everyday mac tools

Make a window fill the screen on a Mac without going full screen

· 6 min read

Clicking the green button sends a window into full screen, a separate space where the menu bar and Dock hide. To make a window as big as the screen and keep it on your desktop, choose Window, Fill on macOS Sequoia or later (or press Fn-Control-F), or hold Option and click the green button on any recent version. You can also set a double-click on the title bar to do the same thing.

What full screen changes, and why it gets in the way

Full screen is designed for one app at a time. The window moves into its own space in Mission Control, the menu bar hides until you point at the top of the screen, and the Dock stays out of sight. Other windows cannot sit beside it unless you use Split View, and getting back to the desktop means swiping between spaces.

That suits a film or a long stretch of writing. It is awkward when you only wanted a bigger window: a window from another app opens on a different space, dragging a file between apps turns into a trip through Mission Control, and the window seems to vanish when you switch away. Dragging a file between two full-screen apps covers that last problem if you prefer to stay in full screen.

To leave full screen, press Fn-F or Control-Command-F, or move the pointer to the top of the screen and click the green button again.

Fill, on macOS Sequoia and later

macOS Sequoia added window tiling, and with it a Fill command in the Window menu of most apps.

  1. Click the window you want to enlarge.
  2. Choose Window, Fill, or press Fn-Control-F (Globe-Control-F on keyboards with a Globe key).
  3. To put it back, choose Window, Move & Resize, Return to Previous Size, or press Fn-Control-R.

Hold the pointer over the green button without clicking and the same choices appear in a menu, along with halves, quarters and arrangements of several windows. Fn-Control-C centers a window without resizing it, and Fn-Control with an arrow key moves it to that half of the screen.

Two settings in System Settings, Desktop & Dock, under Windows, affect this. “Drag windows to menu bar to fill screen” lets you fill a window by dragging its title bar up against the menu bar. “Tiled windows have margins” leaves a gap around filled and tiled windows; switch it off if you want the window to meet the edges of the screen.

Option-click the green button, on any version

Holding Option changes what the green button does. Instead of full screen, it zooms the window: in most apps the window grows to fill the available screen, and another Option-click returns it to its earlier size. The same command appears as Window, Zoom in most apps.

Zoom is not quite the same as Fill. Each app decides what its zoomed size should be, and some size the window to their content rather than to the screen. A Finder window, for example, may grow only as far as it needs to show its files. If Zoom leaves a window smaller than you wanted, Fill or dragging the edges is the dependable option.

Make a double-click on the title bar do it

macOS lets you choose what happens when you double-click the empty part of a window’s title bar.

  1. Open System Settings, Desktop & Dock.
  2. Find “Double-click a window’s title bar to”.
  3. Choose Fill if your version of macOS lists it, or Zoom on earlier versions. Minimize sends the window to the Dock instead, which is the setting that surprises people who expected it to grow.

From then on, a double-click on any title bar enlarges the window, and another double-click restores it.

Add a keyboard shortcut on older versions

Before Sequoia there is no built-in shortcut for Zoom, but you can make one, because macOS can attach a shortcut to any menu command by name.

  1. Open System Settings, Keyboard, and click Keyboard Shortcuts.
  2. Choose App Shortcuts, then click the add button.
  3. Leave Application set to All Applications.
  4. For Menu title, type Zoom exactly as it appears in the Window menu.
  5. Click in the Keyboard shortcut field and press a combination no app uses, such as Control-Option-Command-Z.
  6. Click Done.

The shortcut works in every app whose Window menu has a Zoom command. If one app labels it differently, add a second entry for that app with its own wording.

Resize by hand without the fiddly drag

Window edges have tricks of their own. Double-click the edge of a window when the pointer turns into a resize arrow, and that edge jumps to the side of the screen. Hold Option while you drag an edge and the window resizes from its center, so the opposite edge moves too. Together they get a window to almost any size in two or three moves, on any version of macOS.

Fill and snap with a gesture

Trill adds trackpad gestures and shortcuts for exactly this. Its Windows gesture set, which works in every app, fills the screen with a five-finger swipe up and returns the window to its old size with a five-finger swipe down. With the Hyper Key switched on (it starts off), ✦Return fills the window, ✦Delete puts it back, ✦C centers it, and ✦ with an arrow key snaps it to a half. You can also drag a window to an edge for a half or to a corner for a quarter, with a translucent preview showing where it will land, and on a Force Touch trackpad you feel a tick when it lands.

If macOS’s own “Drag windows to screen edges to tile” is on, Trill’s drag to snap shows Blocked by macOS tiling with a one-click Turn off macOS edge tiling, and Turn macOS tiling back on reverses it; the green button’s tiling still works either way. Trill needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later and is free for 24 hours before a one-time $29. Everything earlier in this guide is built into macOS and works without it.

Questions

Why does Option-click make some windows only slightly bigger? That app bases its Zoom size on its content rather than on the screen. Use Fill on Sequoia or later, or drag the edges.

Will the window stay that size next time? Most apps reopen a window at the size and position it had when it was last closed, so you usually only need to do this once per app.

My windows keep moving to other desktops. Is that related? No, that comes from how Mission Control orders spaces. Stop a Mac rearranging desktops and spaces on its own explains the setting behind it.