Leopard introduced the average user to virtual work spaces, known simply as Spaces in OS X. These virtual work spaces can contain as many applications as you like in an effort to keep you organized. The general concept of Spaces as a simple implementation for the masses is a good one.

My main issue with spaces is that you can not have seperate windows from an application in more than one space. an obvious application that I would personally like to have in a few different spaces is Safari. It would be nice to have a single window open in my web development space as well as having a window open in my communication space.

Presently there is the option within the spaces preference pane that lets you assign an application to be available in all spaces, or locked into a single space no matter which space you launch it in. That doesn’t really address the need to have a window in space 1 and space 2, but not in 3 and 4 (or more).

To work around this present limitation I’ve found a little trick. Here is what you can do to get single instances of Safari into various spaces: use the dashboard to launch the individual windows.

Yup. That’s it. Just go to the space you want a Safari window to appear in. Hit F12 to launch dashboard. Use the google widget, or any Safari launching widget like Junior Mint, to pop a new Safari window into the current space you entered Dashboard in. Rinse and repeat in each space you want a single window of Safari.

This doesn’t really fix spaces, but it solves the browser window issue for me anyhow.