RightZoom Makes The OS X Maximise Button More Like Windows

I was wondering about this exact issue a while ago. Thanks!

Kevin Vesga

Nah, the maximizing doesn't bug me. It would be good to be able to resize windows to the left or upwards.

AND of course the HOME button to make the cursor go to the beginning of a row... PLEASE!

@Torley: Check out Mercury Mover: [www.heliumfoot.com]

Why is it better than Stoplight ([lifehacker.com]) ?

cakez

"At first I wanted to maximize but I grew out of it."

@eagles3_isn't afraid of the big bad Pig(flu)?:

I'm with you on that one. I made the switch this year after using Windows since 3.1 and yeah it did take some time to adjust but I think that making one OS act like another takes away a lot of advantages that the UI gives you.

Apps behaving the way the do in Leopard isn't a coincidence. I've grown to love the way it handles things for the most part... now if only i could find an alternative to the [HOME] key I use to use to get to the beginning of a row of text.

waitingforthebeat

Amazing! I -hate- how OS X doesn't maximise windows properly!

Bobly

@McWhammer: It runs silently, you don't have anything showing up. Try hitting the zoom button on a Finder window. ;)

Skorpeyon

I was just searching for this the other day, mainly for the Finder. I keep everything in either lists or column view, and it just doesn't make sense for the window to not fill the entire screen rather than just go the width of the furthest column in the lists view, then stop. Especially if I want to add an item to sort by. I've got to manually resize the window, add the new column, then hit the zoom button to make it fit to the new information. I much prefer my window to already fill the screen, then work within it.

Thanks a lot for posting this! I'll have to check it out when I get home.

Skorpeyon

@McWhammer: *Opened with Stuffit Expander, gave it my password, but nothing happens.

Be nice to finally Maximize Firefox (Rather than leaving 1/16" of an inch of space at the bottom of the window), but I can't even get this program to open after downloading.

In switching to the Mac I've been working on "letting myself go" and letting the machine works the way that it works. The window maximization, at first, was an issue for me. It's really a matter of understanding that the user experience in OS X is different than windows and allowing it to work as it should. On the pc I am a little compulsive about windows size and position. On the Mac I don't care and it's now where I rarely move or resize the window manually. I still have a little bit of crazy where I want the window perfectly centered so I am teaching/training myself to accept that it really doesn't matter -- if it's close enough then that is just fine.

Free yourself! Zen out!

(^ I've found some AppleScript methods and FireFox add-ons, but the former isn't as intuitive, and the latter only applies to FF.)

I think this idea could work if rightzoom toggles between the two application tool states AND a maximisation mode. that would actually be alright. From reading though it doesn't and the idea of completely overriding a good built in behaviour and replacing it with something like windows maximise mode smells wrong to me. windows actually has a few other useful modes in addition to maximise - tile being a favourite of mine, but many people don't seem to use them

sometimes i want to focus on only one app at a time and i occasionally have to do the user defined maximise, but I do that less often than just a normal zoom (an operation that I've mapped to cmd+opt+Z - works in most apps)

C01M

Related note: does anyone know an app to precisely set window dimensions on Mac OS X? On Windows, there's Sizer which is wonderful - you can right-click a window and specify that you want a window to be 1024x768, which is extremely helpful for web design and screencasting.

Surprised I haven't found something yet but I could sure be grateful for a killer tip in this area. :D

I actually don't ever maximize my windows fully anymore. widescreen has resulted in a lot of horizantal space. I leave that area open so my desktop shows and I use geektool to display system stats. At first I wanted to maximize but I grew out of it.

@Copper is way cooler than you:
I think there's an option on whether to maximize iTunes or when hitting the green button to show the mini player.

This app is great though, but maximizing is a pain in the butt on the mac.

screenshot

@Copper is way cooler than you: What did you do to get iTunes to maximize/minimize like the rest?

Edgardo Arroyo

I don't know if I'm just not getting it, but my maximize button already fills windows to the whole screen. Firefox does it, iCal does it, Mail does it, iTunes does it...I'm not sure what everyone means when they say Mac windows don't maximize...

I guess Stoplight isn't causing problems for you, but I found it a little buggy.

For me, being able to kill RightZoom in the terminal w/o opening the preference pane is a bonus too.

