Docs / Core Concepts
Stages
A stage is a named workspace that spans all of your monitors. Switching stages hides the current set of windows and reveals the next, while keeping each window's position and size.
What Are Stages?
Each stage holds a set of windows across every connected display, and remembers a Window Mode for each Desktop on those displays. When you switch to a stage, its windows on your current Desktops become visible. Shared windows and Pinned Displays follow their own visibility settings.
- Each stage spans all monitors simultaneously.
- Windows keep their position and size when you switch away and back.
- Stage switching has no sliding Desktop animation.
- Your active stage is remembered across app restarts — you pick up exactly where you left off.
- No SIP changes are required.
Stages and macOS Spaces
In 2.2.0, a Stage can span several macOS Desktops on every monitor. Each Desktop keeps its own Window Mode, panes, and windows within that Stage. Switching Stages changes your window sets; switching Spaces shows another Desktop within the active Stage.
For a simpler setup, use one macOS Desktop per monitor with multiple Stages, or one Stage with multiple Desktops. BetterStage hides inactive windows in private Spaces without moving or shrinking them. The old corner-hiding setting and display-gap requirements have been removed.
Show a Window in Several Stages
A browser, chat, or notes window you need everywhere no longer has to live in one Stage. It stays one window: BetterStage never makes a copy, and each Stage keeps its own position and layout placement for it. BetterStage remembers your choice across restarts.
- Choose Show in Stages… from the Snap Wheel's Send to Stage options, from the BetterStage menu bar, or from the shared-window badge on a TabStack tab. Pick Selected Stages, or All Stages to include future Stages too, then click Apply.
- Hold Option while dragging a window or a TabStack tab onto a Stage card in the Stages Bar to add that Stage without leaving the current one. A green badge shows when the drop adds a Stage.
- Sending a shared window to another Stage moves only the copy you sent from; its other Stages are kept.
- To take it out of one Stage, choose Remove from This Stage from the badge's menu. Closing the window closes it in every Stage.
Pinned Displays and app exclusions already keep windows visible across Stages, so windows on them can't be shared this way. In the ⌘Tab Switcher, a shared window appears under each of its Stages.
Creating, Renaming & Deleting
Manage stages from the Stages Bar or the right-click context menu.
Create
Open the Stages Bar and click the + button, or right-click any stage card and choose New Stage.
Rename
Right-click a stage card in the Stages Bar and choose Rename. Type a new name and press Enter.
Delete
Right-click a stage card and choose Delete. Windows from the deleted stage are moved to the active stage.
Switching Stages
The fastest way to switch stages is with keyboard shortcuts.
Auto-Switch on Focus
When Follow activated windows is on (the default), clicking on a window belonging to another stage will automatically switch you to that stage. This also works when cycling between windows of the same app with Cmd+`. Useful when an app activates from a notification or Spotlight and its window lives on a different stage.
Toggle this in Settings > Stages > Navigation & Focus.
Stage Limits
The free version of BetterStage supports up to 3 stages. Upgrade to BetterStage Pro to unlock up to 9 stages, giving you full access to the Opt+1 through Opt+9 shortcut range.
Free
3 stages
Great for separating work, personal, and communication.
Pro
9 stages
Full keyboard shortcut range for power users.
App Routing PRO
You can match an application, a window title, or both, then route the first enabled match to a specific stage or to a Pinned Display so every new window from that app opens there automatically. Find it in Settings → App Routing.
How it works
Rules are evaluated from top to bottom, and the first enabled match wins. Pick a destination: a stage (1–9), optionally on a specific monitor, or a Pinned Display. When that app opens a new window, BetterStage routes it to the destination. A stage rule can switch you there so you see the window right away; a Pinned Display rule stays independent of regular Stages, so it never switches your current workspace or creates a new Stage. A toggle in Settings → Stages → Navigation & Focus lets you route silently instead. If no rule applies, new windows stay on the display where they open.
Auto-created stages
You can pick any stage 1–9, even if it doesn’t exist yet. When a new window matches the rule, BetterStage creates every missing stage up to your target. For example, if you have 2 stages and pick Stage 5, BetterStage creates Stage 3, 4, and 5 for you.
Existing windows
Rules only affect new windows opened after the rule is created. Existing windows stay where they are. Click Move existing windows now in the rule editor to apply the rule retroactively.