Multiple Space "Sets" on One Ultrawide Monitor

[randzzD]

Hi All,

First time posting so apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere.

So I've got a MBP 15" Late 2013 at home & MBP 16" Early 2022(ish) at work.

At work I've got 2x 24" external monitors and I make a lot of use of the spaces function of mission control to organise my work flow, etc. Most especially the "Displays Have Separate Spaces" feature - effectively allowing me to have multiple "sets" of spaces on each display.

At home I've only got 1x 34" Ultra Wide monitor and tbh one app/window like a web browser for example in full screen mode is a huge waste of screen realestate.

I'm using bettertouchtool for windows snapping, etc so I'll run two (or more) apps snapped to either side. This solution however doesn't allow me to have different "sets of spaces" on either side of the single display similar to the way my work setup runs.

So..

1. Does the above make sense to start off with? Google didn't seem to think so lol

2. Has anyone out there come across a similar hurdle and found a software/setting that would allow me to do the above? I'm essentially after something that will trick my mbp into thinking my single display is actually 2 separate displays.

Thanks in advance!

R

 

[MacGizmo]

Leaving out the work setup (since it appears to work for you as is), it sounds like what you want is to have the single 34" Ultrawide display to have multiple Spaces on screen at once.

You can't do that natively, the OS simply doesn't support multiple Spaces to be on screen at once. You can of course use Apple's built-in ability to have two APPS in full screen mode in a single Space at once though – via the Mission Control feature of splitting the screen between two apps. This may be all you need to do. This method allows you to have multiple app windows open (split on the screen), including two browser windows, in full screen mode in a single space – then you can swipe to switch to a different space if you want as well.

However, if you want to have two Spaces on a single screen, you have to fool the OS into thinking that your one display is actually two separate displays. You can do that with a third-party app called Better Display to set up a "dummy" display. I haven't used the utility in quite a while, but this is what I used to use it for. Give it a try and see if it works for you.

By the way, while BetterTouchTool is a fantastic app, I'm assuming you mean BetterSnapTool (from the same developer), it's overkill for simple window snapping. You could use Rectangle instead (which is free).

All that being said, I'm not entirely sure I'm understanding what you want to do, so everything above may not be what you're looking for.