4 ms·

my biggest gripe with mac os having recently moved from windows is hitting the maximise button on finder and it barely filling half the screen. other well docu

by maxer 15y ago

my biggest gripe with mac os having recently moved from windows is hitting the maximise button on finder and it barely filling half the screen. other well documented one is the ability to turn the laptop screen of when using another screen but still the laptop keyboard

crb 15y ago
Hold Shift while hitting the green plus ("resize window") button to make it maximise the window.
- vbo 15y ago
  Cheers for that, I've been mildly annoyed with the resize button for years but never enough to look for a solution. This works great.
  - Vecrios 15y ago
    still, doesn't work for me! what version are you using?
    - driverdan 15y ago
      IIRC it was introduced fairly recently, either Snow Leopard or Lion.
    - vbo 15y ago
      Using Lion, but I recall doing this for some time (Tiger?); I may be wrong. Do you have tap to click enabled?
    - Angostura 15y ago
      It is app-dependent too.
- msluyter 15y ago
  Holy crap! I wish I could give you multiple upvotes for this. I wonder if there's a way to make this the default? This reminds me that I really need to spend a couple of days delving into basic OSX functionality (features/keyboard shortcuts). There are probably a ton of other features like this that I'm oblivious to.
- evanmoran 15y ago
  Holy crap part 2. I've been looking for that for a long time!
Thlom 15y ago
You'll probably get used to the maximise button. It will expand the window to fit the content. If you realy want fullscreen, use the fullscreen button. I usually have Safari in fullscreen all day. One three finger swipe to swap between desktop and Safari.
uptown 15y ago
I use divvy to manage my window sizing. Check it out - there's a free never-ending demo version too.
- chriskelley 15y ago
  ShiftIt is a great open source alternative for window managing in OSX as well. https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt
cobralibre 15y ago
There is no maximize button in OS X; there's a zoom button. It's used to toggle between a window's "standard" size and position, and a user-defined size and position. http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/Windows/Windows.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000961-BACEDHFG http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserEx... Your application determines the initial size and position of a window, which is called the standard state. If the user changes a window's size or location by at least 7 points, the new size and location is the called the user state. The user can toggle between the standard state and the user state by clicking the zoom button in the title bar.
- adambyrtek 15y ago
  Call it what you like, it's still confusing, and pointing users to documentation is not going to solve the problem.
  - tesseract 15y ago
    It's not confusing, it does the exact same thing it's always done since the 1980s. The zoom button in Windows is horribly broken though - all it ever does is make the window fill the whole screen! How wasteful!... Considering the number of complaints though, you'd think Apple would introduce a preference setting, or another button or something. And in fact they have - in 10.7 there's a maximize button in the top right corner... Except the new button is officially called the "fullscreen" button and to hear some people talk, the existence of the fullscreen mode is a foreboding sign of the coming iPad-ification of OS X... sigh.
    - adambyrtek 15y ago
      Apple is seen as a company that cares about simplicity and user experience. If a feature is confusing to many, mostly because the behavior depends on application and window size, we should expect them to refine it. Claiming that such users are "wrong" because it works fine for somebody who has used Mac for the last 20 years completely misses the point.
jordanlev 15y ago
There's a free utility called "RightZoom" that fixes this -- it works perfectly for me (on 10.5 and 10.6 -- haven't upgraded to Lion yet).
AdamGibbins 15y ago
You can "fix" this by installing Moom http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://manytricks.com/moom/
- subwindow 15y ago
  Moom is great. Having to use a pointing device to manipulate windows is silly. It kind of sucks to pay $5 to get features that really should be part of the OS, but the end result is good. Shortcuts that I can't live without: Cmd+Shift+Up = Maximize. Cmd+Shift+Left = Move to Left Display (my big monitor). Cmd+Shift+Right = Move to Right Display (my laptop monitor). Cmd+Shift+PgUp/PgDown = Move to top/bottom of screen. Etc, etc.
- dguaraglia 15y ago
  I've been usign Moom for about a month now and I can't count the number of times it's saved me from my old gripe with the 'zoom' button.
- jonursenbach 15y ago
  Divvy is also equally awesome. http://mizage.com/divvy/ http://mizage.com/divvy/
kooshball 15y ago
I use SizeUp for this. http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ you can set the keyboard shortcut to maximize the window, or split it left/right like you can in Windows 7. The trial is pretty good, you get a windows to click away everytime the app starts but that's usually it.
mid 15y ago
Moom is your friend http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://manytricks.com/moom/

by maxer 15y ago

crb 15y ago

Hold Shift while hitting the green plus ("resize window") button to make it maximise the window.

