10.5: Disable Space switching on Command-Tab in 10.5.2
Feb 13, '08 07:30:05AM
Contributed by: Anonymous
The 10.5.2 version of the Dock has a new hidden preferences flag for Spaces. You can now set OSX to not automatically switch between spaces when you press Command-Tab. This is great for me, because I like to divide things by task, rather than by app. For a given task, I'll probably have a TextEdit window, a Terminal window, and maybe a web browser. By default, when I clicked on a given app, I'd be transported to that app's space, and have to go through a bunch of hoops to get the new window in the space I wanted. Now, I can just Command-Tab to the app I want, and create a new window in the current space! Here's the command in Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.Dock workspaces-auto-swoosh -bool NO
After running the command, you'll need to restart the Dock (killall Dock). To undo, change NO to YES, or use defaults delete com.apple.Dock workspaces-auto-swoosh. Note you'll have to kill the Dock again for the changes to take effect.
Now if I can just figure out how to change spaces using my f-keys...
[robg adds: I edited the hint to reflect my testing results -- it was written with YES as the "don't switch" setting. In testing, though, it's clear that NO is the value to set to disable the auto-switching on Command-Tab. Note that if you have apps assigned to specific Spaces, implementing this hint may leave you confused. That's because the Space won't switch when you Command-Tab to that app (per the setting above), but any commands you send that app will be sent to its assigned Space. So if you press Command-Tab to switch to Safari, and Safari is assigned to another Space, when you press Command-N you won't get a new window in the current Space. Instead, it will show up in Safari's assigned Space. To get the most out of this new hint, it seems best to leave your apps unassigned. Then commands will affect the current Space, regardless of where the app's other windows may reside.]
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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=2008021122525348