Window sizing

[hkriffraff]

This will sound very stupid. I switched to a Mac about three years ago, but have never quite figured out the manner in which windows are positioned & sized in OS X. I generally like my app windows fill the screen and achieve this by manually dragging the bottom right corner of a window. But when I launch a new window in the same app, it never has quite the same dimensions or positioning as the already-open window. Surely there must be a preference setting somewhere to make this so? And I can't really understand the behaviour of the "+" button. Logic would seem to dictate that clicking it would maximize the window. But the windows seem to resize to arbitrary dimensions. I'd be grateful if someone could shed light on this niggling issue!

 

[apachie2k]

it's cool 2 search b4

 

[bearbo]

there's no way to resize the window in os x like the way you maximize in windows... the green plus sign vertically maximize it, some window if you click twice, it horizontally maximize it too

 

[Chundles]

there's no way to resize the window in os x like the way you maximize in windows... the green plus sign vertically maximize it, some window if you click twice, it horizontally maximize it too

It's not called a "Maximise" button. It's called a "Zoom" button and it makes the window as wide as it needs to be to display the information.

Having app windows open to full screen goes against the multi-tasking design of OSX, when you have a window open full screen you can't drag and drop to other apps as easily, you can't access the desktop as easily and so on.

This has been discussed ad nauseam on here.

 

[hkriffraff]

If it has been discussed ad nauseum, maybe it's a sign that this is a legitimate problem that a lot of people have with the OS X interface. It can be rationalized by citing some design philosophy, but this doesn't help me as a user. I spend a lot of time writing lengthy reports and find it distracting having other apps peeking out from around the corners. This is precisely the time when I want to resist the temptation to multitask. Maybe I have ADD or something but I don't want to see anything but the document I'm working on.

 

[dpaanlka]

If it has been discussed ad nauseum, maybe it's a sign that this is a legitimate problem that a lot of people have with the OS X interface.

More likely it's a sign that the clunky and inefficient way Microsoft Windows organizes it's windows is negatively training everybody to think they need to run everything full screen.

Maybe I have ADD or something but I don't want to see anything but the document I'm working on.

Try clicking on the menu corresponding to the name of the application you are currently working in, and choosing "Hide Others" to quickly clean up your screen. Alternatively, you can hit Command + Option + H to have the same effect.