Mountain Lion - Icons for each "Desktop"?

[jman995x]

I run multiple "desktops" on Mountain Lion.
However, I like to keep similar programs on the same desktop.
When I do the 4-finger-upsweep on my trackpad and the current desktop minimizes and shows all of the other desktops along the top border...it's sort of hard to see what's what in the other desktops.

So, my question is...is there a way to superimpose an avatar/icon on the desktop snapshots (like the "X" logo in the Dock for Microsoft's Excel, or the "W" in the Dock for Word, etc?).....so if you wanted to keep all of your Excel windows on one desktop and your Word docs on another desktop, Photoshop on a third desktop, Illustrator on a 4th desktop, etc., etc. you could put an avatar/icon on that desktop snapshot on the top border to give you a quick reference for what is on that desktop.

Any thoughts on how I might accomplish this?

J.

P.S. Obviously when you clicked on the Desktop you wanted to switch to, the avatar/icon in the snapshot would disappear so as not to be visible when the newly-chosen desktop is full-size.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

How are you doing this? Built-in functionality, or a 3rd-party tool?

 

[benwiggy]

Can I clarify this?
You want something to work out, on the fly, what app the majority of windows in each desktop belongs to, and then add the icon of that app to each Desktop image at the top of Mission Control?

Not easy. And by not easy I mean quite difficult. You would basically have to write a program to monitor all the windows and Desktops and patch Mission Control. If is wasn't perfect, it would probably cause lots of crashes.

 

[jman995x]

How are you doing this? Built-in functionality, or a 3rd-party tool?

The desktop overview is part of the Mountain Lion's functionality.
As for what I'm trying to do regarding assigning an icon to a specific desktop, that's what I'm enquiring about...I don't think it is natively possible on Mountain Lion, but maybe somebody has a workaround or knows of an app that will allow me to do this.

 

[kohoutek]

So, what you want is something like being able to name each desktop, but with an icon instead of text?

This feature is already *partly* implemented in ML, but not to the extent that you are seeking.

You may already know that if you put any application into full-screen mode, you get a new desktop with both the name of the app *and* a superimposed app icon.

The only other way, so that you have a global icons on each desktop at all times is probably not going to be attractive to you: Install separate wallpaper with the desired app icon on each desktop.

There was a 3rd party app called YouControlesktops that had a desktop naming feature. I don't know if they are still an option, since Apple rendered them rather superfluous with its own Spaces. Spaces itself is actually an implementation of another, open-source virtual desktop system that has been discontinued. I believe it was called "Spaces" as well, but my memory is failing me on that point.

 

[kohoutek]

The 3rd party app I was thinking of is "Total Spaces," a shareware. You can have a grid desktop switcher with a name for each desktop. Not sure about an icon assigned, though.

 

[jman995x]

The 3rd party app I was thinking of is "Total Spaces," a shareware. You can have a grid desktop switcher with a name for each desktop. Not sure about an icon assigned, though.

That might work.
Thanks for the info.

Justin