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Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

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Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#251

Post by frosted-flakes »

alx__ wrote: post #239
adonovan wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with iPhone. My mind was blown when after years of tapping left-arrow someone showed me what happens when you hold down the space key. Or that dragging the iphone chat message app's background to the left reveals the timestamps of each message. It's all very clever and elegant and minimal but consumer technology user interfaces seem to be converging on that of a Theremin.

Same. I just learned that in most apps on iOS/Android if there's something you need to pinch to zoom in/out. Usually a map app. You can zoom with one finger. Double tap and hold, then move you finger up/down to zoom in/out. Apparently you've able to do this for 5+ years or something. WTF

Only on Android, not iOS, I think. You've always been able to do this, even longer than you could pinch-zoom. Unfortunately, it seems to be going away—Chrome no longer zooms on double-tap-drag, nor do any of the Samsung apps (Samsung Internet, Photos, etc.).

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#252

Post by case »

js2 wrote: post #233
wnolens wrote: post #107

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

I like divvy. Create your own grids. Works with a mouse or keyboard. https://mizage.com/divvy/ I also like Witch for window/app switching. I just wish it was a little less sluggish to activate: https://manytricks.com/witch/

Divvy user here as well, for many years at this point. They haven’t updated it in ages, and with every new macOS release I’m expecting it to stop working. But somehow, it’s still going strong. Even the global keyboard shortcuts!

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#253

Post by case »

iwebdevfromhome wrote: post #11

I use the kinda hidden three finger dragging gesture that you can activate like this: 1. Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Accessibility. 2. Select Pointer Control in the sidebar. (In earlier versions of macOS, select Mouse & Trackpad.) 3. Click the Trackpad Options button. 4. Select ”Enable dragging,” then choose ”three finger drag” from the menu. 5. Click OK.

Yep, this used to be much easier to find, and it got moved to the Accessibility settings a few releases ago? Can’t imagine dragging without this.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#254

Post by _carbyau_ »

alx__ wrote: post #239
adonovan wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same with iPhone. My mind was blown when after years of tapping left-arrow someone showed me what happens when you hold down the space key. Or that dragging the iphone chat message app's background to the left reveals the timestamps of each message. It's all very clever and elegant and minimal but consumer technology user interfaces seem to be converging on that of a Theremin.

Same. I just learned that in most apps on iOS/Android if there's something you need to pinch to zoom in/out. Usually a map app. You can zoom with one finger. Double tap and hold, then move you finger up/down to zoom in/out. Apparently you've able to do this for 5+ years or something. WTF

Bullshit... tries it ... Oh! :-) Thank you!

Says something about discoverability when it seems like I need to RTFM for gestures again.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#255

Post by adamomada »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #251
alx__ wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I just learned that in most apps on iOS/Android if there's something you need to pinch to zoom in/out. Usually a map app. You can zoom with one finger. Double tap and hold, then move you finger up/down to zoom in/out. Apparently you've able to do this for 5+ years or something. WTF

Only on Android, not iOS, I think. You've always been able to do this, even longer than you could pinch-zoom. Unfortunately, it seems to be going away—Chrome no longer zooms on double-tap-drag, nor do any of the Samsung apps (Samsung Internet, Photos, etc.).

I have a workaround for you: assistive touch under accessibility allows you to bring up an on-screen two-handle bar which lets you adjust zoom with one hand.

My full workflow for using this is triple click power key to bring up accessibility shortcuts, press assistive touch and then tap on the circle icon to bring up the bar. You can drag it around by dragging the middle and if you drag either bar end it does the “pinch”.

I put smart invert for pseudo dark mode and zoom in the other two accessibility shortcuts to round out the accessibility shortcut menu.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#256

Post by adamomada »

Gigachad wrote: post #242
filchermcurr wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still write manuals, it's just non-obvious: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/welcome/ios

The specific spacebar trick is even in the manual at https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iph3c50f96e/ios >Touch and hold the Space bar with one finger until the keyboard turns light gray. >Move the insertion point by dragging around the keyboard. So the problem is more that OP doesn't read manuals rather than them not being as good as they once were.

I’ve never bought a new iPhone. Is there something included in the box to point people towards the online manuals? I’m making a hopefully safe assumption there wasn’t a manual in the box that GGP ignored.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#257

Post by vladvasiliu »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #251
alx__ wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I just learned that in most apps on iOS/Android if there's something you need to pinch to zoom in/out. Usually a map app. You can zoom with one finger. Double tap and hold, then move you finger up/down to zoom in/out. Apparently you've able to do this for 5+ years or something. WTF

Only on Android, not iOS, I think. You've always been able to do this, even longer than you could pinch-zoom. Unfortunately, it seems to be going away—Chrome no longer zooms on double-tap-drag, nor do any of the Samsung apps (Samsung Internet, Photos, etc.).

> Only on Android, not iOS

It does work on iOS but seems app-dependent. Works in Apple Maps, doesn't work in Photos.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#258

Post by behnamoh »

tinus_hn wrote: post #220
FranklinMaillot wrote: post #63

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.

MacOS is perfectly usable without a way to move a window by clicking on it outside of the title bar.

macOS is not usuable without a proper tiling window manager. You double click on a window and it enlarges, but doesn't take all of the screen. Seriously, wtf?

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#259

Post by divbzero »

dymk wrote: post #96
adamomada wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is incredible, thank you for posting this. A few things I've discovered after playing with this for a few minutes: It works for the corners too - option+drag the corner of a window, and the whole thing resizes symmetrically. Hold shift and it preserves the aspect ratio of the window Double click + holding option on an edge will expand both edges to full screen size You can hold and release option / shift while d…

And, apparently, double click on an edge without holding any keys will expand just that edge out as far as possible.

Re: Moving a macOS window by clicking anywhere on it

#260

Post by Gigachad »

adamomada wrote: post #256
Gigachad wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The specific spacebar trick is even in the manual at https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/iphone/iph3c50f96e/ios >Touch and hold the Space bar with one finger until the keyboard turns light gray. >Move the insertion point by dragging around the keyboard. So the problem is more that OP doesn't read manuals rather than them not being as good as they once were.

I’ve never bought a new iPhone. Is there something included in the box to point people towards the online manuals? I’m making a hopefully safe assumption there wasn’t a manual in the box that GGP ignored.

I just opened my iphone 13 box and there is a paper slip that says "before use, please refer to the user guide " Along with a few of the main safety points printed on the paper itself. When you start the iphone the first thing it makes you do is log in and then click through a series of tips and tricks pages but nothing stops you from clicking next through them without reading. They then put an app on the phone by default called "Tips" which explains all this stuff with images and videos.

At some point you just have to admit that there is realistically nothing more that can be done. Users don't want to read the manual because they can use their phone perfectly fine without it. They might not notice there is a nicer way to move the cursor but it doesn't really matter.

There is a manual and it comes preinstalled as an app out of only around 10 apps on the default screen and yet people still complain about the lack of a manual. I really don't know what they could do other than locking the phone until the user completes a quiz on the manual content.

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