Gap at bottom of maximized program

Question

Level 1

10 points

Gap at bottom of maximized program

Hi,

first of all: I'm not sure if this 'problem' is related to Mountain Lion or exists in older OS X versions as well.

I happened to notice, that when I maximized (important: maximized, not full-screen) any program in OS X it widens to the border of the screen on top, left and right, but not at the bottom. There is always a gap of a few pixels. I can reproduce this behaviour on an iMac and on the 15 inch Retina Macbook.

I attached a screenshot for this particular area of the screen. The used program is iPhoto but it really is not program-specific. The gap I'm describing is black as the desktop background is black.

Does anybody know if there is a possibility to maximize a program even there as well? Thank you very much!

Posted on Jan 14, 2013 2:29 AM

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Answer 1

ian.dunn

Level 1

12 points

Mar 5, 2017 4:06 PM in response to mirco.widmer

There are a few solutions and workarounds for this on AskDifferent. My preferred workaround is to enable the `Automatically hide and show the Dock` and `Position on screen: Right` settings. The gap is still there, but it's barely noticeable for me now. That thread also has a few apps you can install to remove it completely.

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Answer 2

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,512 points

Jan 14, 2013 4:50 AM in response to mirco.widmer

Having played around a while, that seems to be a gap for the Dock. Not sure if it is supposed to be there, or just an artifact. I have my Dock on the side of the display, so I didn't see it at first. With the Dock on the side, the window zooms to the very bottom. With the Dock on the bottom, it leaves that gap when zoomed.

Also, you can't "Maximize" a window. You can "Zoom" a window, and the zoomed dimensions are variable.

Zoom should toggle between a user-defined window size and the largest window to contain all of the window contents, up to the display dimensions.

EDIT: The gap seems to be on purpose. It may be to leave a target to hit the Dock.

I played around more with iPhoto and it leaves a gap on the side when I have the Dock on the side.

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Answer 3

mirco.widmer Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 14, 2013 12:49 PM in response to Barney-15E

hey barney,

thanks for your reply. As you probably may have assumed the Dock is on auto-hide, forgot to mention that.

I guess you're right it has to do with the Dock. Unfortunately it doesn't make a lot of sense. Because when I'm in full screen mode (truly full screen with a new Space) the gap isn't there anymore and the Dock still reappears when I hover down at the bottom. So why isn't it possible to enlarge a window in normal mode to the very bottom?

I guess I have to live with that. But it's ok, there are worse things in the world...

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Answer 4

Barney-15E

Level 10

112,512 points

Jan 14, 2013 7:01 PM in response to mirco.widmer

Probably because in full screen, there is another method that unhides the Dock. Whether they can alter the normal method to do what happens when in full screen mode, I have no idea.

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Answer 5

May 23, 2013 6:37 AM in response to mirco.widmer

Has anyone figured this out?? I had it fixed before I reinstalled OSX, but I can't remember how I did it.. 😟

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