@chaos0815: See my comment above for how to remap the home and end keys.

rhoderickj

@waitingforthebeat:

You can remap the HOME and END keys to go to beginning-of-line and end-of-line on your Mac. Just do the following:

Editing the default keybindings file, ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict. Create the directory and / or the file if they're not already there, and make it look like this:

{
/* Remap Home / End to be correct :-) */
"\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLine:"; /* Home */
"\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLine:"; /* End */
"$\UF729" = "moveToBeginningOfLineAndModifySelection...:"; /* Shift + Home */
"$\UF72B" = "moveToEndOfLineAndModifySelection...:"; /* Shift + End */
}

If there are already entries in DefaultKeyBinding.dict, just add the 4 new mappings above to the main section of your file.

rhoderickj

@Copper is way cooler than you: I did the Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh and that was one of the first things that annoyed me. It happened with Firefox and Safari for me.

It's all set up just right now, but I think I'll go ahead and install this app. Sounds pretty cool.

IndustrialJones

Call me paranoid, but I'm not installing any system utility that comes from a company which sells a keystroke logging program.

AngelicaDarnisha

@Edgardo Arroyo: I don't do anything special. I just reinstalled OS X and haven't even put any fancy programs in to adjust settings...just does it on its own. Maybe mine is magical.

I'm wondering if it's going to take up any significant resources to be running "in the background". I have a lot of add-ons in Firefox and mods to my Google/Gmail pages for example and I have noticed that both seem to load slowly, tempting me occasionally to use Safari when I need to do something fast. Will RightZoom have the same effect to slow down the general loading of my desktop when I login or boot up?

@MonkeySwitch: +1. also, spaces gives you as much real estate as you want. maximizing most windows just wastes space. design software is an exception.

It took a while to get out of the mentality of having my windows maximized all the time, but I find that not maximizing is much more conducive to multitasking. Especially on my wide screen where maximizing a window would just create so much blank wasted space. I find that when I do have to work on a PC, I get frustrated feeling like I can only have one window up at a time.

MonkeySwitch

There are ways to remap HOME to act as a "beginning of line" key. It's just a shell command or two. Not all apps will honor it, but most do. Google around for it.

I've been using this... it's pretty cool.

Ed Bortoni

@Edgardo Arroyo: option-click the green button...

Adam Cutler

I wish there was an app that locked window position when in zoomed/maximised mode. I really like to have things symmetrical on screen, and when you have it maximised, you really don't want the window moving a millimetre off screen. Thanks for the link to SizeUp – that's awesome. :)

monomaniacpat

@AngelicaDarnisha: I was just about to post the same thing... WTF? Has anyone checked this out? I ran it and then opened the manual... and promptly crapped myself.

shazaam42

@bmcclure937: SizeUp (see comment above).

Last time I mention it, I promise ;)

Samu Wade

@show_me_the_monkey: Gah! I'm not soing very well with replies and non-replies today...

See my post below with the atomicbird.com link. That includes a couple of possible solutions. Well, one and a half, I guess.

Samu Wade

@AngelicaDarnisha: HAHA!! True that... and I am not installing a useless app. It would be much better to have an app for TILING windows, to increase productivity and multitasking rather than reducing it.

I want to be able to TILE all windows open, or all windows in the active application... etc. If I am running dual 24s then why would I want windows maximized?! I would rather tile 4 or more windows...

Now there needs to be an app to TILE

One of the biggest complaints is that I cannot tile windows. You should be able to tile windows for the active application or for all open windows.

This would be extremely convenient, especially when you have a lot of screen realestate and want to maximize your productivity :D

@Samu Wade: Ooops. Wasn't supposed to be a reply. Wish there was a delete button...

Samu Wade

I use SizeUp for maximising from the keyboard. It makes the screen feel a lot neater. People talk about wasted space, but I'm not really interested in having my wallpaper showing either. It looks cluttered to me if windows aren't precisely aligned.

The app also works, though, for tiling windows side by side, one on top of the other, or to screen quarters, with the exact rations user-definable. I have keyboard shortcuts now which let me snap a window neatly and instantly to the left half, the right half (great for consulting a pdf while writing in a word processor), the left 70%, the right 30% (great for having Adium or Tweetie neatly fill in the "lost" widescreen space next to a Safari window), or to fill the screen.

It's made a huge difference to my Mac experience, and is under very active development, so it keeps getting better and better. I know I've posted the link a lot on this thread, but it's not my app; I was a beta tester, but paid for a license anyway, because an app this good deserves reward.

[www.irradiatedsoftware.com]

Samu Wade

This might help:

[www.atomicbird.com]

I also dimly remember a... SIMBL plugin? Which makes all window edges draggable for resizing. I think it was called Mighty Mouse. You might be able to find that out there somewhere...

