macOS 13 Ventura will be released to the masses in the next few weeks. With the public beta now at its eighth version a number of new features are close to production ready. one of those is Stage Manager. First seen as part of iPadOS, Stage Manager on macOS Ventura is a new way to manage task switching. My first impression – it’s a massive productivity booster.
I’ve been a big fan of Spaces – the macOS virtual desktop feature that allows you to run apps on their own desktops so you don’t end up with all your apps overlapping on one screen. As someone that might be working on two or three projects at one time as well as needing access to email, instant messaging, scheduling and other tools, the ability to separate apps into task-based workspaces has been a huge boon.
Stage Manager offers me a different way to achieve a similar effect but more efficiently. Bear in mind, this is about how I work. Your experience may be quite different and will depend on how you like to organise your work.
Stage Manager lets you see the last few things you were working on down the left side of your screen. But the nifty thing is that you can group applications. So, rather than seeing your last few active applications, you can see your decent apps in groups.
So, I’m able to quickly jump between my messaging apps, to my current writing project and to my scheduling tools with a simple tap on my mouse or trackpad. And because I can see what’s in each group of applications, I can make that jump quickly without swiping across multiple Spaces to find what I want.
There have been a few quirks. For example, if I want open a new browser window, it does that wherever I last used Safari. I then need to drag that window onto the cluster of apps I want it to go with.
There’s been some criticism of how Stage manager works on iPadOS – particularly when it comes to Apple’s decision to limit the application window resizing options. But, on a Mac, it’s a far smoother experience.
Stage Manager will be part of the macOS Ventura general release which is expected in October 2022.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.
If you turn off the Safari setting “Open new Safari windows in tabs,” does it still return to the previous stage when opening Safari? Just an idea. 🙂