Bruji

I have noticed something while using spaces that I am not sure if it can be changed or not. I have 4 spaces on my iMac. If you open up DVDpedia in space 1 and drag it to space 2, then click on the ADD button at the top left, the SEARCH WEB window then opens up in space 1. When you open up the program in space 2 and then click the ADD button, you then get the SEARCH WEB window in the native space you opened the program in. SO what is happening is the program displays its new windows in the native space it was opened in. The only difference is when you open the PREFERENCES window, no matter what the native space was when opening the program, it opens in the space you are currently in. I don't know if this is a true issue but it seems a little inconsistent.

It's a bit inconsistent, in that it depends on the order of your actions, but it's how Mac OS X works. When a window is first displayed it opens in the current space and then stays there until moved. In your case DVDpedia was launched in one space and then the preference window displayed in the same space and closed. DVDpedia was then moved to a new space and the preference window displayed again, because the preference window has already been opened it's associated with the previous space and will display there.

This is the default behavior that can be change in the space settings by giving DVDpedia a space assignment, then all windows will open in that set space.

When I open DVDpedia in Space 6 then immediately move it to Space 9 with a click-hold on the toolbar and Control-9, the Preferences and Search Web windows will open on Space 9. If I then move the main window back to Space 6 (with a toolbar click-hold and Control-6) the other windows will open on Space 9 because they were first opened there and associated with it.

The first case contradicts what Tamburra described when moving the main window by dragging it from Space 1 to Space 2 instead of the method I use (which preserves the window's location in its new space); not sure why. The second case is consistent with what Conor described.

As Conor suggested, assigning DVDpedia to a specific space is one way of handling this. Another is to move a window that opens in the "wrong" space to another one where you want it to appear next time it's opened, which can even be different than the the main window's space. I usually prefer the latter. e.g. so the Pedias > Search Selection With DVDpedia service will open the Search Web window in the current space instead of the one where DVDpedia is unless/until I choose to move it there later.

I also have the "When switch to an application, switch to a space with open windows for the application" Spaces preference disabled to help reduce the amount of automatic space switching, though it sometimes happens anyway in cases I'd rather it didn't. Since I know which spaces my app windows are in I prefer to explicitly switch between spaces into of letting app switching take some control of space switching in a less desirable/predictable ways.

There's a usability difference when visualizing windows as being spread out on a large virtual plane with minimal overlap vs. layered in a stack. Many Classic Mac OS users (which I'm not) seem more comfortable with the latter, using app hiding/showing to manage window clutter. Space supports the former, which is easier for me with general window management than layer shuffling. To claim one method is "best", like some people insist on doing, is shallowly ridiculous.

I figured this was the case. I just don't have any other applications that I can test this with that have external windows popping up. It wasn't anything huge but something I noticed when I was trying to organize my movies. I use the Logitech MX Revolution mouse which is amazing with OSX. Using the the side wheel for switching spaces and show desktop and dashboard. So many buttons to set. Love it. I myself am a newer mac user who loves to use the new features to my advantage. Thanks for the always quick and speedy replies Always very helpful.

Actually i just realized when you use mail and do the same steps that I explained it acts different than DVDpedia.

You open Mail in space 1, then drag it to space 2. Click an email and then click the Reply button, you will see that the new window opens in the space that you dragged it to. In this case its space 2.

Try it with Mail's preference window. The new message window is a bit special in that it gets built from scratch for each new one and therefore has no space associated with it yet and inherits the current space. I am not saying the behavior is not peculiar, but we want to shy away from doing anything special and letting OS X do what it naturally supposed to do. That way things will work the same across all apps and any changes Apple makes in the future will reflect in DVDpedia as well.

I did try this with the mail app to see that it does act different that the way DVDpedia does. I fully understand and agree with you on a coders point of view. Now that I understand it's more of an OS thing I understand. Thank you once again for the quick replies and help