Note, however, that this is not the same as macOS’s full screen mode, as you’ll still see your Dock and menu bar (if they’re not configured to hide, that is). In other words, on most Macs with high-resolution displays, you’ll have some empty space to the right and left of your Safari window in which you can see your desktop or any other open applications in the background.įor some applications, however, especially older ones, “Zooming” a window will make it take up the entire available screen, regardless of how much space its content requires. This means that if you’re viewing a web page in Safari, for example, and you double-click the title bar, the window will expand to the top and bottom of your screen, but only as far left and right as needed to fit the website’s contents. In most modern apps, the window will expand as large as it needs to (up to the maximum area of your screen) to fit the window’s contents. In general, however, “zoom” will make the window bigger. The “Zoom” option is a bit confusing, because it doesn’t work the same way for all applications. So, double-clicking in an empty area of this space will produce one of the following two results: zoom or minimize. First, however, what does Apple mean by “ title bar,” anyway? That’s referring to the empty gray area at the top of the windows in most programs, where apps will house their various buttons and such. The first option lets you decide what will happen to a window when you double-click its title bar. The two settings we’re interested in today are highlighted in the red box, below:Ĭhange What Happens When You Double-Click the Title Bar This section of System Preferences contains several options for how your Mac’s Dock looks and functions. Once the main System Preferences window opens, find and select Dock

To launch System Preferences, you can select it from the Apple Menu at the top-left corner of your screen, or by selecting its icon from your Dock (it looks like several gray gears). Thankfully, the way that macOS handles applications and windows can be customized, and here are a few tricks that may make working with windows on your Mac much more enjoyable.įirst, the options related to the tricks we’ll be discussing today are located in System Preferences, which is the central hub for most of the user-configurable options and settings on your Mac. MacOS has long included powerful and handy window management features, but that doesn’t mean that the operating system’s default settings are ideal for every user. MacOS: Tips on Minimizing Windows into the Dock

Mac os taskbar for windows