New Window Management Options

In this video, we’re going to look at new window management options we have with macOS Catalina. We can now tile our windows to the left or right side of our display or open them up in split view. Then we also have a new option to move a window to another display when we’re working with multiple monitors.

Let’s take a look at these two options with MacOS Catalina. Let’s go to My Mac. Let’s first look at how we can tile a window to the left or right side of our display or open it up in split view. To do that, we first need to open up a couple of windows because we’re going to have a window side by side. Right now, I have one window open my applications window.

Let’s go and open up Safari. Click on it, and now I have my Safari window open. I’m going to go and open up one more window. We’re going to go back over to My Finder here, and I’m going to open up a new finder window. Now I have three different windows open. What I would like to do is I would like to open up my applications window on the left side of my screen and have my Safari window on the right side of the screen. This is what we call a split view in previous versions of macOS.

The way that we did that in previous versions is, we did it through mission control. With mission control, we can control all of our different windows as well as spaces. What are spaces? When we open up an app in full screen, what it does is, it opens it up in a separate space. I’m going to open up my applications window in full screen.

To do that, we just click on the green dot here. Again this is nothing new in macOS Catalina, but I just want to show you how it works because then we’re going to see how much easier it is with MacOS Catalina. I click on this; it opens up in full screen. Where did all of my other windows go? My other two windows? Were they in a different space? To see all of my spaces, what I do is I open up Mission Control.

When I double click on this, you’re going to see I have my two spaces. I have My Finder window. Remember, I said it opened up in a separate space, and then I have my desktop. To go back to my desktop, I click on it. Now I’m looking at my desktop. I want to go back over to my applications window, that other space. We have a few different ways to do that. I could open up Mission Control again, or what I can do is I can use the control key and then the right arrow, and it takes me to the next space.

To go back, I control key and the left arrow. I’m back at my previous space. Then if you’re using a trackpad, you can just swipe up with three fingers. It opens up Mission Control, and you can see your two spaces. When you open up a window in full screen, it opens it up in its own space. Now we can take this a step further. What I can do is I can open up another window next to it. Then two windows are in the same space. It’s a split view.

To do that, all I have to do is take the window that I want, so I’m going to go with my Safari window. I just drag it on top of My Finder space, and you’re going to see I have a plus. I can add it to the right side, or if I drag this to the left, I can add it to the left side. We’re just going to add it to the left side here, and now these two windows are open side by side.

I’m going to go up to the top here. We’re going to close this, and now my Safari window is in its own space, so I’m going to hold down the control key and go to the right arrow. There’s my Safari window. I go up to the top. I click on the green dot, and we’re back at our three windows in one space. If I were to view my Mission Control, let’s go back to my applications and go up to Mission Control.

We have my three windows along with my one space. That’s how it traditionally worked in previous versions of macOS. As you can see, we used a combination of different options. We had to open up a window in full screen. Then we go into Mission Control, we drag another window next to that window, and then it opens them up in split view. With macOS Catalina, we have another way of doing that. An easier way of doing that. All we have to do is just hover our cursor over the top of the green button. We don’t click on it, and then you’re going to see I can enter in full screen. It’s just like clicking on it. Also, you’re going to see I have a new option here for tiling. I can tile the window to the left side of the screen. I can tile it to the right side of the screen. Let’s go and tile us to the right side of the screen. Now it is on the right side.

Now what I need to do is I just need to select the window that I want on the left side of the screen. I’m going to click on my applications window. You’re going to see it has a blue border around it. I click on it, and now those two windows are open side by side. You can see it’s a lot easier than using Mission Control. Let’s go and do that again. I’m going to close this, so I go up to the top. I click on the green dot, go back at our windowed mode. Now I control right arrow to get to my other space, and I go up to the top click on the green dot, go back at my three windows.

If I were to open up mission control, I would have one space. I want to open these up side by side again. I go to the green dot. I tile this to the left side of the screen. I select my applications, and now it’s on the right side of the screen. I go up to the top, click on the green dot to close it. I control right arrow, or I can swipe with three fingers since I have a trackpad, I go up to the top, click on the green dot, and close it.

Now I’m back to one space, my desktop with my three windows. That’s how we can easily open up windows in a split view. You can see it’s a lot easier. What else is new? If you’re using multiple monitors, I’m using multiple monitors; we can easily move a window to another monitor. We go up to the green dot here, hover, and then you’re going to see options for moving your window to your other monitors.

We can also access the same options tiling and moving our windows to other monitors by going up to window in the menu bar. You’re going to see I can tile it, and then I can also move it. In addition to accessing this directly from our window, we can also access it from the Menu Bar. That’s what’s new with window management in macOS Catalina.

We can now easily tile a window to the left or right side of our screen to open it up in a split view directly from the window. We just move our cursor over the top of the green dot, and then you’re going to see a few options. We can also easily move that same window to another monitor if we’re using multiple monitors. Again we have the same options available from the Window menu.

Those are the new options we have with window management in macOS Catalina.