Take control of your windows
Discover techniques to tame your workspace, including Sierra’s new tricks
Sadly, macOS doesn’t have an equivalent to Microsoft’s Window Snap feature to enable you to quickly make a window fill the left or right half of the desktop. However, it has some hidden shortcuts that are more powerful. Over these two pages you’ll learn techniques that will help you to wrangle windows more efficiently, so you can quickly get on with more pressing tasks. Not all of them are obvious, and some are the sort of thing that even veteran Mac users might be surprised to discover.
Some of these shortcuts have been part of the Mac operating system for years, so you can benefit from them even if you have no choice but to run an old version. For example, OS X Lion was the first version to enable resizing from any window edge or corner – which you can combine with holding one or two modifier keys to resize a window in two directions at once, for example.
If your Mac is running Sierra, though, you’ll discover plenty more features that Apple has added. The great news here, especially if you’ve switched from a Windows PC, is that there’s at last an equivalent to the Maximize command found in Microsoft’s operating system, so you can make a window fill the desktop with a double-click. Related to that, you can instantly snap a window’s edge or corner to the same position of the overall desktop – no dragging required!
If you need even more control…
Earlier, we mentioned Windows Snap. After reading these tips, you may find yourself pining for something more like it, especially if you’ve recently switched from a PC. One of the following thirdparty tools will help you out.
The simpler option is Magnet ($4.99, Mac App Store). It enables you to drag a window or press a key combo to make the window fill a specific quarter or half of the desktop, or even the whole screen. Your more powerful option is Moom ($9.99, Mac App Store). A highlight is its ability to save and restore window layouts in an instant by pressing a keyboard shortcut.