On a MacBook, I find it pretty easy to move my hand down a couple inches to swipe between full screens, and access mission control when needed. I could see it being a problem when using a mouse, though.
Going to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts and looking for Mission Control and Keyboard & Text Input reveal a number of shortcuts which may or may not be enabled (the same way swipe settings are 3f or 4f)
Here you will find the following shortcuts:
Mission Control
Application windows
Move left a space
Move right a space
Switch to desktop N (number of entries up to N appearing varies with current number N of dynamic Spaces)
Also:
Move focus to active or next window
By default and depending whether you upgraded to Lion and what your previous settings were the base mod key may be Command, Control or Command+Control. If you installed from scratch it's Control.
Then, shortcuts are:
- Ctrl+Up/Down to enter MC/App Exposé
- Ctrl+Left/Right/1/2/3/4 to change Spaces (works on the desktop and in MC)
- Command+` (and Tab/Shift+Tab) cycles apps in App Exposé.
- Arrows allow one to select a window in App Exposé
On a laptop, the touchpad is right below the keyboard and I usually trigger MC with a 3f swipe, F3 or Control+Down (depends on my zone level) and select the window with index (when swipe-triggered) or thumb (when keyboard triggered). When using a mouse, I'm using a Logitech MediaPlay at home and a Logitech MX900 at work, which have two awesomely placed thumb buttons, which map perfectly to Mission Control and App Exposé (the button choices appear in the rightmost combos in System Settings -> Mission Control if you have a sufficiently buttoned mouse). Using another mouse than Magic Mouse I lose the brilliant touch/inertia scroll, but the two-finger double-tab gesture is completely ridiculous and a total pain.
Comparatively, Command+Tab is only fine when I'm toggling between two apps which have a single window, else the whole target app windows cover the previous one, which defeats my extensive use of Window Magnet. Also I have 1) a high chance of not landing into the proper window this way, and 2) a high chance of toggling between three apps, in which case Command+Tab is inefficient. Also I find it egregious that one keeps open Command+Tab by keeping Command down, then drill down to App Exposé, where you have to release command before moving with arrows and subsequently select a window with Return when it could be Command all the way then release to exit.
Also, when moving between terminal windows and tabs I use the build-in Next Window/Tab shortcut (Command+Left/Right, with Shift for tabs). I bound the same keys in MacVim for consistency.
Besides there's still lack a (non third party) keyboard way to:
Ah. I work on a laptop, and I can't stand it when a window isn't using up the entire space, so I just make everything fullscreen and flip between them with cmd-tab (slow) or ctl-left/right (fast). I switch between ~4-5 macs a day and ~30-50 a month, so I can't be bothered to use anything but default keybindings and software.
