MacOS Ventura - Is Stage Manager any Good? 

Apologies for the unusual screen resolution. The video was captured directly on a 14" MacBook Pro. But if you're watching a MacBook Pro, it shouldn't look too bad :)

I don't understand this feature. I really don't. It does more or less the same as the dock and desktop screens. This just adds more complexity. The two simple things that I really want are: 1) window snap 2) Stay on top

I honestly just don’t see the benefit unfortunately. I really enjoy using different desktops and command tabbing between - it’s like I have multiple displays. Stage manager just looks like a new shot at minimise. Perhaps people who are new to Mac, who maybe don’t know how to create new desktop spaces etc, will find this more approachable.

Windows does it better... and no, MS Window snapping is not patented, ChromeOS and Samsung Tablets also have MS Windows type window snapping. Honestly, Apple is just avoiding 'copying' the most sensible way of window management/snapping/taskbar and in doing so the have made a mess.

I have tried the Stage Manager, and unfortunately, I failed to find it any good. What difference does it make when I can do the same using the Dock?

I kept hearing "Michigan Troll" until I understood it was "Mission Control". I must admit I was scratching my head at first lol.😂

You can also maximize window (as opposed to full screen mode) by holding down the option key and hitting the green "zoom" button.

It simply takes up too much screen real estate. Imagine having the dock + stage manager on a 13 inch screen, ridiculous when Windows can do a similar thing with the tiny start menu

Apple just give us the “snap” function like on windows 😒

I don't get which problem Stage Manager solves on a mac. To me it looks very cluttered and complicated. You have a dock to see your running apps, why add another dock on the left side but limit this to only 6 apps? Personally i think Stage Manager will go the route of the touchbar: No further development from Apple cause nearly nobody will use it and then it will be out of macOS in a few years.

I think Stage Manager could be functionally better if it hid the Dock and took its place, or just minimized the windows to the docks as a group. That would have been awesome. macOS' window handling is still terrible, you can't maximize a lot of app windows to fit the screen (not full screen mode) without the help of third-party apps like Rectangle. Even Cmd + Tab isn't good enough in my opinion, it lacks the ability to cycle between app windows, something which the AltTab app is capable of. These are areas which Apple could have addressed, instead of introducing yet another window management option. In addition, taskbar previews in the dock - like Windows 10/11 - would have been very useful.

Having used Stage Manager for a few weeks now I feel it is very meh and not the solution I need/want. Keyboard navigation is still hot garbage on macOS without third party tools and window management itself isn't *improved* with Stage Manager, it is just different. They could have easily saved desktop space by integrating the Stage Manager changes into the dock by changing the app icon to the app window preview. A real over thought and engineered "solution" that isn't really very good but is covered up with a "pretty" UI. Honestly all they needed to do is add tiling functionality and better keyboard navigation; basically some of the simpler features from a tiling window manager such as i3wm and snapping from Windows/KDE/GNOME.

how does it work with cmd + tab?

Why is the taskbar at the top so thick? Is it the new standard :O ?

Does not work well if you like using windows maximised, and if your main display is an external monitor, with your MacBook arranged to the left of the main display. The stage manager previews disappear when you're in a maximised window, and you have to very careful position the mouse at the edge of the screen to get stage manager to appear. I have my dock on the far right of my desktop. Would like to be able to move stage manager to the right side of my desktop.

i can not find the option hide recent apps while clicking stage manager button. what to do?

if you like your dock on the left side this very annoying i tried it. they should let you choose what side to put it on because some people put their docks on the sides.

what is the virtualbuddy program?

I just can't understand how Stage Manager and Desktop view work together ... I have some files on my Desktop and want drop one of them on another app. If Stage Manager is off it works as Drag and Drop but with stage manager On the Desktop disappears if any app is inactive and if Desktop view is active the apps disappearing. What can I do to keep the Desktop and active App visible at the same time ? I am using a lot dropping something from the desktop to active application so now it's almost unusable unless I turn off the Stage Manager. Any suggestions are welcome

What if I don’t want any screen space left. I want the Dock, the Menu Bar, stage manager and a giant notch at the top of the screen to take up all the space leaving me a 2inch x 2inch space for all my open windows. Lol.

