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Is there some sort of clever hack of achieving that, because I did not find anything. I have a 27" Mac and everything is still kind of huge.

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    Because other people with the same question will be directed here, I think it's reasonable for answers to include paid versions, so that you and others can make the decision about whether to pay people for their work that provides you with something that you value.
    – benwiggy
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 8:36
  • @nohillside although the related question doesn't specify free/native solutions. All 5 answers on the related question are paid: Moom, BetterSnapTool, Divvy, Magnet, BetterTouchTool (and Spectacle is no longer maintained). Hence this question specifically for free/open source software (or, preferably, a native way)
    – stevec
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 12:16
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    @nohillside so you're closing a good question because of (2 slightly) bad answers? Wouldn't it make more sense to ping a non-answer with a downvote, and link to the related question as a comment on those answers (so the knowledge doesn't go to waste), rather than close the question?
    – stevec
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 12:34
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    It's linked with a rather similar one, with similar answers. Nothing gets deleted, nothing is wasted, but it makes it easier to find answers for future visitors.
    – nohillside ♦
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 12:56
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    I’m going to ask on meta if anyone objects to merging this with the canonical question. It’s fine being linked, but the answers fit a “what window managers exist” type question better IMO and this language will feed the canonical question with excellent use case and wording. +1 stevec it’s a great question no will bring people to our canonical answer.
    – bmike ♦
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 16:37

13 Answers 13

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No - you get two windows in the current implementation. One on the left and one on the right.

I suppose the notification center slide over could be considered a "third window" but you can't put an application window there - it's just a system tray of sorts.

I would look at a program like Divvy on the Mac App Store for customizing a workspace with multiple tiled windows. It's not split view, but it's far more flexible and able to make use of the 27 inch display space to quite a granular basis.

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21

Rectangle

You can use Rectangle to achieve this for free.

Rectangle is a window management app based on Spectacle, written in Swift.

After downloading, installing, and granting the app accessibility permissions in System Preferences, you'll be able to enable the default keyboard shortcut scheme, which allows you to press ctrl + opt + U/I/K/J to snap a window to the top left/top right/bottom right/bottom left, respectively. By assigning four windows each to one of these four positions, you can create a four-way split screen view (and if you enable Dock and Menu Bar hiding, you might be able to get a bit more screen real estate, if needed).

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    This one worked quite well. I split the screen into 3 with minimal shortcuts. Amazing for a free app!
    – Amr Ellafy
    Commented Oct 21, 2021 at 8:26
  • Tried this as well. It's super helpful.
    – smerllo
    Commented Jan 25, 2023 at 12:58
  • Such a good recommendation, does what it says, great default shortcuts, and it's free.
    – nacho_dh
    Commented Sep 5, 2023 at 13:38
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I can recommend:

  • Spectacle which is free, you can move and expand windows to sides and corners with keyboard shortcuts
  • BetterTouchTool which is paid-for, and includes drag-to-edge to size windows to sides or corners, among many other features
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  • Should be marked as best answer!!
    – 1020rpz
    Commented Mar 15, 2018 at 14:44
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    I found a similar tool with a similar name, let me add as a comment for reference by future visitors, BetterSnapTool at apps.apple.com/us/app/bettersnaptool/id417375580?mt=12
    – computingfreak
    Commented Jul 22, 2019 at 14:27
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    BetterSnapTool is now paid for, but cheaper than BetterTouchTool. They're by the same developer, and BetterTouchTool includes the snapping functionality, but also a lot more with respect to defining custom keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures, and more.
    – Harry
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 7:59
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yabai

If you want a more powerful alternative to Rectangle, you could use the free and open-soure Yabai, which you can configure however you like.

yabai is a window management utility that is designed to work as an extension to the built-in window manager of macOS. yabai allows you to control your windows, spaces and displays freely using an intuitive command line interface and optionally set user-defined keyboard shortcuts using skhd and other third-party software.

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  • It's worth noting that Yabai requires that "System Integrity Protection…be (partially) disabled" in order for "many advanced features" to function.
    – aaplmath
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 14:45
  • The basic tiling functions do not require SIP to be disabled
    – twlscnds
    Commented Jan 14, 2021 at 14:52
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Hopefully something like this becomes a standard Mac feature. I like the split screen feature, but sometimes I want/need more than two screens. I found a pretty good solution on the Apps store that will let you have split screen, one window half/two in quarters, or 4 windows is quarters. It is called Magnet. Works great on OSx Sierra, and is much cheaper than Divvy. Here's the link!

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The app I am now using is Magnet. It is available on the Mac AppStore and performs beautifully. It has shortcuts, graphical buttons and you can drag the windows to the sides of the screen to snap them to halves or to corners to snap them to quarters.

enter image description here

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3

BetterSnapTool

An app you might want to check is BetterSnapTool. It does what you want and is available from the Mac App Store. It sells for $2.99. I know you wanted a free app but I couldn't find one for the Mac.

BetterSnapTool allows you to easily manage your window positions and sizes by either dragging them to one of your screens corners or to the top, left or right side of your screen. This lets you easily maximize your windows or position them side by side. In addition, you can set keyboard shortcuts in order to move and resize your windows the way you want.

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SizeUp

SizeUp is a window manager app like the others. It costs $12.99 at the time of writing, but offers unlimited free trial (it just reminds you every now and then to pay).

SizeUp allows you to quickly resize and position your windows with keyboard shortcuts or a handy menu bar icon.

It is not open source, though.

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@Harry is actually providing a very good recommendation without being very specific about it.

Spectacle does (almost) exactly what you're looking for. It's not strictly speaking split view, but it allows you to split windows between the three third of the screen via simple shortcuts:

enter image description here

In addition, it's free and open-source.

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  • Love the open source part of it more than free part :) Thank you.
    – Maziyar
    Commented May 17, 2019 at 7:43
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Me from the future here; I ended up settling for Magnet

It has nice logical shortcuts to snap windows to quarters, halves and thirds of the screen and supports dragging to the edges of the screen, like in Windows. Easily worth the 1.09€ for me.

screenshot

Update 2019/2020:

Ended up switching to Divvy. It allows me to place windows anywhere on a customizable grid (kind of like a less aggressive tiling window manager). And I can define custom shortcuts. So I took Magnet’s shortcuts and added a whole bunch of other ones, like centering, top left sixth, bottom quarter, etc.

It also allows to set a custom window separation, which I think looks pretty good.

divvy grid

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Moom

This is my favorite... I have tried quite a few, and paid for them.

there is a quick menu on the window

enter image description here

you can split into blocks which are configurable

enter image description here

and can be triggered when switching displays

enter image description here

this is the help screen ....

enter image description here

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0

BetterSnapTool has worked well for me for years

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Its not the same feautre as Windows, But little bit default Mac feature

Follow the steps

  1. Four finger down. You will window desktop bar
  2. Drag the application to besides desktop.(Make sure you are not dragging into desktop but creating new app pane besides, the mistake i was doing)
  3. You can now drag one more application to the lonely single applcation in desktop bar.
  4. Now they will split evenly in two enter image description here

enter image description here

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  • Welcome the SE.network and thanks for contributing. Unfortunately, your answer misses the mark. The question was about how to get more than two windows side by side.
    – Martin Braun
    Commented Feb 9, 2023 at 13:36

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