Master Stage Manager

Organize your desktop with this new window-management feature

-  IAN OSBORNE

REQUIRES macOS 13

YOU WILL LEARN How to use Stage Manager

IT WILL TAKE 5 minutes

GENIUS TIP

You can have Stage Manager appear in the menu bar if you wish. Head over to System Settings > Control Center > Stage Manager and use the pulldown to set it up.

STAGE MANAGER IS a brand-new way of organizing your desktop, which comes to the Mac with macOS Ventura. It's designed to work hand in hand with existing desktop manager features such as Mission Control, Spaces, Stacks and Finder Tabs, but it works very differently.

When you have too many windows open on your Mac, activating Stage Manager pushes them all - except the one you're currently using into a column in the left-hand side of the screen, organized according to the app that created them. You can then switch to another app's window simply by clicking on it; the new app window is opened, and the one you were previously using is minimized into the Stage Manager area. It's available on Macs running macOS Ventura, and also iPadOS 16, although some models - such as the new iPad 10.9-inch - can't use it.

Let's take a look at how to launch and use Stage Manager, and how to get the most from it.

HOW TO Use Stage Manager

1 Open Stage Manager