

I could use multiple desktops, but that just meant things would look like garbage on two desktops instead of one. Apple's other window management features, despite offering productivity gains, never solved the appearance problem.

And that's not a bad thing.Īpps, just like files, can clutter up our desktops fast. When I think about Stage Manager, I can't help but make the comparison and feel that the feature is simply Desktop Stacks, but for apps. It also brought a lot more peace to your desktop and made it look more put together rather than the computer of a lunatic. Apple brought some smarts to organizing the desktop to make it easier to at least get in the ballpark of the file you were trying to hunt down without you needing to do anything. Finding a single file required someone who was basically a speed runner in Where's Waldo or some serious help from Spotlight, Apple's built-in search functionality. Then came Desktop Stacks with macOS High Sierra, which took all of the files sitting on your desktop and organized them into neat little piles organized by kind, date, or Finder tags.ĭesktop Stacks solved a major problem for many users who found themselves with dozens, if not hundreds, of files sitting on their desktop.

It organized files into a folder in your dock. Remember Stacks? Probably not, but Apple hailed the feature when it originally launched with Mac OS X Leopard. It's of course a farce - chaos during work is inevitable - but 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 apps It can take a cluttered desktop and organize it in a way that is visually soothing, tricking you into believing you are much more organized than you actually are. Thankfully, macOS Ventura's Stage Manager is here to take what used to be an impossibility and make it a reality. Mail running in Stage Manager on macOS Ventura (Image credit: Joe Wituschek/iMore)Īs much as I've always attempted to keep a tidy desktop, it was a process that required too much work - minimizing apps, spreading them across multiple desktops, and even using Split View - all in the name of trying to juggle productivity and aesthetics at the same time.
