Why is the green "plus" button so broken?

[EvryDayImShufln]

Hey guys

I've come to a conclusion today: the only time I ever press the green plus button at the top left of windows is to switch between mini itunes and big itunes.

If I use it in safari, it makes my window tiny and unusable. All I want is a proper maximize button like in windows! At least, if its not gonna maximize, if it had some sort of pattern to how it worked, that would be fine too. Instead I'm scared to push it.

If I use it in quicktime, you would think it would fit screen. Instead it does nothing.

Can anybody explain how this button works and if I'm missing something here?

 

[CashGap]

Green button toggles between "Standard State" and "User State". Read more than you care to here: http://www.xvsxp.com/interface/max_vs_zoom.php, or search for a dozen threads titled "I just switched from Windows and I think I know more about UI design than Apple".

 

[Fuchal]

Hey guys

I've come to a conclusion today: the only time I ever press the green plus button at the top left of windows is to switch between mini itunes and big itunes.

If I use it in safari, it makes my window tiny and unusable. All I want is a proper maximize button like in windows! At least, if its not gonna maximize, if it had some sort of pattern to how it worked, that would be fine too. Instead I'm scared to push it.

If I use it in quicktime, you would think it would fit screen. Instead it does nothing.

Can anybody explain how this button works and if I'm missing something here?

It is not a maximize button. It resizes the window to the width and/or height of the content being displayed inside.

 

[tersono]

Every time I use an Adobe app, I thank the Gods that Apple have designed the re-size button intelligently rather than the way it works in windows.

I hit that little green button and the window re-sizes to fit within toolbars and palettes. I hit it again and it re-sizes the way I had it set before.

It's one of the most useful but under-appreciated features of the OS.

 

[dpaanlka]

All I want is a proper maximize button like in windows!

All I want is people to stop and think about what that button is actually for.

 

[TheStu]

Now, to be fair to the OP, the + button is broken in the new Quicktime. It does not work on my PowerBook, my MacBook, my mother's MacBook, my sister's MacBook, my friend's iBook or his MacBook Pro.

However, I love the smart resize that it does. I have Zoom (the technical term for it apparently) tied to Command+Shift+Z for all my apps, and with one hit of that, windows resize to get rid of the scroll bars as best as they can.

I never really liked full screening my windows in Windows anyway although that seemed to be how you had to do it sometimes... this is so much better for multi-tasking.

 

[Quillz]

Note that the green button has always, in fact, been more of a "smart fit" feature. In fact, the only way to officially maximize any given window is to do it manually by dragging the diagonal lines at the bottom right of each window.

 

[dukebound85]

All I want is people to stop and think about what that button is actually for.

lol ok. the green button is useless to me. i wish it would do what i want which is maximize

 

[iBunny]

There needs to be a 4th button which maximizes the screen.

 

[TheSpaz]

I never use it. I only use it in iTunes which it has a totally different behavior.

 

[JNB]

While over on the WindowsRumors site, someone's bitching about how the "big square button" doesn't properly resize the window and takes up the whole damn screen...

 

[whooleytoo]

While it's wrong to move from Windows and complain that Apple hasn't adopted the Windows conventions (particularly since most MacOS conventions were around first), I think there is a genuine criticism of the 'zoom' button.

It's too inconsistant. I believe in an old version of the Finder, clicking would switch between expanding just big enough to show the contents, clicking again would return to the original size. Option-Clicking would essentially maximise the window. And other applications followed suit, so you knew what would happen when you clicked it.

Now, who knows what happens when you click it in different apps?

(I did just notice if you Option-click it in Finder, it does move the window to the top-left corner, but doesn't maximise it. I didn't know that..)

 

[HLdan]

lol ok. the green button is useless to me. i wish it would do what i want which is maximize

Boy oh boy, I really sometimes have to wonder why do people leave Windows in favor of the Macintosh when they want the Mac to work like Windows.

 

[lofight]

I'm sometime having trouble with this two, but i actually almost never use it..

