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> Window zoom not making sense to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense to other people. Could you explain it to me? macOS is not my favourite OS at all, but

> Window zoom not making sense to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense to other people. Could you explain it to me? macOS is not my favourite OS at all, but I can use it without much trouble if I need to and agree that many of these complaints boil down to the author not liking or understanding the macOS workflow. Window zoom, however, always struck me as wildly inconsistent and unpredictable. For context, I started back in the days of Mac OS X Tiger, up to Catalina. Window zoom never made the slightest amount of sense to me.

mikl 5y ago
Window zoom asks the application to “right-size” their window. The application then gets to decide what the “right” size is. For example, a Finder window will size itself so it can display all the contents of the folder it displays (if possible). It’s up to the application developer to implement this correctly, so if it is inconsistent, that’s technically not Apple’s fault. For applications that does not support this, the fallback is just to fill the screen, a bit like maximise does on Windows. In more recent macOS releases, the new(er) full screen mode works more like maximise does on Windows, and has now taken over the green button on the menu bar for most apps, so the old zoom feature is more obscure than ever.
- gatonegro 5y ago
  Thanks, I honestly was not aware that "adjust window to content" is (or used to be) the intended behaviour. I saw apps that did it over the years, but I remember it being inconsistent even from one Apple app to the next. I also want to say that I remember Apple changing the green button to a maximise-like function, though I can't remember during which release that happened. Probably when they introduced virtual desktops and full screen apps. Of course, UX guidelines can only do so much without developers following them. That explains why the green button is so unpredictable. You never know if it'll do full screen, resize the window, maximise, or just ignore you.
  - SllX 5y ago
    Well you ought to be able to distinguish “Zoom” and “Full Screen” because the icon within the window control will be a plus symbol if it’s Zoom and two arrows pointing at 10 o’clock and 4 o’clock if it’s full screen. By default it’s full screen now, and you have to hold option to bring the Zoom control up (which since the advent of full screen is inconsistent even in Apple’s own apps). Double clicking the title bar (in the decreasing amount of empty space in modern Mac OS X chrome) will also net you Zoom functionality without holding option.
    - gatonegro 5y ago
      Interesting! I don't think I noticed that before. I got used to just doing Cmd+Ctrl+F to do full screen, or manually resize windows. Probably not ideal, but it felt consistent at least.
- Maursault 5y ago
  You missed a nice feature absent in Windows afaik, which is that the last state of the window is remembered and recalled by hitting the green button a second time.

mikl 5y ago

Window zoom asks the application to “right-size” their window. The application then gets to decide what the “right” size is. For example, a Finder window will size itself so it can display all the contents of the folder it displays (if possible). It’s up to the application developer to implement this correctly, so if it is inconsistent, that’s technically not Apple’s fault. For applications that does not support this, the fallback is just to fill the screen, a bit like maximise does on Windows. In more recent macOS releases, the new(er) full screen mode works more like maximise does on Windows, and has now taken over the green button on the menu bar for most apps, so the old zoom feature is more obscure than ever.

gatonegro 5y ago
Thanks, I honestly was not aware that "adjust window to content" is (or used to be) the intended behaviour. I saw apps that did it over the years, but I remember it being inconsistent even from one Apple app to the next. I also want to say that I remember Apple changing the green button to a maximise-like function, though I can't remember during which release that happened. Probably when they introduced virtual desktops and full screen apps. Of course, UX guidelines can only do so much without developers following them. That explains why the green button is so unpredictable. You never know if it'll do full screen, resize the window, maximise, or just ignore you.
- SllX 5y ago
  Well you ought to be able to distinguish “Zoom” and “Full Screen” because the icon within the window control will be a plus symbol if it’s Zoom and two arrows pointing at 10 o’clock and 4 o’clock if it’s full screen. By default it’s full screen now, and you have to hold option to bring the Zoom control up (which since the advent of full screen is inconsistent even in Apple’s own apps). Double clicking the title bar (in the decreasing amount of empty space in modern Mac OS X chrome) will also net you Zoom functionality without holding option.
  - gatonegro 5y ago
    Interesting! I don't think I noticed that before. I got used to just doing Cmd+Ctrl+F to do full screen, or manually resize windows. Probably not ideal, but it felt consistent at least.
Maursault 5y ago
You missed a nice feature absent in Windows afaik, which is that the last state of the window is remembered and recalled by hitting the green button a second time.