How to snap windows on a Mac: built-in tiling, shortcuts and thirds
Snapping two windows side by side used to be the first thing Windows switchers missed on a Mac. macOS now has window tiling built in. It’s easy to miss, because most of it lives in a menu and a set of shortcuts nobody tells you about.
Snap a window with the mouse
- Drag a window to the left or right edge of the screen: it tiles to that half.
- Drag a window to the menu bar: it fills the screen (without going full screen).
- Hold Option while dragging a window to tile it (a setting controls this; see below).
You can also hover over the green button in a window’s top-left corner to get a menu of tiling layouts.
Snap a window with the keyboard
These are the shortcuts from Window > Move & Resize, as Apple lists them for macOS 27 (and in its Mac User Guide). On some keyboards the Fn key is labeled with a globe 🌐.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Fill the screen | Fn-Control-F |
| Center | Fn-Control-C |
| Left half / right half | Fn-Control-Left Arrow / Right Arrow |
| Top half / bottom half | Fn-Control-Up Arrow / Down Arrow |
| Return to previous size | Fn-Control-R |
Arrange two or more windows at once
| Layout | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Left & Right | Fn-Control-Shift-Left Arrow |
| Right & Left | Fn-Control-Shift-Right Arrow |
| Top & Bottom | Fn-Control-Shift-Up Arrow |
| Bottom & Top | Fn-Control-Shift-Down Arrow |
| Left & Quarters | Fn-Control-Option-Shift-Left Arrow |
| Right & Quarters | Fn-Control-Option-Shift-Right Arrow |
| Top & Quarters | Fn-Control-Option-Shift-Up Arrow |
| Bottom & Quarters | Fn-Control-Option-Shift-Down Arrow |
The single-quarter positions (Top Left, Top Right and so on) and the plain Quarters layout are in the same menu but have no shortcut. You can add your own in System Settings > Keyboard: click Keyboard Shortcuts…, choose App Shortcuts, and type the exact menu item name.
Turn tiling on or off
The settings are in System Settings > Desktop & Dock:
- Drag windows to left or right edge of screen to tile
- Drag windows to menu bar to fill screen
- Hold ⌥ key while dragging windows to tile
- Tiled windows have margins: turn this off if you want tiled windows to touch with no gap.
If tiling doesn’t work at all, check that Displays have separate Spaces is on in the same settings; macOS 27 says window tiling requires it.
What the built-in tiling can’t do
- Thirds and custom sizes. The built-in layouts are halves, quarters and full screen.
- Saved layouts for a whole set of apps.
- Snapping across several displays with one shortcut.
For those, a window manager helps. Rectangle is free and open source and adds thirds, more shortcuts and snap areas; a paid Rectangle Pro adds custom shortcuts for any size and position. It runs from the menu bar, so if your menu bar is getting crowded, see how to hide menu bar icons.
Related
- More menu bar utilities worth installing: the best Mac menu bar apps.
- Other things macOS still doesn’t do (and what it quietly added): macOS missing features.
Questions
Does Mac have window snapping like Windows?
Yes. Recent macOS versions tile windows when you drag them to the left or right edge of the screen, and the Window > Move & Resize menu has keyboard shortcuts for halves and quarters.
What is the shortcut to snap a window left on Mac?
Fn-Control-Left Arrow tiles the front window to the left half, Fn-Control-Right Arrow to the right half. Fn-Control-F fills the screen and Fn-Control-R returns the window to its previous size.
Can a Mac snap windows into thirds?
Not with the built-in tiling, which offers halves, quarters and full screen. Window managers such as Rectangle add thirds and custom layouts.