When I hit "full screen" I get the full screen but cannot figure how to get back to the smaller screen.

Just hit the Escape key.

If you are using Firefox browser, sometimes there may be an issue with full-screen

if you had not set the option buttons or tools for the screen-resize arrows to appear.

As this was not a featured item in earlier OS X versions, to have the icon to change

screen size in the boundary of upper browser or open application windows, some

earlier uses of the idea were not adequate if you did not have a way to return to the

main menu bar. ~One way would be to remember the keys to open "Force Quit"

the contextual menu with that should show you any open applications, plus Finder.

You can quit the application stuck in full-screen that way, but nothing would be saved

unless the browser were set to save previous content & cookies. (Mine are not.)

{so Command-Option-Escape should open the contextual menu to force quit}

See link added below to 'disable full-screen mode with keyboard shortcut' search.

Not sure how you'd convince Safari to revert to a small window after going full-screen

if the standard keyboard shortcut (as indicated in browser by archaic icons) won't do.

There usually is an elegant way to work around issues in OS X, yet with the newer

ones, most of them seem to have been removed from the user interface after 10.6.8.

A cross-section of items appears from a search, using this URL to look where I did:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=quit+full+screen+mac

•And note 'disable full-screen mode with keyboard shortcut' search results:

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=mac+os+x+disable+full+screen+with+keyboard+ shortcut

In any event...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

PS: tried to add more to the above, but it timed-out.

After Lion 10.7, things get worse; esp after Mavericks:

http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/leave-full-screen-os-x/

...Try & use keyboard shortcut: Control-Command-F

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

Did you try moving the cursor off the screen at the top and leave it there for a second or two? The menu bar should then come back into view. Click on the green "maximize" button and the screen should return to normal. Admittedly I am 10.10.3 so I can not simulate exactly your OS.

When in Full Screen mode move your cursor to the top of your screen to reveal the Menu bar and the top of your application's window. Click on the Green dot to return the view to the normal mode.

Could you use keyboard command to get a screenshot of that, & post it,

so others who view this thread later may understand your solution better?

You're fortunate to not have to force-quit a full-screen window to escape

the application that is controlled by its normal view access.

Some pre-Lion applications do not have the same iconographic items 😐

Hit the command key, the shift key and numeral 3 all at the same time. A screen shot will be placed on the desk top.

It should have placed an icon on your desktop that is titled something like "Screen Shot" followed by the date & time. Do you find that ?

Hmmm, are you sure that is a Macintosh?