Which keys are used to switch around?

If you put different windows at the same stage one right after the other without any position difference they get harder to reach. I had 3 different windows of my browser running and needed to access them easily. I expected the stage manager to allow me to hover over the stage preview and then choose the window I wanted but instead upon clicking on the preview it popped all of them and I had to reach them by minimizing and searching among them for where is which. I would certainly like to see a miniature of each window within the preview. Maybe by expanding the windows side by side.

I’ve used this feature on Mac and on iPad, but think it’s more useful on the Mac. I don’t even bother on the iPad since I rarely, if ever, run more than two apps at a time. Split View is better. With the Mac, I thought I’d like it more since I do often have multiple apps open at once (though not at the forefront where I usually have one or two), but I found it annoying after a while, minimizing apps I didn’t want to minimize, which forces me to drag it back from the shelf. My use of Mac apps is more random, rather than with set pairs, so Stage Manager doesn’t help that much. The worst part is apps I want running but don’t want on the shelf, like ICUE. I never want to see that app, but need it running at all times to illuminate my dark keyboard. But there’s no way to get it off the shelf. Maybe that’s Corsair’s fault for not completely hiding their app, but it’s a SM drawback. All-in-all, it’s ok to have, but it’s not as useful as I thought it would be.

on my Mac there's mail icon that I didn't use but it doesn't goes away so its kinda annoying to me :/

I see you have six Stage Manager windows on your left. I can only get four! Is there anywhere where I could check that? I've tried settings but there's nothing that will indicate that.

How does this work for multi monitor setups? Is it only going to show on my far left screen?

How to remove feedback assistant from mac after unenrolling from beta ??

I have my dock on the left side (where the stage manager windows are), how does stage manager interact with this? Will I be forced to move the doc to the bottom?

Great video thanks!

What utility did you use to get Mac system preferences to show up in that list view ?

If you click on the icon (like chrome) on the stage manager then it will list all the windows from chrome for you to select to bring on the stage 😊

Will they add the drag on angles to multitask like on windows? I need that

how capture mac screen video in hdr?

Definitely need to be able to drag and drop to rearrange

is it not the same than the docks ? the thing on the top of the screen ...

Why not just incorporate this into the dock? Having two things on the screen seems frivolous

Yeeeees! Dig it for productivity!!!

What apps you guys recommend to make macos's windows manager better??

I wish I can create group a set of applications that I frequently use daily on the stage manager.

Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be a way of managing this from the keyboard, unless I just haven't found it. Apple used to be so great about keyboard shortcuts and keeping people away from the mouse, but since the iPhone's release they seem to be progressively moving entirely in the other direction and forcing people to use the mouse or trackpad.

Where did you get the wallpaper for the mac?

What happens if you keep your dock on the left side?

Its not really any good. You could easily use Spaces (virtual Desktops) before and it was a breeze. This just seems totally impractical. it takes screen real estate and is kinda distracting. I am currently on the recent betas of ipados16 and ventura. And it is just plain confusing getting efficient under these circumstances. A simple practical thing would be just to hit a button and hav a focus on one window. and not putting recents under a new radar. this seems to be more effort than its worth. Small edit: I work as a real professional with several heavy usage Apps like C4D, After Effects, Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator etc. And this is just a hindrance in workflow efficiency.

looks like the end of endless switching between different desks :) just need to make sure all my apps do work properly on that new OS.

I need to have different browser tabs in different spaces. That'll be lit

I am loving Stage Manager. I use a 32" 4K monitot so having the programs sitting there on the left of the screen really doesn't use up any real useful space to me. The grouping of apps is very nice.

It occurs an error in stage manager in opera browser.

Or you could just use the dock?

Thankfully, now they did add the option to have desktop items visible with stage manager enabled.

I don't know, it looks like a mess. I'm on Mac since 2006 but window management is something that Windows seems to just do better. And no, I'm not trying to use MacOS like Windows - I do utilize things like Spaces, Expose, fullscreen, hiding, all that. But it still feels messy.

Has shift+click been mentioned? Try it. You’re welcome.

Why the video is so bright on my iPad

Hopefully the iPad version evolves to be equally functional without the limit to number of running apps.

