Re the Dock: it may not be easily discoverable, but you can resize the Dock by hovering over a vertical bar between icon groups, then dragging up and down. Hold down the Option key to snap to (what I presume is one of a number of) unscaled icon sizes.

One of the first things I do on a new install (as well as turning on the Finder status bar) is option-clicking on the Dock and shrinking it down by one step (or maybe two on a 13" MacBook).

The option key won’t snap to the unscaled icon sizes. The unscaled icon sizes are just too far apart—there’s 48 px, but the other sizes are powers of 2.

What do you use the dock for? CMD-Tab is all you need.

I do feel like the yearning for tiled windows or things like that are the result of trying to make OS X into Windows. Mac has Expose and virtual desktops - you don't need tiled windows.

I drag documents into the dock to open them with a specific application. There are a lot of document types that I deal with where there’s no one-size-fits-all default—stuff like media files especially.

I'm not trying to talk you out of any criticisms of the OS, but just FYI: you can drag files onto app icons in cmd-tab, too. Start dragging, hit cmd-tab, and then hold cmd. The app icons hang around until you release cmd, and you can drop files on them.

I use this all the time to handle things like text, images, pdf etc to open them in non-default apps. I find this a lot easier than dealing with the dock. Hope this helps!

clicking in dock is way easier than doing cmd-tab because cmd tab order keep changing . In dock we can easily discover the app as they don't move around.

I think Cmd-Tab is really bad if you end up using lot of apps. Alfred is way better for such purpose imo.

How do you use Alfred to replace cmd-tab?

You can sort of use Alfred as an app switcher - by entering the name of the app you want to switch to. The first letter is usually enough (e.g. to switch to Chrome, invoke Alfred, hit C, hit Enter). If you have to cmd-tab through many open apps, using Alfred can be faster.

If you want to have two windows side by side, each maximized to half the screen, how would you do it with Expose?

Re 1: My life has fully changed by purchasing "Magnet" for window snapping and window move hotkeys.. it blows my mind that this isn't a default feature or option for MacOS.

as soon as Apple adds window snapping features we'll be reading blogs on this site about Apple stealing all these third-party developer ideas.

Isn't it an IP issue? I thought maybe MS patented this

Was about to post the same thing. Magnet is one of the first things I install every time I get a new Mac. Can't live without it. And it only costs $2.99, what's your excuse?

> Ever noticed random apps on your Mac hang sometimes when you click on them, or having events lost entirely?

No

> And it only costs $2.99, what's your excuse?

My excuse is that I prefer using an Operating System that provides such productivity features over paying third parties to augment an effectively broken social media machine.

Yeah, I use Magnet but I find it pretty ridiculous I had to pay a fee just to get some basic window snapping/tiling functionality in my operating system

The hyperbole on this thread is truly something to behold.

Effectively broken? Well okay then.

I’m trying to defend the thought process here, but I can’t. Willing to spend several thousand for a premium laptop. Unwilling to spend $3 on principle.

To each their own I suppose.

I use Rectangle and it's great for moving windows using the keyboard: https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle

Yep, you somehow can't drag items into fullscreened app. I sometimes need to un-fullscreen vscode just to drag a damn file into it. This is the most silly limit in my opinion. And the finder always interrupt your fullscreened app instead of open it in other screens. Make it doubly unusable. Wtf? I just want to move a file.

But i need to. 1. Return focus to vscode because the focus is stolen by finder. 2. Unfullscreen vscode. 3. Find the damn finder window. 4. Drag file. 5. Fullscreen vscode back. 6. Fix desktop order that was destroyed by the un-fullscreen action i did.

Can't you just allow me to overlay finder on it and drag file in???

Yes you can, you just drag the item to the top of the screen, to the fullscreen app's desktop, and onto the app.

finder is so unintuitive coming from windows. Where can i type a damn path in?? Some of the UI assumes all users are creatives that only navigate the computer visually.

cmd-shift-G (Go to Folder) is what I usually use.

It's not personal, but I've seen similar comments all the way down this thread. This is not what unintuitive means! What you mean is that you are used to using Explorer and Finder follows different paradigms that you're not used to and thus confused. And that's OK! What it isn't is "unintuitive"; it's "different".

A quick plug for BetterTouchTool here which has fantastic window management tools, including snapping and also “move the window under my mouse if I’m holding down a hot key.” I couldn’t get work done without it. And it’s well maintained.

Plus a barrel load more.

About point 3. As a long-time Mac user, I usually leave the dock hidden, allowing me to use the space. If I want to use it to access any shortcut, I just use the global shortcut for it (Cmd+Opt+D) to quickly show it, and hide it once I'm done.

a few points (keep in mind I also agree with the post, but "paused" my mac ecosystem around 10.12)

I agree fullscreen mode is really annoying -- except for movies.

With movies every other computer/device in the world screws that up by putting something other than the movie on the screen (including just about every cable channel with "coming up next" overlays). Really, nothing except the movie. Nothing on top, nothing around the movie. sheesh.

The dock is fine on the left. or right. at the bottom ugh.

The finder is just ok. except imho one of the best features of macos is finder + spacebar to quickly preview just about anything.