How to pin apps side by side in full screen mode on macOS
macOS has a pretty good full screen mode for apps. If you’re trying to work without any distractions, you should switch over to full screen mode and you’re bound to get more done. What many users may not know is that on macOS, the full screen mode can be split between two apps. You can pin apps side by side in full screen mode and easily work with both of them. Here’s how.
Pin apps in full screen
Open the two apps that you want to pin side by side. Make sure that you can see the window for both apps. Neither one of them should be minimized.
Click and hold on the full screen i.e., the green button until you see an outline that shows the app will be pinned to the left of your screen. Once you see this outline, release the green button you’re click-holding on.
The app will be pinned to the left of your screen in full screen mode and you will see all the other apps that are open on the right. Select the one you want to pin in full screen with the other app.
Once the apps are pinned side by side, the traffic light buttons will disappear and you will be in full screen mode. There’s a thick divider that separates the two apps and if you click and drag it in either direction, you can change how the screen is split between the two apps.
By default, the apps are both given one half of the screen.
The slider allows you to change it so that one app can take up more space while taking space away from the second app.
Exiting full screen
If you want to exit full screen, you need to first understand that you have two apps that are currently in full screen mode. Move your mouse cursor to the top of the screen and wait for the traffic light buttons to appear for one of the apps. Click the green button and you will have exited that particular app from full screen. The other app is still in full screen mode so switch over to it and click the green button to return it to normal viewing mode.
This feature is great and it’s a shame it only works with two apps. If you have a large external display, or an iMac, you might have enough screen area to pin three apps side by side.
Windows 10 has a similar feature.