vbo 15y ago
Cheers for that, I've been mildly annoyed with the resize button for years but never enough to look for a solution. This works great.
- Vecrios 15y ago
  still, doesn't work for me! what version are you using?
  - driverdan 15y ago
    IIRC it was introduced fairly recently, either Snow Leopard or Lion.
  - vbo 15y ago
    Using Lion, but I recall doing this for some time (Tiger?); I may be wrong. Do you have tap to click enabled?
  - Angostura 15y ago
    It is app-dependent too.
msluyter 15y ago
Holy crap! I wish I could give you multiple upvotes for this. I wonder if there's a way to make this the default? This reminds me that I really need to spend a couple of days delving into basic OSX functionality (features/keyboard shortcuts). There are probably a ton of other features like this that I'm oblivious to.
evanmoran 15y ago
Holy crap part 2. I've been looking for that for a long time!

Thlom 15y ago

You'll probably get used to the maximise button. It will expand the window to fit the content. If you realy want fullscreen, use the fullscreen button. I usually have Safari in fullscreen all day. One three finger swipe to swap between desktop and Safari.

uptown 15y ago

I use divvy to manage my window sizing. Check it out - there's a free never-ending demo version too.

chriskelley 15y ago
ShiftIt is a great open source alternative for window managing in OSX as well. https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt https://github.com/fikovnik/ShiftIt

cobralibre 15y ago

There is no maximize button in OS X; there's a zoom button. It's used to toggle between a window's "standard" size and position, and a user-defined size and position. http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/Windows/Windows.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000961-BACEDHFG http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/UserEx... Your application determines the initial size and position of a window, which is called the standard state. If the user changes a window's size or location by at least 7 points, the new size and location is the called the user state. The user can toggle between the standard state and the user state by clicking the zoom button in the title bar.

adambyrtek 15y ago
Call it what you like, it's still confusing, and pointing users to documentation is not going to solve the problem.
- tesseract 15y ago
  It's not confusing, it does the exact same thing it's always done since the 1980s. The zoom button in Windows is horribly broken though - all it ever does is make the window fill the whole screen! How wasteful!... Considering the number of complaints though, you'd think Apple would introduce a preference setting, or another button or something. And in fact they have - in 10.7 there's a maximize button in the top right corner... Except the new button is officially called the "fullscreen" button and to hear some people talk, the existence of the fullscreen mode is a foreboding sign of the coming iPad-ification of OS X... sigh.
  - adambyrtek 15y ago
    Apple is seen as a company that cares about simplicity and user experience. If a feature is confusing to many, mostly because the behavior depends on application and window size, we should expect them to refine it. Claiming that such users are "wrong" because it works fine for somebody who has used Mac for the last 20 years completely misses the point.

jordanlev 15y ago

There's a free utility called "RightZoom" that fixes this -- it works perfectly for me (on 10.5 and 10.6 -- haven't upgraded to Lion yet).

AdamGibbins 15y ago

You can "fix" this by installing Moom http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://manytricks.com/moom/

subwindow 15y ago
Moom is great. Having to use a pointing device to manipulate windows is silly. It kind of sucks to pay $5 to get features that really should be part of the OS, but the end result is good. Shortcuts that I can't live without: Cmd+Shift+Up = Maximize. Cmd+Shift+Left = Move to Left Display (my big monitor). Cmd+Shift+Right = Move to Right Display (my laptop monitor). Cmd+Shift+PgUp/PgDown = Move to top/bottom of screen. Etc, etc.
dguaraglia 15y ago
I've been usign Moom for about a month now and I can't count the number of times it's saved me from my old gripe with the 'zoom' button.
jonursenbach 15y ago
Divvy is also equally awesome. http://mizage.com/divvy/ http://mizage.com/divvy/

kooshball 15y ago

I use SizeUp for this. http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/ you can set the keyboard shortcut to maximize the window, or split it left/right like you can in Windows 7. The trial is pretty good, you get a windows to click away everytime the app starts but that's usually it.

mid 15y ago

Moom is your friend http://manytricks.com/moom/ http://manytricks.com/moom/