Now if they could only bring true external display to the other ipads….Limit it to 1 app on the external screen. I just want full width of the screen and not a cropped view

For me, Mission Control works best and is less clunky... can use keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures, etc.

What’s up with this aspect ratio? 🤨

It doesn't work very well if you have a very wide screen such as 48 inch.

Mine always autohides even when it’s autohide is disabled, M1 MacBook Air

So... the screen recording is in SDR, the video creator mapped it to HDR, then it hurts my eyes, I mapped it back to SDR, great!

I installed Ventura a few days ago and so far the feature I like the best is Stage Manager.

stage manager is very cool

for me this function is not really intuitive, i cannot really see, what they resolved. what i miss from the win/linux - the close/minimize (the mac solution is really confusing), minimize every windows shortcut, and the window splitting on uw screen (i use a 3rd party, and it is very basic feature at the new os). i like the mac, but the windows management is the worst from the three biggest os.

If Stage Manager was like Samsung Dex, it would be a game changer for the IPad.

Stage manager is bad for four reasons. 1. A redundant feature of the existing macOS Spaces feature. 2. Stage Manager adds clutter to the screen by not using the entire screen. 3. It’s another one of Apple’s half baked features that may be semi-useful but it won’t be further improved in the future. 4. Not compatible on all devices, only some.

This is going to be very useful for my workflow, it’s a handier version of separate desktops for me, which can get finicky and disorganised

Is Apple planning to get rid of desktop mode? I still don't understand why macOS need Stage Manager when using Mac alone. I think desktop mode is way more useful on 13 to 16inch screens 🧐🧐

The answer for me is a hard no.

after updating Microsoft Edge is so lag

apple is trying to find out some new ideal window management instead of implementing already existing and best solution - taskbar with all opened windows :-(

This feature just feels like a developer at Apple misses his Windows computer.

I used to like HDR now it’s just annoyingly bright and hard on my eyes. I usually close any HDR video right away on my iPad Pro.

honestly stage manager is great

Not useful at all for me. I've been using mission control for long time and putting it in the hot corner. So when i move my mouse to the left bottom corner, i can see all opened programs with bigger thumbnail than the stage manager, and just click any thumbnail to switch. Same functionality but even better.

I instantly get a look at open windows by pressing the F3 button on keyboard. I won't go near Stage Manager.

Spaces in macOS are something completely different. Those are different desktops. Stage Manager doesnt have anything called "space". Its just Stage Manager.

man i like hdr but for this kind of video it's just overkill and painful for the eyes

i dont see the point, mac as it is works pretty well, maybe it may work for iPad.

Stage Manger adds more complexity to already messed up windows management in MacOS. They should just replace the dock with stage manager. Inactive icons in the Dock makes no sense

I can't for the life on me understand why I would use this. I get it on an iPad , but a MacBook No. It looks like live multi-desktops. Or, I could just put the menu bar on the left. It just seems like we are looking for a new gimmick rather than something truly useful.

I wonder if Apple will ever catch up with Microsoft Windows without looking like they are trying to copy Windows.

why your video is sooo bright )

I wish I could manage windows better. Windows 10/11 is significantly better in this area.

Cool video for iPad ratio lol

Dock at bottom, menu bar at top, notch at top, stage manager on left. You’ll need a 65” screen. Lol. So lame.

Basically multitasking on chrome isn’t great on Mac

I found it irritating are stopped it.

Storage manager, I saw this on linux, it is called disk manager.

ONYX

No thanks😏 Command + tab enough for me😂

I dont know, I just feel that this is kind of messy....

Every two years Apple reinvents spaces / virtual desktops.

I like it. Stage Manager can only improve from here.

Embarrassing @Apple! 14“ MacBooks will love the feature of now more smaller windows on Stage! G*** Dam**** Am I Pi*** o*

HDR ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️

it's too complicated.

That's just a piece of crap. I don't understand why they don't simply use gnome style window management. They don't have to reinvent the wheel. So annoying.

This is so stupid. macOS already has Spaces with different desktops which accomplishes everything from Stage Manager is such a better way.

Please clean your screen lol

Who asked for this? My God. Why can't we have minimize like in Windows???

Just look likes a mess. Will be leaving this “off”