 

[SthrnCmfrtr]

If you want a real shocker, click it while running Calculator

 

[dpaanlka]

lol ok. the green button is useless to me. i wish it would do what i want which is maximize

Well a maximize button is useless to me. So why should Apple change it so that I, a long time Mac user, has to re-learn a convention, just so you, a comparatively short time Mac user, feels comfortable?

 

[Matek]

Boy oh boy, I really sometimes have to wonder why do people leave Windows in favor of the Macintosh when they want the Mac to work like Windows.

Just because OS X is a very good operating system overall and probably better then windows, it doesn't mean it's perfect. There are a plenty of features in other OSes that are really neat and could be implemented, so OS X can be criticised like any other OS.

While it's wrong to move from Windows and complain that Apple hasn't adopted the Windows conventions (particularly since most MacOS conventions were around first), I think there is a genuine criticism of the 'zoom' button.

It's too inconsistant. I believe in an old version of the Finder, clicking would switch between expanding just big enough to show the contents, clicking again would return to the original size. Option-Clicking would essentially maximise the window. And other applications followed suit, so you knew what would happen when you clicked it.

Very well said. I would be very happy if the + button actually did what it's supposed to do - increase the window to fit all the content or at least the maximum amount. I understand Apple can't force all app makers to implement this functionality properly, but at least they could do it themselves. Some apps (itunes, calc, ...) use it to switch modes, others use it to fit content. And even that is very inconsistent - Finder, for example, doesn't maximise your window if you are in a folder with many many files, which would seem the logical option to display as many files as possible. It stretches the window vertically, but it doesn't stretch it horizontally.

Although maximisation is an option brought from windows, i think it has a very acceptable function - if you focus on using an application (edit a photo in an editor, browse a page in a browser, whatever), it usually makes sense to focus on that single application - having it expand over your entire workspace seems reasonable. It's true that non-maximised windows are cool for multitasking, but on some occasions maximised windows are useful too. I'm not saying the + option should be removed, but there should definitely be an option to maximise too.

 

[vansouza]

Green button toggles between "Standard State" and "User State". Read more than you care to here: http://www.xvsxp.com/interface/max_vs_zoom.php, or search for a dozen threads titled "I just switched from Windows and I think I know more about UI design than Apple".

Naughty, you might get coal for Christmas; but funny nonetheless.

 

[GSMiller]

Now, to be fair to the OP, the + button is broken in the new Quicktime. It does not work on my PowerBook, my MacBook, my mother's MacBook, my sister's MacBook, my friend's iBook or his MacBook Pro.

However, I love the smart resize that it does. I have Zoom (the technical term for it apparently) tied to Command+Shift+Z for all my apps, and with one hit of that, windows resize to get rid of the scroll bars as best as they can.

I never really liked full screening my windows in Windows anyway although that seemed to be how you had to do it sometimes... this is so much better for multi-tasking.

Yea it is broken in QuickTime, it doesn't even do anything with you click it.

When I first switched it took me a little while to get used to windows not taking up the entire screen, and now I think it makes you way more productive and can't stand on window to cover the whole desktop when working in Windows.

 

[TheStu]

It all has to do with different mentalities... frankly, when I am surfing the web, I don't like to have the browser take up the whole screen. I like being able to see my side-dock and Adium list at all times. In fact, the only app that I have take up close to the entire screen would be iTunes simply because I like coverflow. Most everything else, i prefer discrete, smaller windows over 1 large window. That was one of the reasons that I really am not over the moon about tabs on everything. It makes sense to me to have it for a browser... but a text editor? Finder with tabs? Seriously?

Anyway, back to the initial topic... the resize toggle is great, though I do agree with another that OS X should either have A: a preference pane that lets you switch from the + allowing you to maximize the window or smart resize or B: a fourth jewel up there.

 

[Loge]

Seems odd to call it Windows, when people just want to maximise all the time.

Maximise is a fall back to when we had small screens.

