By Graham K. Rogers

Apart from the icons and interfacing, changes to most System Preferences in OS X 10.10, Yosemite, have been small. The preferences pane for Mission Control has been changed. Mission Control provides settings to give users an overview of all open windows, applications and Dashboard.

What was called Exposé & Spaces in earlier versions of OS X was replaced by Mission Control. This has a single panel, in two sections. At the top are checkboxes for Mission Control and Dashboard as before. This has had one checkbox that affected the way displays are used, removed. At the bottom are (unchanged) Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts, with a button for Hot Corners at bottom left.

Mission Control

• Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use. This can be used in conjunction with the Dock menu which allows a user to specify a Space for an application (see Notes).

• When switching to an application, switch to a Space with open windows for the application.

• Group windows by application

• Displays have separate Spaces (new in Mavericks). This works in conjunction with Displays Preferences: when Mirroring is Off, new features are available. External displays behave as in previous versions of OS X when this box is checked.

The option of "Show Dashboard as a Space" has been removed and replaced by a button beneath the checkboxes. By default, when Mission Control is used, a thumbnail display of Dashboard is shown to the left of the thumbnails of any desktops that are active.

The button allows three options: As Space, As Overlay, OFF. With the Space (like before) pressing F12 (or fn + F12) opens the Dashboard screen with its widgets. Overlay makes the screen appear in a semi-transparent mode over the current display, which may be more convenient for some users.

There is an eXtensions widget available on the Apple site.

Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts

• Mission Control: default key is F9 (fn + F9 if the fn option is used on notebooks). Mission Control activates, showing all open applications and spaces;

• Application windows: default key is F10 (or fn + F10). All open panels of the front application are shown. Any minimized panels are shown as smaller thumbnail panels (icons will match the file type);

• Show Desktop: default key is F11 (fn + F11). All application panels are moved off to the sides and the desktop is visible;

• Show Dashboard: default key is F12 (fn + F12). The desktop is moved to the right and the user has access to the Dashboard and any Widgets installed.

When clicked, each button in the first column reveals a list of keys which may be used to reallocate the command. For example, instead of the default F9 for Mission Control, we may choose Right Shift.

When selecting a key, pressing on a modifier key (e.g. Control) adds that to the command. Re-allocation takes affect immediately. If a key (or combination) is used that conflicts with other operations, or previously allocated commands, a yellow warning triangle is displayed alongside the button.

Buttons in the second column for using the mouse as a means of control are initially unallocated. A dash is shown. Users may choose to have one or more of the above features activated with a mouse click. On my installation I may choose only Secondary Mouse Button or Middle Mouse Button. Connecting a mouse with more buttons and controls did not make any further options available.

If any of the control keys (Shift, Control, Option, Command) is pressed - alone or in combination - these also appear in the menu. They are accepted (or removed) by clicking the mouse.

Hot Corners

Notes

New Spaces can be added when Mission Control is being used - click the icon in the Dock - by moving the cursor towards the top right of the screen. A new, semi-transparent Space appears (using the desktop image from Space 1). By clicking in that new Space, it becomes active and is allocated a consecutive number (e.g. Desktop 7). This then also appears in Key Commands.

To remove a Space, slide the cursor towards the Space display when Mission Control is being used. An X will appear at the top left of the Space thumbnail. Clicking on this removes the Space.

When an application icon is shown in the Dock (open or not), click on the icon and use the Options menu to Assign the application to "All Desktops" (previously "All Spaces") or "This Desktop" or "None" (default).

As pointed out to me in an email from Greg of Imaja Software, when discussing an earlier version of OS X, another useful feature is that when Mission Control is used to view all open windows, the miniature views of the application panels can be enlarged by moving the cursor over the specific pane and pressing the space bar (as in Quick View).

See Also:

• Accessibility
• App Store
• Bluetooth
• CDs & DVDs
• Date & Time
• Desktop & Screensaver
• Dictation & Speech
• Displays

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.