Problems with green maximise button

Hi Folks,

In Bridge, Photoshop, Firefox etc, if I press the green maximise button on the top left, the window will do just that. It will max out to the 27" scene size, and not cover the dock.

With finder windows, and Safari, the window only expands vertically, so I invariably have a squarish window to look at.

I've tried option clicking, command clicking and the other fixes, but they don't help.

I thought I had solved the issue by going to display prefs and selecting "scaling" instead of "best for display," but that's no good.

Like I say, other apps are fine.

Don't want to use full screen cos I lose the toolbar.

Is this just something peculiar to Mac apps, or is there a solution.

Just checked , iTunes works the way I want it, like Photoshop etc. i.e., when I press green, it fills the screen, but not full screen mode style.

I'm on an iMac 27" with 10.9.5

thanks for your help

Paul