 

[HLdan]

Maximizing to the full screen made SOME sense long, long ago when desktop computer screens were 13" and with much lower resolutions. Still back in the day I never maximized when I was stuck using... well Windows Now all computer screens are wide screens and maximizing makes ZERO sense especially since most websites do not cater to wide screens.

So to you all Windows viewers maximize your browsers to full screen and see how many websites fill the whole screen, you won't find many and most of them end up over to the left side of the screen.

At any rate even websites that fully support wide screen LCD's I just never maximize the web browser, I feel claustrophobic and I need to have access to the rest of my computer.

 

[EvryDayImShufln]

To all you jokers criticizing because you think that I want OS X to BE windows, you couldn't be more wrong. I just want a consistent green button, like several people stated, and maximizing is one answer to this.

For Safari: I like to center my window, stretched to fill the screen top to bottom and have gaps at both sides so I can draw images to my desktop. When I click the green button, it turns my window into this tiny little window taking up 1/5th of the screen and unusable. If I click it again, nothing happens. What good is that? It doesnt even freakin' toggle!

For Quicktime: as everybody said, 100% broken.

For Finder, it works well IMO.

For iTunes: perfect.

So I guess my complaint was mainly for Safari and Quicktime, but keep in mind that these programs are very often used and quirks and inconsistencies relating to them are very noticed.

 

[HLdan]

To all you jokers criticizing because you think that I want OS X to BE windows, you couldn't be more wrong. I just want a consistent green button, like several people stated, and maximizing is one answer to this.

For Safari: I like to center my window, stretched to fill the screen top to bottom and have gaps at both sides so I can draw images to my desktop. When I click the green button, it turns my window into this tiny little window taking up 1/5th of the screen and unusable. If I click it again, nothing happens. What good is that? It doesnt even freakin' toggle!

Well, yes you are saying you want it to be Windows because you are still not seeing it the "Mac way", the way you want it IS the Windows way.
Now take a look at when you click the zoom button and the browser flies all the way over to the left side of the screen and just fills up 1/5 of the screen.
You say it's unusable. Actually it's not, you are just focusing on it turning into a thinner looking window on the side of the screen.
Do you notice any horizontal scroll bars when this happens? No, because the content still fills the window. That's the way it's suppose to be, it's not doing anything wrong.

It goes over to the corner because web browser don't generally cater to wide screens. Next time you play with Windows do the full screen thing and check out a few websites and you will notice 2 different things. One will show the content smack dab in the middle. Another will show the content over to the left side and very few will fill the whole screen.

Dude, you will get used to it but Apple uses a logic system and Microsoft chose not to. The Windows way is really retarded.
Even on Mac Rumors full screen makes the posts stretch all the way from left to right, it's hard to read posts that way.

 

[danny_w]

Well, yes you are saying you want it to be Windows because you are still not seeing it the "Mac way", the way you want it IS the Windows way.
Now take a look at when you click the zoom button and the browser flies all the way over to the left side of the screen and just fills up 1/5 of the screen.
You say it's unusable. Actually it's not, you are just focusing on it turning into a thinner looking window on the side of the screen.
Do you notice any horizontal scroll bars when this happens? No, because the content still fills the window. That's the way it's suppose to be, it's not doing anything wrong.

It goes over to the corner because web browser don't generally cater to wide screens. Next time you play with Windows do the full screen thing and check out a few websites and you will notice 2 different things. One will show the content smack dab in the middle. Another will show the content over to the left side and very few will fill the whole screen.

Dude, you will get used to it but Apple uses a logic system and Microsoft chose not to. The Windows way is really retarded.
Even on Mac Rumors full screen makes the posts stretch all the way from left to right, it's hard to read posts that way.

That would be a great argument IF the use of the button were consistent. Unfortunately, as many above me have pointed out, it isn't, and sometimes it even does nothing. OS X is full of such contradictions, and this is just one of them (hopefully Leopard is better, but I have not tried it yet). I love OS X too (I switched when the mini came out and will never go back) but it is not perfect.