Skip to main content

How to Use Split Screen on Mac

Working with two windows or apps side-by-side became much easier since OS X 10.11 El Capitan, thanks to Split Screen view. 

By holding down a left-click on an app's green maximize button in the top-left hand side, you can then drag it to be positioned on the left or right-hand side of the display.

You'll then need to pick a second open window or app to snap to the opposite side. Split Screen obscures the launcher and OS X's Menu Bar, so you get a bit more screen real-estate and fewer distractions.

Dividing the separating line between the two apps lets you make them smaller or larger, which can come in handy for keeping an eye on live information such as sports scores at one end while being productive on the other.

Popular posts from this blog

How to Record iPhone or iPad's screen

With Yosemite, you can now record whatever happens on the screen of your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, which isn't just useful for developers to show off the apps and games they build, but can also be great for things like creating little tutorials or even just recording a bug so you can help a developer or a company fix it. To use this feature, you just connect your iOS device up to your Mac using its cable, then launch QuickTime Player. The chose New Movie Recording from the File menu and then, if it's not already selected for you, choose your connected iOS device as the 'camera' source from the drop-down menu next to the record button.  Choose whether you want to record sound (either from a built-in or external mic, or the audio the iOS device itself is producing) from the same menu, then click the record icon. Once you're done, you can trim the clip (⌘T) and then easily share it to, for example, YouTube.

Quick Searching within Sites on Mac

There's a really cool, badly understood feature in Safari since Yosemite: the ability quickly to search within specific sites right from Safari's search bar. How it works is this: let's say you go to amazon.com and search for 'MacBook'. What actually happens is that you're redirected to a new URL that looks something like this: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=macbook. Now, what Safari can do is look at that URL and work out that it's a search and, just like you could, realize that if you wanted to search Amazon for 'iMac' instead of 'MacBook', then rather than waiting for the amazon.com homepage to appear before typing "iMac" into the search field and waiting for the results to load, Safari could send us straight to http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=imac. See that last word in the URL change? To make that happen, all you have to do is...

View someone's Screen Remotely on Mac

One really easy way to view someone else’s screen or even control their Mac over the internet which is invaluable if you’re trying to help a relative troubleshoot their computer problems, is to launch Screen Sharing by searching for it with Spotlight then entering the Apple ID of the person you’re trying to contact. If you or they don’t know it, just have them look in the iCloud pane of System Preferences. And, while you’re in that screen, make sure they have Screen Sharing enabled in the Sharing pane of System Preferences. They'll be asked to grant you permission to view their screen, and they can also then click on the screen sharing icon in the menu bar and grant you the ability to virtually, remotely control their mouse and keyboard too.