How to use multiple desktops on a Mac

Create a desktop

1. Open Mission Control: press ⌃↑, press the Mission Control key (F3) or swipe up with three or four fingers.
2. The Spaces bar runs along the top of the screen. Click the + at its right end.
3. Click the new thumbnail to go there.

Each display gets its own row of desktops while Displays have separate Spaces is on (the default).

Switch between desktops

Turn on Control-number

The jump-to-desktop shortcuts are off out of the box. Create the desktops first, then open System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Mission Control, expand it, and tick Switch to Desktop 1, Switch to Desktop 2 and so on. An entry only shows up for desktops that exist.

Reorder and remove desktops

• Reorder: in Mission Control, drag a thumbnail along the Spaces bar.
• Remove: hover over a thumbnail and click the × that appears. Its windows move to another desktop; nothing closes.

Put an app on one desktop, or on all of them

Right-click the app's Dock icon, choose Options, and under Assign To pick This Desktop (the app always opens there), All Desktops (it follows you everywhere, good for a music player or chat) or None. Moving single windows is covered in move a window to another desktop.

Full-screen apps are desktops too

When you click the green button, the window goes full screen in a Space of its own, next to your desktops in the Spaces bar. Split View pairs live in their own Space the same way. That's why swiping sideways sometimes lands you in a full-screen app instead of a desktop.

Settings that make Spaces behave

All of these are in System Settings → Desktop & Dock, in the Mission Control section:

• Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use: turn it off. With it on, macOS reorders desktops as you use them, so Desktop 3 isn't where you left it. More on this in stop your Mac rearranging Spaces.
• When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application: on by default. Leave it on if you keep apps on fixed desktops; turn it off if ⌘Tab keeps throwing you to another desktop.
• Group windows by application: groups windows by app in Mission Control. Personal taste.
• Displays have separate Spaces: on by default. Leave it on unless a tool asks otherwise.

If the slide animation bothers you, see how to speed up switching Spaces.

What you can't do

• Name a desktop. macOS numbers them. Giving each one a different wallpaper is the usual workaround: switch to the desktop and set its wallpaper there.
• See the desktop number in the menu bar. Not without a third-party menu bar app.

Do you need many desktops?

People usually add desktops for one reason: the screen is full. Email goes to Desktop 2, chat to Desktop 3, and the project to Desktop 1. That works, but every switch is a full-screen slide, and you have to remember where you put things.

A scrolling window manager gives each desktop more room instead. In Ribbon, every window on a desktop sits side by side on one horizontal strip that can be wider than the screen, and you swipe or press ⌃⌥← / → to move along it. Each desktop on each display has its own strip, so you can still keep one desktop per project and drop the desktops that only existed to hold overflow. Try the strip in the live demo to see how it feels; pricing is $9.99 once.