Like some of the other window management features macOS offers, Stage Manager lets you clean up the apps running on your computer. It’s a handy little feature for those who value organization and find convenience in grooming, and it’s sure to be appreciated once it’s released to all users this fall. However, the announcement caused a divide among Mac users. Some find the feature confusing, especially when it adds to (rather than replaces) any of the other window management features macOS offers, such as Mission Control, Spaces, and Split View. For me, however, Stage Manager is the window management feature that replaces the need for any of the others.
Stage Manager makes your Mac look like a Mac should
We’ve all seen the photos Apple uses when promoting macOS in its keynotes and on its website. Apps running on the desktop are perfectly organized, with pleasing aspect ratios, sizes and overlays on the few apps running on the screen. Stage Manager, like a fake friend, tells you what you want to hear: “You are perfect, and so is your desktop.” However, we all know that the desktop that Apple shows us is not real. It’s like looking at a staged apartment or house. it’s beautiful, but real houses usually don’t look like that. Once we start doing real work on our Macs, apps quickly pile up everywhere and it starts to look more like a hoarder’s desktop than anything else.
Mail runs in Stage Manager on macOS Ventura (Image credit: Joe Wituschek/iMore) As much as I’ve always tried to keep a tidy desktop, it was a process that required a lot of work — minimizing apps, spreading them across multiple desktops, and even using Split View — all in the name of trying to juggle productivity and aesthetics. the same moment. Fortunately, macOS Ventura’s Stage Manager is here to take what was impossible and make it a reality. It can take a cluttered desktop and organize it in a visually soothing way, tricking you into thinking you’re much more organized than you really are. It’s a joke of course – chaos during work is inevitable – but the Stage Manager, like a fake friend, tells you what you want to hear: “You’re perfect, and so is your desktop.”
Stage Manager is stacks for applications
Remember Stacks? Probably not, but Apple welcomed the feature when it first came out with Mac OS X Leopard. Organize the files in a folder in your dock. Then came desktop stacks with macOS High Sierra, which took all the files sitting on your desktop and organized them into neat little stacks organized by genre, date, or Finder tags. Desktop Stacks solved a major problem for many users who found themselves with dozens, if not hundreds, of files on their desktop. Finding a single file required someone who was basically a Where’s Waldo speed runner or some serious help from Spotlight, Apple’s built-in search feature. Apple has brought some smarts to the desktop organization to at least make it easier to get into the field of the file you’re trying to hunt down without having to do anything. It also brought a lot more peace to your desktop and made it look more put together than a madman’s computer.
(Image credit: Joe Wituschek/iMore) When I think of Stage Manager, I can’t help but make the comparison and feel like the feature is just desktop stacks, but for apps. And that’s not a bad thing. Applications, like files, can quickly fill up our desktops. Apple’s other window management features, while offering productivity gains, never solved the display problem. I could use multiple desktops, but that meant things would look like garbage on two desktops instead of one. Stage Manager solves this visual problem while keeping things organized in a way that makes a lot of sense. Since I can group apps into their own stacks, I can organize my workflow in ways that allow me to display the group of apps that I know are related and that I tend to need at the same time or for the same function. It allows me to keep my entire workflow at a glance, instead of being buried under a mountain of other apps. Can I still use multiple desktops, app shortcuts, and Split View? Sure. But I find myself using them less and less.
It’s been my favorite new Mac feature in years
I’m trying hard to think of another Mac feature that has won my heart like Stage Manager. Having a clutter-free desktop brings a sense of focus and calm to my digital world that I’ve had to ditch my laptop for… forever. If I really thought about it, I’d have to say the only other Stage Manager-level “feature” that brings me joy is when Apple redesigned macOS with Big Sur a few years ago. It’s certainly not perfect (I’m looking at you, Mac notifications with the tiny close button) but the Mac has needed a visual overhaul for years. The update made the Mac feel fresh and new, like getting a brand new computer without having to pay for it. Of course, if you want a brand new computer AND want to pay for it, you can check out our list of the best MacBooks of 2022. But, of course, Big Sur is an entire version of the operating system and not a single feature, so Stage Manager stands on its own. My only complaint is that my work computer still needs to run macOS Monterey, so I’m stuck without my favorite feature for eight hours a day. At the end of the workday, however, I return to desktop bliss.
