Stupid Green Button

I’ve been a Mac user for many years now. There’s one thing that realllllly bugs me. I really with the green button would maximise the app’s window, like it does on windows, rather than go full-screen. Why? I want to see the menu bar and the doc.

I have a few work arounds, but they’re not as easy as having the green button do all the work. I have moom set so that if I double-click on the title bar it maximises the window. I have moom set so that if I hover over the green button it gives me the option to maximise. I have magnet set so there’s a keyboard short cut.

Trouble is, despite having these hacks in place I still click the stupid green button and it puts me in fullscreen mode.

Any suggestions?

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If you hold option and click, it maximizes the window. And I think there was an option to reverse the behavior in system preferences, but it might have been removed by now.

In googling around, I found this, which sounds like what you’re after.

I might look into that myself…

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I completely agree…this is the only thing I miss from my Windows machines I used to own. And when I say only…I mean literally. The ONLY thing I miss. :smile: I currently use an app called SizeUp created by Irradiated Software. http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com.
It’s great because I use multiple screens and I can use some keyboard shortcuts to set a window on 1/2 screen or move the window from one screen to another as well as fill the screen with another shortcut. It works great and when I’m on my families Mac’s that don’t have SizeUp installed I’m all kinds of frustrated!! I think there are several options for something like this…Better Touch Tool for example. Good luck in your search!!

If you use BTT, select the action “maximize window” instead of zoom and it will… maximize the window. You could then add another trigger with a modifier key, such as control, and set that to “Enter Fullscreen” so you could retain the original function of the green button.

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The problem with the “Maximize” button is it never was a maximize button. That’s Windows! I guess to appease Windows users they recently made it so you get a full screen. The purpose of the button originally, or now with Option pressed, is to resize to what the program’s author feels is the optimum size for the window, which is not necessarily the maximum size.

Yeah, it was never consistent behavior across apps, always confusing and mostly useless. ⌥ + clicking the green button seems to always maximize now though. I do have BTT installed so maybe that’s what’s going on.

Probably BTT because I just checked with this Safari window and ⌥Green will give full height but not full width. Then I added the maximize action to the green button in BTT and it maximizes!

Funny because the thing I hate about Windows is maximise. Everyone uses every window maximised and then tries to find each window with Alt + Tab which takes forever. I prefer my windows to be large but staggered so I can find the window I want by looking for and clicking on a tiny piece poking out underneath the front most window.

Mission Control is good for that. Tap the button and all windows are revealed.

If you want to makes the window as big as possible without additional software. Hold alt, move the cursor to a corner of the window so the arrow heads appear and double click.

If you have Magnet, you can just drag the window to the top of the screen and it will maximize.

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I would recommend Moom.

Have you tried BetterTouchTool’s window snapping? I find it really efficient and I added keyboard shortcuts to do the same (maximize, fill left half, fill right half).

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I use BTT for this, too. Have you tried the Snap Areas that can pop up when you drag a window? I have a small area that sizes the window vertically to the middle third, which I use mostly for reading. I like the narrower third, as opposed to maximized or left/right half.

The snap areas are great, just grab a window, fling your mouse in the general direction, and let go.

Actually, as well as Option-clicking the green button, you can just double tap in the menu bar and get the maximised window. Double-tap again takes you back to the previous window size.

thank you everyone! Very helpful answers.

I didn’t realize you could define custom window snaps. Very cool!

+1 for Moom - flexible and allows you to store layouts of multiple apps on multiple monitors.

Anyone got Moom working on Mojave? My green button hover magic has disappeared.