You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

User profile for user: Empathic
Empathic Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Any way to make green button (max/zoom) CONSISTENT across apps?

I'm new to mac and I have been frustrated by a lot of things that are either not intuitive, very hidden, or seem to not make sense at all.. (Honestly, I'm not sure how people would figure these things out without the internet where I can quickly search how to do this or that...anyway)


ONE of them is the green button - the green button isn't consistent in any way. It works differently for each app, and sometimes drastically so.


My question: Is it even possible to make this consistent across apps? Seems like that would make sense.... TIA

MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 9, 2019 5:57 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
116,645 points

Posted on Nov 9, 2019 6:15 AM

Consistent across all applications? No, because non-Apple (and some Apple) applications are not consistently developed, or abide by Apple's human interface guidelines. Some third-party applications which are available across multiple operating systems may use a common graphical interface library (e.g. GTK, Qt, etc.) that attempts to emulate the window package on each platform.


With Apple applications, the green "traffic light" is a bi-modal button. If you just click it, it is a toggle between full screen and the last view. The control+command-F (^⌘-F) keyboard shortcut does that too. However, if you press and hold the green traffic light, this may throw you into split screen mode where the first application occupies the first half the screen, and the next launched application the other half.


Your greatest resource for learning how to use the Mac effectively may be your local Apple Store classes, and posting questions in the Apple Support Communities.

View in context

Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply
User profile for user: VikingOSX
VikingOSX
Community+ 2024
User level: Level 10
116,645 points

Nov 9, 2019 6:15 AM in response to Empathic

Consistent across all applications? No, because non-Apple (and some Apple) applications are not consistently developed, or abide by Apple's human interface guidelines. Some third-party applications which are available across multiple operating systems may use a common graphical interface library (e.g. GTK, Qt, etc.) that attempts to emulate the window package on each platform.


With Apple applications, the green "traffic light" is a bi-modal button. If you just click it, it is a toggle between full screen and the last view. The control+command-F (^⌘-F) keyboard shortcut does that too. However, if you press and hold the green traffic light, this may throw you into split screen mode where the first application occupies the first half the screen, and the next launched application the other half.


Your greatest resource for learning how to use the Mac effectively may be your local Apple Store classes, and posting questions in the Apple Support Communities.

Reply

Any way to make green button (max/zoom) CONSISTENT across apps?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.
Learn more Sign up