Fellow Mac users, have you ever wanted to make a window fill the screen but didn’t want to use the default full-screen mode (where the menubar disappears)?
There are new (hidden) ways to enlarge your window without going full-screen (which I honestly don’t like). They work in macOS Sierra and later.
Window Enlargement Tricks
- Hold Option and click the
green plus button at the top left of any window to make it fill the screen. - Hold Option and double-click to the edge of any window to make it fill the screen.
- Doing this on the left or side will expand it horizontally
- Doing this to the top or bottom side will expand it vertically.
- Doing this to a corner will expand it both horizontally and vertically.
- Double-click any side of a window (left, right, top, or bottom) to make the window grow to the edge of the screen in that direction.
- Hold Option, hover over the green plus button, wait a moment and you’ll see a menu pop up with the option to move the window to the left or right side of the screen. (This is new in macOS Catalina.)
Assigning a Keystroke to Make a Window Fill the Screen
Spectacle is a free app that I love. It lets you assign keystrokes to size and position windows. Here are the keystrokes I use set:
- Fullscreen: Control–Up Arrow
- Left Half: Control–Left Arrow (Hit this keystroke 1, 2, or 3 times to fill the left half, two-thirds, or one-third of the screen.)
- Right Half: Control–Right Arrow (Hit this keystroke 1, 2, or 3 times to fill the right half, two-thirds, or one-third of the screen.)
