It’s annoying on macOS that, if you have an app running in one desktop, and try to open another instance in a separate desktop by clicking on it or spotlight, the OS will jump to the original one, instead of opening a new instance.
This can be solved by Automator
app. You can do some pre-build actions or run scripts with it, and Actions created with Automator
can be indexed by spotlight.
You can open new instances of applications either with shell command or applescript.
- With shell command
Run
open -na <app>
to open a new instance of app. Note that this may mess up your dock since it will likely create separate icons for each instance. Refer to the manual (man open
) for more info. - With applescript
You can use
tell
in applescript to pass commands to specific applications. See examples below for more details.
Tell Chromium to open a new window:
tell application "Chromium"
make new window
activate
end tell
See: macos - How to create a new Chrome window on Mac OS X using applescript or a …
Tell Terminal to open new instance:
tell application "Terminal"
do script ""
activate
end tell
See: osx snow leopard - Applescript to open a NEW terminal window in current space…