Samu Wade

@nwaasob: If you don't manage to get over the centering obsession, SizeUp can help:

[www.irradiatedsoftware.com]

Samu Wade

@Skorpeyon: Either SizeUp or FinderMinder can do this for you:

[www.irradiatedsoftware.com]

[www.irradiatedsoftware.com]

Samu Wade

@chaos0815: Try SizeUp for keyboard or menubar-based maximisation, tiling and so on. You can use it to snap windows to the top, bottom, left or right halves, and choose between 50/50 splits, 70/30, or whatever. Also quarters, centering and so on...

[www.irradiatedsoftware.com]

Samu Wade

@McWhammer: That gap at the bottom is claimed by the dock. This won't necessarily override that. I find adding a strip of black to the bottom of my wallpapers (if it's not there already) helps make it look neater.

Samu Wade

is there an app that makes all sides of the windows in OSX behave as a re-size bar? i hate how i have to click on the little triangle icon in the lower right corner. it's a hassle when i want to expand the window upwards or to the left

@AngelicaDarnisha: O_o i didn't notice that until u mentioned it..having 2nd thoughts now

This may seem backward to some, but I'm a fan of the Zoom button over the Maximize button. Is there a way to make the maximize button in Windows or Ubuntu (or both! :D) behave like the OS X Zoom button?

rhoderickj:

Thanks that's certianly doable but it's changing inhearent functionality in the OS.

@TDuck:

That's exactly what I was looking for. PERRRFECT ^A even works in combination with shift!

waitingforthebeat

@waitingforthebeat: The *NIX-style ^A (beginning of line) and ^E (end of line) are how I roll on my Macbook.

@Samu Wade: hey thanx for the suggestions..mondomouse seems great especially the resize window in place feature..shame it's $15 which is a bit much for just the extra convenience..i'll take a look around for those other app/plugin u suggested though cheers

@Samu Wade: SizeUp is AWESOME!! Thanks... I wish it was free, although you can get it for $2.99. I am cheap and still feel it should be built into Mac OSX!

@Samu Wade: Thanks for the links, though this does exactly what I need to. I always open my Finder windows from one of, like, 5 places so as long as I open them, "maximize" them, then close them, they'll always open filling the screen, which is preferred.

I'll definitely check those out if this ever doesn't work for me, though, or if I find some of the features to be useful. :)

Skorpeyon

boo. :) Even before I switched from windows I never or rarely used full screen. I love the Mac window zoom feature, it's not maximize—it simply zooms the window to the content size. For apps that frequently need full screen such as video play back cmd-f usually goes full screen. The most frustrating thing for me on windows is you have document windows trapped inside application windows…it's effin' crazy. Embrace native behavior—no need to turn summersaults to try to force an OS to behave in really horrible ways…not having a single window taking up all the screen real-estate gives you many more options—such as drag and drop.

BambiKlient

@[www.zwixy.com]

Kevin Vesga

@eagles3_isn't afraid of the big bad Pig(flu)?: Exactly. My display is 1920 wide, so maximising any window in it looks ridiculous.

Yes, my Mum has recently moved over to Mac and cannot figure out why the hell it isn't maximizing the screen. Personally I like it - why do I need to maximize a page when I can already see all of its contents?

Kieran Singh Mann

Sweet,
but actually what really drives me crazy is the floating toolbars...
And as much as "letting my self go", or "train my self to ignore", I recall a phrase that my school computer science tutor, back in the early 80's, used to say "the computer must work for you and not you work for the computer"
P.S. By the way the computers we were working with back then, were the Apple IIc...

karamouza

This was the first app I downloaded for the mac. This should be an option in the Mac settings.

Jason Cartwright

Use Applescript.

AilsaNubular

@purduepete: Thanks kindly. Mercury Mover is the closest I've seen yet. Need to try it out now. :)

@Adam Cutler:

nope, just tried that and it doesn't maximize anything....

fiman16

@google for one, you might be able to find a discount code ; -)

All the best,
Keith Alperin

Why isn't this the default behavior? At least make it a built in option. Not enough to make me want to switch, but it might help others who are on the fence. I know when I first used a Mac (well, went back to one since I used to use my schools Apple II's) this behavior irritated me so much that I stopped using it as fast as I could. I only used them when I had to.

@waitingforthebeat: I wouldn't consider keybindings to be "inherent functionality" of the OS. But if you want to go to BOL and EOL the "Mac way", use Cmd+Left, Cmd+Right, which also works on MacBooks.

rhoderickj

The old me would find this app useful, but now I'd just like Firefox's zoom window to behave like all the other Mac apps.

Viewer