1.5 years later, I still want full screen windows

[puma1552]

Switched to Mac back in late '08.

I understand how Apple's green 'maximize' button works--that it sizes the window around the contents of the actual page you're working on. I understand this, and I see the use and convenience of it for multitasking, etc.

However, I still don't care for it. When I pull up a window, I want it to maximize like a Windows machine does. My other frustration is that usually I can move the edges of say, a Safari window, off of the screen entirely--for example if I'm dragging a Safari window to the left of the screen, it won't stop when it hits the left edge of my screen like it will stop when it hits the top finder bar. So not only is having to manually maximize windows a pain, but it's also a pain to make sure I've got the windows lined up with the true screen edges.

Any work arounds that don't require third party software?

 

[Next Tuesday]

Theres a safari add on called glims. It gives you the option to make the windows full screen with a simple (control-command-F) press. Or you can manually do it from the menubar. It also has some other options as well.

 

[calderone]

Why waste the entire screen on one window?

 

[spinne1]

Any work arounds that don't require third party software?

No.

Third party software:
http://www.usingmac.com/2009/3/23/full-maximize-on-mac

Why does it matter if it is third party software as long as it does exactly what you want it to do?

As for going outside the visible window, my Mac will only do that if either the desktop resolution changes or if I drag a window by the top of the window outside of the screen. If I use the bottom right corner it will not go outside the screen.

 

[Gregg2]

I like seeing part of the Desktop behind the open application. That's where I put my most used items (in alias form) to minimize clutter on the Dock. I also move things partially off-screen on purpose on a daily basis. I'd be pissed if I couldn't do that. And yes, I have a wide screen.

 

[notjustjay]

I think "fill the screen" is almost a bygone concept from the days when we had 14" and 15" monitors at 800x600 or 1024x768 resolution. Today many of us have 20" to 24" monitors at resolutions of 1920x1080 or even higher, and the trend is to go to 16:9 screens which of course are much wider. You wouldn't want to fill that screen for, say, web browsing.

Apps where you DO want to fill the screen are programs like, say, Photoshop, or Word, or iPhoto, where you are working with document(s) that can benefit from having a lot of screen space for viewing the document or for palettes. I agree that for those apps, the logical action for the green button would be to maximize to fill the available space -- and I believe in those cases that's what it does already.

So I don't necessarily think that the green button should fill the screen, but I DO think its current implementation is still buggy and confusing.