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Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

mmazzarolo.com

191–200 of 314 posts

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#191

I don't understand how MacOS is constently praised for its UI while half the comments here mention a third party app just to make it usable. Maybe it's just me, but I owned a Mac for over 5 years and I could never wrap my head around how MacOS handles windows and open apps.

It feels like they're just being stubborn with the window management. Like they chose how it should all work ages ago, and they don't want to admit that some of the choices are bad. They drug their feet on right-click forever as well.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#192

I use https://rectangleapp.com/pro and really enjoy this app (I paid for it, it gets a lot of updates/fixes). It mostly takes care of snapping and resizing windows with hot keys, but has a less obvious feature in preferences to use mouse. My setup is: CMD+SHIFT will move any window under mouse pointer CMD+SHIFT+CTRL will resize any window under mouse pointer

Does anyone know if it's possible to configure Rectangle (the free/OSS version) to use modifier key + Arrow + Arrow to move a window into one of the four corners?

I currently use Hyper + Arrow for TRBL placement but it doesn't let me configure Hyper + two arrow keys for corner placements. Is that something not possible with the free/OSS version?

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#193
post #146

MacOS is full of these UI "tricks" that remain undiscovered by 99% of users because they are: - not obvious - not discoverable For example: if you hold option when you click the Wifi button, you actually can view a lot of information about the Wifi networks you are connecting to. This is invaluable when you're dealing with a Wifi issue, and completely undiscoverable! I think MacOS is a perfectly usable operating syst…

I agree. A good GUI can be all things for all users. Keyboard shortcuts can be unknown to a user when they need it the most, and accidentally triggered by a clumsy novice user who could damage their system configuration. Apple's competitors have approaches that, in my opinion, are much better:

In Android, Google often hides advanced functionality under overflow menus. These menus have a 3-dot icon (implying more menu options) or a settings gear, so most users will check them when the visible options aren't satisfactory. In recent Android releases, a lot of settings have clear and concise descriptions so users can understand their impact.

In Windows, Microsoft prefers to use a "properties" or "advanced options" menu, which also works well. If you can't find a desired option in the surface menus, you can dig into those menus.

Both of these approaches do a good job of offering more settings when needed while also warning users that the options can cause undesired effects. Android has clear settings descriptions so it's difficult to make a mistake, and when important settings like a debugging dump are triggered, will also display a clear warning about private information or breaking apps. Windows uses an "advanced" menu that can warn away "mom and pop"/novice users who could dig themselves into a hole. In both cases, there's some precautions to prevent users from mistakenly changing critical settings.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#194
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now how do I do this with a mouse? (I already know the answer, but I'm curious if you do. It isn't very discoverable.)

Drag while holding option?

With only a mouse. Imagine you're using the only computer that you'd want your mother to use.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you grab the right-hand edge of a window, you can drag it left or right to resize the window. However, if you instead drag it up or down, you can move the whole window.

And if you hold option (alt) when dragging left or right, it will mirror the drag on the opposite side, so you can quickly expand or contract the window size

There are some paradigms like this option-drag-resizes-both-sides one which have antecedents at least as far back as MacDraw circa 1984.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#197
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is pretty ironic when the scroll bars are so elusive when you actually want to drag them

I haven't dragged a scroll bar in any OS since windows XP. When do you find it's necessary/convenient?

Many graphics tablets don't have scroll on the pen.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect as of Big Sur that Apple were intending to release touchscreen Macs, but the changes to the OS in future versions makes me suspect that they then changed their mind.

Mac OS on my iPad Mini 6 would make it a perfect device.

Interesting. I’ve thought about macOS on bigger iPads, but never the mini.

(I confess that personally, after a couple years of trying to make an iPad my main mobile device—and getting pretty good at making it do what I want, learning how capable iPadOS/iOS really is—I’ve retreated to my original circa-2011 understanding of “Macs are computers, iPads are appliances.”)

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holding Option when clicking the green maximize button will expand the window without entering full screen mode. You know you're doing it right if the glyph inside the button turns from two triangles to a plus sign.

When I do this with for instance a Finder window, it just "zooms" it. You can get the same effect if you go to the Window menu -> Zoom. "zoom"ing tells macos to make the window fit the content that's inside of it, however the app feels like doing that, even if you damn well just want the window to be as big as it can be. BUT, option + double-clicking any window corner will actually make even a Finder window take up t…

> completely undiscoverable, I feel like I'm lost while Maniac Mansion, just trying every possible Verb + Object (+ Indirect Object) combination to try to read the game dev's mind.

I just found out that Apple has a pretty neat guide on all of this [1]. That you can find by googling or searching the builtin system help. I never looked at the system help before, but it looks like Apple did a good job documenting these features. Maybe I should start to RTFM for my OS...

I still agree on the discoverability part but I can't think of a way that would be better. It makes sense that there isn't a button for these commands, but if there isn't you need a manual or a tutorial and who is going to look at these? Maybe someone smarter has a better idea on how to solve this.

[1] https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/work-with-app-windo...

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