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My issue is that I left my Mac on with an external (as an extended) display. When I came back the secondary display denies coming live. There is an application there (Word) which I cannot reach it with a mouse to drag it to the primary Macbook pro display to continue work. The application is live since I can see it in the Task manager (Command+Tab) I wonder if there is something that I can do from the Terminal command line. Please, no external apps suggestions, if possible!
Thanks.

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    What happens when you unplug the external monitor? (I'd expect Word to "reappear" on your MBP display)
    – John N
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 10:12

2 Answers 2

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Your description is a bit difficult to understand, but if you got an application window outside of the screen area and you need it moved without dragging, then this should work:

  1. Open the native Script Editor application.

  2. Open a new blank document and paste in the following code:

    tell application "Microsoft Word" to set bounds of window 1 to {0, 22, 600, 622}

  3. Click the play button to run the code.

    This should move the Word document window to the top left of your screen and resize the window to 600x600px (note that this will only move 1 window).

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Powerpoint usually does this for me and I usually solve the problem by switching to the app, and although it's screen is offscreen, the menu bar is accessible, so you can do Window -> Zoom. This brings the app, even if it's offscreen to your current screen area.

Obviously this only works if your app has a menu bar, and supports the zoom / maximise functionality. Most OSX apps are fine (Word included), but you might still need alternatives when using for example XQuartz based apps.

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  • You said, "...so you can do Window -> Zoom. This brings the app, even if it's offscreen to your current screen area.", and in a dual-monitor scenario, as in the OP where the secondary monitor is an extended Display, I find this to not be true. If the app window is on the secondary monitor and is zoomed from the primary monitor, the zooming of the window on the secondary monitor is done on the secondary monitor as it's supposed to be, not the primary monitor. So this is not going to resolve the issue presented in the OP!
    – user3439894
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 15:06
  • @user3439894 depends whether the secondary display is active or not. Even if you disconnect the secondary display completely the app might remain in the space reserved for that display (and Office apps tend to do that). This solution does help in that case, and is slightly easier to do than firing up Script Editor
    – SztupY
    Commented Apr 28, 2017 at 15:17

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