and long ago I discovered the joys of virtual desktops (think mission control). Since System 7 (when the multi-finder stopped being optional) I've been keeping lots of programs open at the same time. The problem with that is the desktop gets very cluttered very fast and getting to the right window of the right program can be challenging. Thankfully between 3rd party tools and Apple's own built in tools we have many ways of dealing with this. Mission Control (virtual desktops) is one of them.

I have assigned related programs to a single desktop. I have the Programming Desktop where the terminal, BBedit, Racket, and Xcode tools live. I have the Writing Desktop where Pages, Word, and InDesign live. And so on. This cuts down on the clutter of my display since only a couple programs appear on a single virtual desktop. Where Mission Control itself comes into play is when I need to get a resource from one Desktop to another. Say I'm writing an email and need to refer back to a document in Word. I might open the document in Word (which would move me into the Writing Desktop) then I'd shift to Mission Control and drag that Word document's window into my Internet Desktop so it would temporarily reside along with Mail so I could look at both the Word document and my email.

It isn't the only way to work but I've found it very convenient and indispensible on my notebook. On my work desktop where I have two displays my workflow is a little different since I have lots of REAL window space.

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Answer 10

Nov 9, 2011 12:02 PM in response to cjaubert

In my experience most of the time it is a faster way of changing between applications. Creating various desktops and dragging appication windows to each allows you to swipe horizontally thru them also, but of course these funcions need a touchpad or magic mouse to make sense.

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