Workspaces: a virtual place to organize your projects.

Just because you're juggling projects doesn't mean you have to juggle all the files, emails, and applications you need for each one.

New to Setapp, Workspaces from Apptorium gives you a virtual place to organize everything you need, but the beauty is, nothing is actually moved. Once you see what Workspaces can do, you'll wind up using it for all your projects.

How Workspaces works

Here is a wrap-up video of how to create a workspace for your project :

It's easy to put a bunch of files in a folder, but the way we work today is a little more complex than "a bunch of files." To complete a report, for example, you might need to refer to data from several websites, enter it all into a spreadsheet, upload that to a shared folder, and then email a copy to your boss. Workspaces can organize and launch everything you need to complete that workflow. It can launch files, folders, applications, emails, even Terminal commands.

Here's how you'd set it up.

• Launch the Workspaces app and click the + in the left panel to start a new workspace. Name it Report.

• Drag a URL that you need out of your browser's URL bar and drop it into the middle panel.

• In the panel on the right, you can select whether this URL will open Automatically or Manually when you launch this workspace. Keep this set to Automatically if you need to refer to this URL every time, or change it to Manually if it's just supporting material you want to have associated with this project but don't need to have open all the time.  

• Optionally, click Advanced to choose a browser other than your default to launch the URL. (The Advanced button also lets you set which application should open a file, and which file or directory launches when Workspaces opens an application.)

• Repeat this process with more URLs, the spreadsheet file itself, the folder you have to put it in, and then your mail client or even the email chain you have to respond to..

• Once all your project's materials are in the workspace and set to launch Manually or Automatically, you're all set, and you can close the editing window.

Now when you are ready to work on that project, click the Workspaces icon in your menubar. It looks like a little pair of pliers. A drop-down browser window will show all your workspaces, and when you click one, you’ll see everything inside. Click START to launch all the automatic items — you guessed it — automatically, and anything you have set to manual is just an extra click away.

Why you need Workspaces

Having everything for one project launch at once can not only save time, but also prevent mistakes. If you tend to forget a step, or you always have to look up the same information, just set that stuff—whatever it is—to auto-launch, and it's right there in your face. You'll never forget again.

The other beauty of Workspaces is that the organization is virtual and nondestructive — in other words, the app doesn't move anything. When you drag files or folders into a workspace, they aren't copied or moved from their location on your hard drive. Emails you drag in stay put in the email client. Workspaces lets you keep everything together without having to create a folder hierarchy, create aliases, or do anything differently.

Speedy does it

Workspaces even has tricks to speed up your use of Workspaces! You can set your own keyboard shortcuts in the preferences. In the Edit window, you can drag your projects to reorder them and keep the important stuff on top, and if you right-click a project name, you get options to duplicate it, delete it, archive it, and rename it.

Duplicating projects can really speed up the setup process. It's handy, for example, when you have to use all the same applications and folders, but want to associate different emails or files, for example.

Archiving a project removes it from the project sidebar, which keeps that view uncluttered. But all you have to do to see it again is click the archive icon — it looks like a little filing cabinet — at the bottom of the projects sidebar to see the archived projects too. Their names are grayed out, but everything's still there, and you can right-click and select Make Active to bring any of those projects back.

Workspaces is a great addition to Setapp. You can even use it to launch other applications you've installed from Setapp, reminding yourself to take advantage of all the great productivity apps available when it's time to get work done.