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You can also move macOS windows by dragging the border along the opposite axis, with no configuration.
by david-cako 4y ago
You can also move macOS windows by dragging the border along the opposite axis, with no configuration.
- copperx 4y agoAlong the opposite axis? Can you elaborate?
- aeyes 4y agoDrag the left or right border of a window up or down.
- Etheryte 4y agoIf you grab the right-hand edge of a window, you can drag it left or right to resize the window. However, if you instead drag it up or down, you can move the whole window.
- adamomada 4y agoAnd if you hold option (alt) when dragging left or right, it will mirror the drag on the opposite side, so you can quickly expand or contract the window size
- dymk 4y agoThis is incredible, thank you for posting this. A few things I've discovered after playing with this for a few minutes: It works for the corners too - option+drag the corner of a window, and the whole thing resizes symmetrically. Hold shift and it preserves the aspect ratio of the window Double click + holding option on an edge will expand both edges to full screen size You can hold and release option / shift while dragging and it'll work as you'd expect.
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoWait... you can actually maximise without going full screen? I thought Apple would never back down on that - I use a third-party app to do this usually. If there's a similar thing to let me make a window full height and half width, and to center a window, I can get rid of that app altogether...
- dymk 4y agoThat seems to be the case! Double clicking on an edge will cause it to expand to the edge of the window. The shift + option trick doesn't just expand to the first edge it hits, it looks like both edges expand as much as possible. So when combined with double clicking on a window corner, that makes all for edges expand to display size (even if the window was partially off the monitor).
- imadethis 4y agoYou can also double click the title bar, or option-click the green full screen button to maximize to the current window.
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoFor me, double-clicking the title bar minimizes a window.
- imadethis 4y agoThat’s a specific setting, under Settings > Dock & Menu Bar > Double-click a window’s title bar to zoom | minimize. It should default to zoom on a fresh install.
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoExcellent, thanks — that's very helpful! It's not quite perfect — it does the old 'make it big, but not as big as possible' behaviour that macOS used to do, but that seems to be app-specific, so it actually does what I want for some things.
- divbzero 4y agoAnd, apparently, double click on an edge without holding any keys will expand just that edge out as far as possible.
- _moof 4y agoBy convention on Macs option more generally means "anchor at the center." The selection tool in a proper Mac graphics program, for example, will pin the center of the selection to the point where you clicked instead of pinning a corner there. Resizing shapes in a well-made diagramming app behaves this way too. Been this way since the '80s.
- scelerat 4y agoThere are some paradigms like this option-drag-resizes-both-sides one which have antecedents at least as far back as MacDraw circa 1984.
- outworlder 4y agoAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH OMG THANK YOU This is amazing. Over a decade using OSX and I never knew this
- mahathu 4y agoOooh, I think this is why I always move my full screen browser window down by a few pixels by accident.
- millzlane 4y agoBut you can't drag left or right first. If you do, you won't be able to move the window. You either have to decide which one you want to do on the first click.
- Hamuko 4y agoFeels really finnicky to get the window moving this way. Does someone actually use this as their workflow?
- eyelidlessness 4y agoI don’t use it on purpose, but it happens sometimes by accident and always surprises me.
- bluedino 4y agoI've been using a Mac since 2010 and someone always points out 'weird' features like this to me on what has to be a monthly basis.
- adonovan 4y agoSame with iPhone. My mind was blown when after years of tapping left-arrow someone showed me what happens when you hold down the space key. Or that dragging the iphone chat message app's background to the left reveals the timestamps of each message. It's all very clever and elegant and minimal but consumer technology user interfaces seem to be converging on that of a Theremin.
- nerdponx 4y agoTIL about holding the space key!
- jonsen 4y agoI so miss the days of the well structured and comprehensive manual. I used to read them end to end. Even if you didn't remember the details you knew what was possible.
- throwanem 4y agoSo do I, but in entire fairness here that manual for iOS would probably run to three or four thousand pages. What I really miss is having the time free to peruse a manual like that.
- filchermcurr 4y agoThey still write manuals, it's just non-obvious: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/welcome/ios https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/welcome/ios
- Gigachad 4y agoThe specific spacebar trick is even in the manual at https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iph3c50f96e/ios https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iph3c50f96e/ios >Touch and hold the Space bar with one finger until the keyboard turns light gray. >Move the insertion point by dragging around the keyboard. So the problem is more that OP doesn't read manuals rather than them not being as good as they once were.
- fumar 4y agoGreat tip. I am loving this already.
- eevilspock 4y agoIt's nice that once you get it moving, you can drag on any axis.
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoIt's frustratingly difficult to do this via the right edge, if there's a scrollbar there.
- jonwinstanley 4y agoWhich is pretty ironic when the scroll bars are so elusive when you actually want to drag them
- oneeyedpigeon 4y agoOh... I have scrollbars permanently shown rather than only on-hover. I should've mentioned that — maybe it affects things.
- na85 4y agoI haven't dragged a scroll bar in any OS since windows XP. When do you find it's necessary/convenient?
- contingencies 4y agoMany graphics tablets don't have scroll on the pen.
- egypturnash 4y agoIt is pretty much required if your primary interaction with the computer is through a drawing tablet. My Wacom has a touch-sensitive wheel on it but it's usually a lot more natural to just poke at the scroll bar with the stylus. I loathe the modern trend towards hiding all scroll bars everywhere because of this.
- giobox 4y agoIt can still be a lot more efficient to grab the scrollbar to jump to a section of a large document. For example, you can instantly get to say 3/4 of the way through by moving the scroll bar a very short distance, which when done with the scroll wheel or trackpad gestures could take a very long time. The scroll bar is also sometimes a nice visual cue to the size of a document you've just opened for the first time, again something the wheel/gestures don't necessarily inform. I have permanent scroll bars enabled in macOS too.