10

Currently, if I want to tile two instances, I press the green button on the top-left and place the instance accordingly.

However, each of the tiled instances always go into full screen mode. For a chrome instance, this is annoying as it means it's not possible to see the tabs.

How do I tile windows without making them go full screen?

Improve this question

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
11

Pressing the green traffic light button would cause the window of most macOS apps to go full-screen.

You can press and hold the Option key when clicking on the green traffic light button to prevent the window from going into full-screen mode.

If you want to tile and align various windows belonging to same of different apps, you can use one of the many 3rd party window and tiling manager apps.

One such app that I use and find very useful is Divvy - Window Manager. It lets you tile windows quickly and efficiently for any macOS app and supports multiple displays too.

P.S.: No affiliation whatsoever with the developer of the app. Just a satisfied customer.

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    the app suggestion is great - the option solution doesn't seem to work on my mac though :( I'm on mojave 10.14.5
    – nz_21
    Sep 23, 2020 at 15:25
  • 3
    There are several other third party applications that also accomplish this if the one mentioned is insufficient. A quick internet search for "Tiling Window Manager for MacOS" will yield a bunch of alternatives. I use "BetterTouchTool" which has tiling functionality but is also paid - there are many FOSS alternatives that don't require $$. An example of FOSS alternative would be the app "Spectacle" and it's derivatives/descendants
    – Conor
    Sep 23, 2020 at 15:32
  • Divvy is not free
    – meyerson
    Dec 6, 2021 at 22:24
7

If you press the Option button, then open the Window menu, you will the see that Tile Window to Left of Screen will now read Move Window to Left Side of Screen.

To make this easier, I mapped keyboard shortcuts for CommandControlLeft Arrow and Right Arrow to do this.

Once you map these shortcuts, these options will show up in the Window menu permanently without needing to press the Option key

Improve this answer
1
  • Weirdly, setting up a shortcut like this works for Chrome windows but not Adobe Reader windows!? "Move Window to Left Side of Screen" appears in the menu for Chrome (as well as tile) but only when I press the "Option" button for Adobe.. Any idea why??
    – Carl
    Feb 11, 2022 at 9:17
4

The best option for me was to create keyboard shortcuts. You will need to use the exact text for it to work.

Under: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts > +

Add the following 'Menu Title' shortcuts to whatever key combination you prefer.

e.g. I used ⌘ CMD + ⌃ CTRL + ←

Menu Titles:

  • Zoom - resizes window to fill screen, without going "fullscreen".
  • Move Window to Left Side of Screen - resizes window to the left 50% of the screen (no tiling).
  • Move Window to Right Side of Screen - resizes window to the right 50% of the screen (no tiling).
Improve this answer
1

Rectangle will let you do this by keyboard shortcut ($0).

Moom will actually modify those buttons for you and give you keyboard shortcuts and customizations and more. Highly recommended. $10, but there's a free trial at the link.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .