Windowing Productivity On The Mac

From an Interface perspective there are three kinds of Macs:

1. The Mac with a small screen – less than the 17″ MacBook Pro screen, which means a laptop or a Mac Mini that’s got a small screen connected to it.
2. All other single monitor Macs with screens 17″ or greater.
3. Macs with dual monitors.

The difference between these three possible working environments is immense and it all has to do with the use of windows. On the the small screen Mac (less than 17″) it’s pretty much impossible to work with two Windows side-by-side on the desktop. With a larger screen, it’s the natural mode of working and it’s a great deal more productive than one-window-at-a-time. You can just about do two windows side-by-side with a 17″ laptop.

With dual monitors you can see and use three or more windows at a time. I’ve recently set up a dual monitor configuration, and it’s more than worth it, but there are so many possible ways to work that describing them here will only confuse. I’ll say nothing more about it here.

The defining principle about screen space is:

More screen space means higher productivity.

This isn’t a theory by the way, it’s been tested in various studies – although there are disputes and criticism surrounding how to measure productivity. However, you know this assertion has to be true in general. If, for example, you work between two applications regularly, then being able to see both at the same is clearly more productive than having to bring one forward to look at it when switching between the two.

I worked on a 20″ Mac for quite a while. When I bought the Mac Pro, I breathed in deeply and bought a 30″ screen. At first I felt lost in the big screen, but soon started to exploit the extra space. On the 20″ Mac I would bump into the Dock periodically, no matter where I put it and how small I made it. On the 30″ screen, that did happen much. All such activity is unproductive. (If I could eliminate the Dock completely I would, but it’s not advised.)

In 2 App mode.

The main point to understand is that some tasks involve having two applications work with each other (and very few involve three). These are some examples from my activities:

• Mac Mail, with FireFox or Safari (when answering email)
• Mac Mail, with iCal (planning)
• Pages or Word, with FireFox or Safari (when writing a report)

You have to have a scheme that designates which Windows to put on the left and which to put on the right. I decided to put the “main app” I’m working with on the left and the “partner app” on the right. That made me divide apps into main apps and partner apps. It’s difficult to separate this from from how you organize Spaces. (See How To Be Productive Using Spaces on the Mac – I’m presuming you’ve read it). I organize Spaces in terms of assigning a Space to each main app.

I pretty soon discovered that, with me, the browser ends up partnering with many apps. It’s probably generally true, because the browser isn’t just a single application – its a workspace with a whole bunch of applications buried within it. Anyway, the point here is that you have to get your use of applications within Spaces organized, and you need to be mindful of screen space, when you do that.

Window Management

You need to manage windows so you don’t spend lots of time doing nothing more than moving them around, resizing them and getting distracted by the ones you’re not using. There’s not a great deal you can do to a window. Here are the possibilities:

1. Hide it or Minimize it. If you hide it, you wont see the window in the Dock. If you minimize it, it moves into the dock. Command M minimizes and Command H hides.
2. Make it Appear. If you launch an app that’s already running, it comes to the front. If it’s not already running it comes to the front when it launches. If it is designated to run in a Space that you are not currently in, OS X will automatically changes to the appropriate Space and bring it forward.
3. Move it. You can only drag it with the mouse as far as I know.
4. Resize it. In OS X you use the bottom right corner to change window size, but sometimes applications will allow you to “maximize” screen usage, which means “use it all” with a single command. Aperture does this, for example. It would be nice if you could pass parameters to such applications so you had some control over this, but I don’t know any apps let you do this is a simple way.
5. Zoom in and Out. This only alters how information is displayed within the windows. But you need to think of zooming if you want to make best use of a work space.

Display or hide elements of the App. For example, you can show or hide various toolbars on most browsers.

Window Principles

The overriding principle is this:

Remove all distractions. Amplify the signal and minimize the noise.

This should lead you to do the following things as a matter of course:

1. Actively determine the most productive size ad location for the windows for each app – and standardize. You want to fix the windows at that size and location. You can do this on the Mac in most apps by launching the app, setting the window size and then quitting the app. The next time you open the app the window will be where it was when you closed it and the exact size it was. (Sadly, this does not work with all apps.)
2. Hide or Minimize windows when not using them. They only distract if they’re on the screen and you’re not using them. When you need them you should be able to get them back with a keystroke or two using a launcher. Use the keyboard to hide or reveal windows. This is very important when you have a small screen.
3. Organize your workspace so you rarely have to move windows. If you can do this, it helps productivity in another way, because you always know exactly where to look on the screen for specific information.
4. Remove unwanted “noise” from each app. Most apps allow some level of customization so you can hide icons, toolbars, etc. Be ruthless and get rid of anything that serves no useful purpose.
5. Use the Zoom. Most Apps have a zoom capability. The point is that there is a best zoom level for you to work at, which depends to some extent on how good your eyesight is and the screen space you have. For example, I use FireFox with one level of zoom up from normal. It find it easier to read. I use pages or Word with a higher than normal level of zoom too. I’m more productive like that.

Click on this link: PDQ Mac to see a list of other postings on Apple Mac productivity.