How to Use Mac Mission Control

Step by step

1. 30 sec

   Open Mission Control

   Press F3 on your keyboard, or swipe up with three fingers on your trackpad. You can also click the Mission Control icon in your Dock or Launchpad. The screen will zoom out to show all open windows arranged across your display.

   Note: Set up a hot corner by going to System Preferences > Mission Control > Hot Corners to trigger Mission Control by moving your cursor to a screen corner.
2. 30 sec

   Navigate between desktop spaces

   Look at the top of the Mission Control view to see thumbnail previews of your desktop spaces. Click any space to switch to it instantly. You can also swipe left or right with three fingers on your trackpad to move between spaces without opening Mission Control.

   Note: Press Control + Left Arrow or Control + Right Arrow to switch between spaces using only your keyboard.
3. 1 min

   Create a new desktop space

   In Mission Control view, move your cursor to the top-right corner of the screen until a plus button appears. Click the plus button to create a new empty desktop space. The new space will appear as a thumbnail at the top of the screen.

   Note: You can create up to 16 desktop spaces, though performance may slow with more than 10 active spaces.
4. 1 min

   Move windows between spaces

   In Mission Control, drag any window from the main area up to a different desktop space thumbnail at the top. The window will move to that space. You can also drag a window to the plus button area to create a new space with that window.

   Note: Hold down a window's title bar for one second, then swipe with three fingers to move it to an adjacent space without opening Mission Control.
5. 30 sec

   Group windows by application

   Click and hold on any window in Mission Control to see all windows from that application grouped together. Click anywhere else to return to the standard view where windows from all applications are mixed together.

   Note: Press F10 or swipe down with three fingers to open Application Windows view, which shows only windows from your currently active application.
6. 1 min

   Delete desktop spaces

   In Mission Control, hover over any desktop space thumbnail at the top until an X button appears in its top-left corner. Click the X to delete that space. Any windows in the deleted space will move to the adjacent space.

   Note: You cannot delete your main desktop space, but you can delete all additional spaces by hovering over each thumbnail and clicking the X.
7. 2 min

   Customize Mission Control settings

   Open System Preferences and click Mission Control. Enable or disable features like automatic rearrangement of spaces, grouping windows by application, and Dashboard integration. Adjust these settings to match your workflow preferences.

   Note: Uncheck 'Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use' to keep your desktop spaces in a fixed order that you control.