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Spaces, which allows you to group various open application windows into multiple work environments, ergo: "spaces," and then switch among them quickly and easily, is probably my favorite innovation in Leopard. Using Spaces you can segregate different projects you have on the go, or keep certain categories of applications separate from one another. The system's default configuration is four Spaces, but you can specify up to 16 in the Preferences.
Personally, I've found that six Spaces is the sweet spot for my purposes. I can open, say, email programs in one space, browsers in another (or have several browsers open, each in tis own Space, a text editor in a third, and so forth, switching back in fourth among them by clicking the appropriate application icon in the Dock - at least when Spaces is working properly.
The problem I've encountered is that Spaces fairly frequently, but erratically, stops working properly, the symptom being that you can no longer switch Spaces panels by clicking on application icons in the Dock.
Fortunately, as with most of the best Mac features OS features, Spaces supports a variety of ways to execute a function, and in this instance lets you alternate among your Space environments using the Spaces pull-down menu in the Menu Bar or a keyboard command pressing a modifier key and the number of the Space you want to select to move from one panel to another. Also, when this affliction sets and, program windows hidden with the Finder Hide command will no longer reappear with a click on the Dock's application icon. You have to find the actual document in the Finder and click on that. Extremely tedious. I don't know if this is an issue with the Finder, the Dock, Spaces, or all three, but it has been exceedingly annoying, requiring a restart to restore normal behavior. Since last November, I've rarely been able to go for more than three or four days before Spaces crapped out, and often a lot less than that.
However, this week I finally stumbled on an almost absurdly simple "fix" for the Spaces problem. About a day and a half into my latest reboot, Spaces stopped responding to Dock clicks. Pressed for time, I opted to persevere and limp along with Spaces crippled rather than do another restart, which for me burns up about half an hour to close and then restart the suite of programs I use for production, reload the one two two dozen Web page tabs I usually have open over my painfully slow dialup Internet connection. As a partial workaround I decided I might as well get around to using the keyboard shortcuts for Space switching instead of the Menu Bar menu pull-down.
I have a mixed relationship with keyboard shortcuts. I keep most of the F-keys configured to toggle various AppleScripts in Tex Edit Plus for frequently executed text editing or HTML markup chores, and I love that convenience, but I'm less smitten with keyboard shortcuts that require two/three-key actuation and only use a few basic ones like Command > N and the Cut/Copy/Paste triad on a regular basis. The Spaces switching shortcuts are Control > 1,2 ,3, etc., and I had never really bothered with them much, but figured that they might be more convenient than mousing the menu.
Now, here's the thing. After an interval of using the switching shortcuts, I absent-mindedly went for an application icon in the Dock, and Spaces was mysteriously working properly again, and continued to do so for another couple of days. Inevitably, it glitched-up again, but that time I immediately made a few Space-switches using keyboard shortcuts and, mirabile dictu, normal Spaces Dock click response was restored once more, still without a restart. I still wasn't 100 percent sure that this was a reliable fix, but after the cycle repeated itself again yesterday, I'm cautiously ready to affirm, at least provisionally, that the antidote has been found. Somehow, activation the keyboard shortcuts restores Spaces' ability to respond to Dock clicks and at this writing it's switching nicely, still without a restart. If you've been experiencing the same issue, give it a try.
Sometimes the simplest things......
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Not on my Mac Book with 10.5.2. I just ran into this a few weeks ago, but then I have not been using spaces that much recently.
Neither the ctrl number keys or arrow key seem to bring it back for me. I though logging out would work, but also does not seem to fix it.
I even want to tie it to a bigger problem, it seems to trigger the refusal to wake from sleep problem when you close the lid - not all the time, but it happened yesterday.
It almost seems that it is tied to certain program combination. I’m really only using Finder, Safari, Textmate and Terminal. I’ve had it freeze up after only a couple hours of work after a reboot. The only new thing I can think of is using time machine after updating my airport extreme.
Even when I try to restart it wants to stop the restart on every open application saying it will not quit. It is hosed at this point and have to use the terminal to reboot.