Basic OSX question

Just a quick question,

At the top left hand corner of every window, there's 3 buttons - red for close window - and yellow for minimize.

However I don't really get the purpose of the green one. I thought it was to switch between 2 sizes since OSX can't maximize a window.

So I create 2 sizes - one that fills the screen to the edge, and one that is smaller that allows me to see my desktop icons. However, it doesn't seem to save what I set.

As soon as I close and reopen the program again and press the green button it just defaults back to the size it wants to display and not the sizes that I want - say for Safari it's just a small window that takes up half the screen, and when clicked the green button it just makes it longer up to the edge of the dock. So I don't understand the function of the green button if it's not customizable.

Unless anyone knows how to save the settings of the window sizes...

the + fits the window to the contents of it.

Oh I see - so it's like a function to "bring everything into view"

I thought it was to switch between 2 sizes of the windows.

Is there a way to do what I want - have a smaller size window and one that fills the screen that is switchable.

One function that is good on windows is the ability to "maximize" - make the window fill the screen - at one click of a button without mucking around with dragging and resizing the window. Wish Mac had implemented this basic function.

I think option-click the button does that. Could be wrong.

cradom said:

I think option-click the button does that. Could be wrong.

Click to expand...

What do you mean?

Press option on the keyboard .... and click what button?

I meant option-click the green button to maximize. (Doesn't work, I just tried it.)

I find that green button to be the most infuriatingly useless thing in OS X. I just don't get it.

The Green button, more appropriately called the zoom button, makes the active window large enough to see all of the contents––in some cases.

In other applications,such as Garageband, It will indeed maximize the window..

I've found the Green + button to be, pretty much, useless...

I've never yet covered my whole desk top with one sheet of paper, why on earth would I want to completely cover my computer desk top with one window? I can understand it for games or video but other than that, no way. Never use maximised windows on the XP either.
The green button does what it's meant too, makes the window just big enough to show as much as possible without covering up the dock ~ it's great.

The green button works really well in Photoshop. Zoom the image to what ever size you want to view it at, then click the green button and the window the resizes to the correct size. When I use Photoshop in Windows, it annoys me that I have to manually resize the window.

Same can be said for Expose, it makes working with a number of images so much easier. In Windows, I have to drag the windows around to find what I want, or minimise them out of the way... but then you can see what the images are because the descriptions in the titlebar are chopped in half... and it doesn't help when the images are named similarly.

OK..

I have a question in another side ..

How can i go directe to Desktop ? Is there any way to do that, such as Windows.. I can perss small icon in task bar to do that.. But in mac i must minimize all applications to go to Desktop..

majid bin sawad said:

OK..

I have a question in another side ..

How can i go directe to Desktop ? Is there any way to do that, such as Windows.. I can perss small icon in task bar to do that.. But in mac i must minimize all applications to go to Desktop..

Click to expand...

I use expose ..... it's a brilliant feature and I love it .... move the mouse to one corner and see the desktop ... move the mouse to another corner and see all open windows.

f11 will hide everything.

expose is one of the best features in panther, it is so usefull

PowerBookG4 said:

expose is one of the best features in panther, it is so usefull

Click to expand...

I would have to agree with that.

Do you know whether Tiger makes any improvements/additions to this feature?

StarDrifter said:

I would have to agree with that.

Do you know whether Tiger makes any improvements/additions to this feature?

Click to expand...

Yep..Dashboard
http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/dashboard.html

I think that in iTunes, the green button toggles between a normal window and "mini-mode". If you option click the green button instead, it will toggle between the user set size and the 'optimum' size, i.e. whatever the developer set as the ideal size given the currently displayed content.

Just so the previous poster doesn't feel bad about suggesting option clicking...

I don't like the fact that the F11 toggle sometimes disengages too quickly, instead of just staying that way until I hit F11 again.