How can I get rid of 'workspaces'?

Question

How can I get rid of 'workspaces'?

Hello!

Despite having Mac OS 10.7.2 with it's 'mission control', I seem to still have workspaces. When I open Excel, the screen image slides left & a different desktop image is revealed behind my Excel window.

The annoying thing about workspaces (or whatever this is now!) is that I can't CMD-TAB from Excel to anything else. (Well, it *claims* to move to another programme - the menu bar appears, but not the document *in* the other programme.) For some reason, I have to click on my other running programmes in the Dock in order to switch to them.

How can I convince Excel not to open in this other workspace?? I am happy not to have workspaces at all!

Thanks in advance.

Rgds,

Deborah

MacBook Pro 15, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 1, 2012 8:59 PM

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Answer 1

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Jan 1, 2012 9:47 PM in response to Deborah Biancotti

Hold down 'control' and press the up arrow key.

Hover your cursor over any of the desktops ('workspaces') at the top. After about a second or so, you'll see the X to close in the top right corner. Do it for each one.

Next, go into Mission Control prefs ( > System Preferences... > Mission Control), unclick 'Show Dashboard as a space'.

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Answer 2

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Jan 1, 2012 9:59 PM in response to Deborah Biancotti

You can't turn off mission control desktops themselves from within Excel; you have to do it from within Mission Control.

You may have different hotkeys set for entering mission control. You can find out what they are by looking in

 > System Preferences... > Mission Control

If you want to have only one desktop, you need to follow the instructions I gave above.

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Answer 3

Jan 1, 2012 9:53 PM in response to softwater

Hmm, the Control+Up doesn't seem to be doing anything. Should I be in a particular screen when I try to invoke that? Or is it difference on a PowerBook?

Following other Forum advice, I right-clicked my Excel icon in the Dock & chose Options to switch off the Desktop 2 selection. Perhaps I've managed to kill Desktop 2 for good??

Rgds,

Deborah

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Answer 4

softwater

Level 5

5,556 points

Jan 1, 2012 10:19 PM in response to Deborah Biancotti

You're welcome! 🙂

BTW, note that if you enter any app into fullscreen mode it will create a temporary second desktop while in fullscreen. No way around this, I'm afraid. However, as soon as you exit fullscreen you will automatically go back to only one desktop.

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Answer 5

Jan 1, 2012 10:04 PM in response to softwater

It worked! Thanks a bunch. 🙂

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