OK, so I’m the sort of Mac user who is a little ridiculous and enjoys mixing and matching between systems and setups on the regular. I’m always changing my screen resolution to whatever is right in the moment. I switch Stage Manager off and on as the situation benefits. I may have a few screws loose.
So I love setting an app (or set of apps/windows) aside in Stage Manager’s shelf, but that’s the most useful for a select few “stages” I’m actively switching between (on a given desktop space). Sometimes there are just apps I’m not using right away and would like to keep stationary, minimized into the Dock. Plus, Dock-minimized windows are accessible no matter what desktop space or Stage Manager set I’m in, without occupying a chunk of the actual screen area like the “Assign To: All Desktops” Dock option does.
The trouble is, normal Dock minimizing appears to be disabled while Stage Manager is enabled. The yellow button (which still has a horizontal line looking like the Dock…) puts the window into a “minimized” state in the Stage Manager shelf if you’ve got multiple windows in the current set, or just slides away to reveal the desktop if it’s the only thing currently visible. The “Minimize” option in the menu bar (or ⌘M) does the same thing.
Despite that, Dock minimizing doesn’t just stop existing entirely in Stage Manager! If I have a window minimized into the Dock before I enable Stage Manager, it stays there until I click it again.
It’s so close to perfect! Yet, not quite… because once I click it, it’s back to normal Stage Manager behavior. The window shows up in its own new set, and no matter what I try, I can’t seem to get it back into the Dock. The window’s minimize button slides it into the shelf, and that seems to be that.
So I’m wondering: Are there any alternate methods for minimizing a window into the Dock, which still work while Stage Manager is active, instead of just stacking the window in Stage Manager’s shelf?