How do I use Full-Screen apps on macOS 15?

Question

How do I use Full-Screen apps on macOS 15?

I'm on my Mac Mini 2020 in Sequoia and am upset to find out that holding option and clicking on the green button in a window's window bar no longer allows the window to go full screen but not black out all other displays. Why was this removed? What can I do to restore this? How can I get this functionality back?

More importantly why does Apple break obscure but long standing relied upon behaviour so often and give us no explanation of how to get that functionality back or what the alternative is?

So how can I get a simply keypress and a click to zoom a window to full screen without blacking out the other display?

Thank you.

Alex

[Edited by Moderator]

Mac mini

Posted on Nov 15, 2024 11:19 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 15, 2024 11:44 AM in response to Barney-15E

Wow. Thanks for telling me about this location for preferences. I've been annoyed to death why Preview keeps opening my files in another tab when I set up Preview preferences to NEVER do that.

Desktop & Dock? What an utterly odd place to put preferences for window behaviour and for "when I open a doc will it appear in another tab or in another window".

Good lord, I long for ye olden days before the iOSification of the Mac Preferences, errr, Settings.

Thanks again.

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Answer 2

Nov 15, 2024 11:48 AM in response to Barney-15E

I don't see this option at all in that System Setting under Windows.

What?! It's under Dock?? My mind boggles. And it doesn't even fill the screen or toggle back to the previous size like double clicking on the window title bar used to do back circa 1995.

You're right. It isn't nearly as good as it used to be. Ugh.

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,828 points

Nov 15, 2024 11:31 AM in response to Alex Zavatone

The window tiling feature that replaced that function works similarly, but not as good. You can enable double tap to zoom on the window title bar in the desktop and dock system settings.

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Answer 4

Nov 15, 2024 11:39 AM in response to Alex Zavatone

Sequoia issue: What happened to pressing option and clicking on the green button in the window bar button to zoom a window to full screen but not black out other displays?

[Edited by Moderator]

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Answer 5

Nov 15, 2024 11:38 AM in response to Barney-15E

Thanks. But I've been used to pressing option click on the green button for what seems like decades. Can I get that back?

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