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So I'm new to Mac and just trying to figure out how to do basic things like I'm used to from Windows. I found that double-tapping the title bar of windows typically only maximizes in one direction (almost always vertically). I've also tried Option+Click on the green button and Shift+Double click on the title bar. Even on Finder, it only resizes, but never maximizes. Is there a simple solution to this that I'm missing?

Thanks.

[Update]: For those wondering, I ended up finding no native solution for this, but the Spectacle app worked well to solve this issue. Thanks for all the responses.

user3425451
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  • Btw, on Linux I never had problems handling my windows. Mac in this matter follows Windows on almost all matters: just screw up. – jpenna Oct 16 '18 at 06:26

3 Answers3

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I might have found a solution, works great for me in High Sierra:

"Hold Option and double-click on any window corner."

Credits (which includes some other nice tricks): https://www.techradar.com/how-to/advanced-macos-sierra-windows-mangement-tips

Andy
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Mine was the same way, here is how I fixed it.

After maximizing it (by either double clicking the title bar or option+click on the green button), when it only maximizes vertically, manually resize it horizontally to fill the screen.

If you move your mouse the the side of the window until the arrow pops up, you can stretch the window horizontally.

Once it fills the screen, your maximize action will now cause it to fill the screen as you would expect.

There is also the option to go to full screen by just clicking the green button on the top left corner of the window.

nullmeta
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  • So I tried your approach and that does seem to work although I was hoping for a one-click solution. I ended up finding that there was no simple built-in solution but I found that the Spectacle app allowed for the full maximizing feature with Option + Command + F – user3425451 Jul 10 '17 at 04:16
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Since OSX 10.10 Yosemite, the default functionality of the green "zoom" button has changed to cause the current application to go into full screen mode.

Office Word, like most other applications written for OSX 10.10+, allows you to interact with the zoom button in 3 ways:

  1. click: clicking the green zoom button defaults to switching your application to full screen
  2. option + click: as mentioned by @nullmeta already, you can option + click to cause the height of the window to go to full height.
  3. option + shift + click: will maximize both the window's height and width.

See also https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/151939/how-to-change-zoom-green-button-behaviour.

forgetfuljames
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  • Thanks for the comment. I actually didn't find Option + Shift + Click to have any effect. It did the same as Option + Click (only maximizing vertical). However, this may be because I ended up using Spectacle (it may have interfered with some of the commands) – user3425451 Jul 10 '17 at 04:18
  • Sure. Just found [another answer](https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/115895/how-to-maximise-a-window-to-fill-up-screen-in-mavericks#answer-191931) documenting the behavior I described as working in a standard macOS environment (`Finder.app` and `Safari.app` windows are at least two exceptions to this rule — although other Apple built apps, e.g. `Calendar.app` or `iTunes.app` do support the functionality). – forgetfuljames Jul 10 '17 at 13:02