Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Here are ten tips for using Split View on your Mac.
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So Split View is a simple way to multi-task on your Mac. This allows you to take exactly
two windows and put them side-by-side. So, for instance here I have a variety to windows open.
But let's say I want to concentrate on just two of them. Maybe this Pages document I'm working on
and also the Photos App window here so that maybe I could add photos to my Pages document. To enter
Split View I can do it by using the window menu and I can use one of the two tile options here, or
I can get to the same two tile options by moving my pointer over the green button and I could see
them there. So let's start with Photos being on the left side of the screen. Now I enter a special
mode where it shows me the other windows on that Desktop. I can select one to be on the right side
of the screen. So I'll select the Pages document. Now I'm in Split View mode. I've got just these
two windows. Other than that it works just like if I'm in Full Screen view except that instead of
one window taking up the entire screen, I have exactly two windows from two different apps.
Now my first tip is that you can also use Mission Control to setup Split View. Sometimes it is a
little easier to visualize it when you do this. I'm going to use the default keyboard shortcut,
Control Up Arrow, to enter Mission Control. I can see all of my windows
here on the current Desktop. I could take the first window here and drag it to the
top. When I drop it there it will create a full screen Desktop with just that window.
But instead of just clicking on it there and going to Full Screen for that one window I'm going to
take the second window and drag that into it. You could see how I can place it on the left or right.
So I'll place this Pages window on the right side. So now I've created that Split View here and I can
just click on it to Enter. Of course then I could use Mission Control to switch back to
my regular Desktop or the Control Right Arrow and Control Left Arrow to go between these two spaces.
Now when you're in Mission Control you can work between these two apps very easily.
For instance you can Copy and Paste things between them. But you could also just Drag
and Drop. So I could drag a photo here from the Photos app into Pages very easily here in Split
View. You could even drag multiple items. So I'll select a few different images here
and drag all three of them into this Pages document.
Now Split View doesn't have to mean split evenly. Here I've got one window
taking up one half and another window taking up the other half.
But I really want to concentrate on this Pages document. The Photos window is here just so I
can grab photos. I don't need it to take up half the screen. You can grab this line here
in-between the two and drag left or right and have the app take up more or less space. There
are limits though. Some apps require a certain amount of width. So you'll find some apps you
can go pretty far over to the left or right. Others you can only get about a ⅓ of the way.
Now you can also swap sides. If after working for awhile you decide you really wanted the
Pages window on the left, you don't have to exit Split View and then go back in
choosing the opposite sides. Instead just move your pointers to the top and you can
grab the top of the window and drag to the left or to the right and swap the sides.
You can also replace one of these two windows. To do that go up to the top here and click on
the Green button. Then you can use Replace Tiled Window. When you do that it will allow
you to select one of the other windows, let's for instance select Numbers here, and now you can see
how I end up with Pages and Numbers. Also if this is the active window here you could use the Menu
to do it as well under Window. You've got Replace Tiled Window there and I can go back to Photos.
Now one of the things people have trouble with Split View is exiting Split View. For instance,
here if I wanted to exit I may use the green button here and then this will take Pages out
of Split View and return it there. But if I look at Mission Control it just leaves Photos
behind as a Full Screen app now and I have to exit that. If I want to take both out at
the same time I just go into Mission Control, I'm going to use Control Up Arrow to do that,
move my pointer over Split View there and then use the button at the upper left hand corner
that appears and this will pull both windows out of Split View back onto the Desktop.
Likewise if you wanted both of these to be Full Screen Apps you could do that as well.
So with whatever one you're actively using you can go to Window and you could say Make
Window Full Screen. Guess what happens with the other one? That also becomes Full Screen.
You can also get to this with the Green button here as well. So if we do that we can see Pages
becomes Full Screen but so did Photos. Now it is actually easy to combine them again if I
want. I just drag one to the other, like that, and now I'm back to Split View for the two.
You can also use Split View to work with two windows from the same app,
side-by-side. For instance, if I wanted to look at two webpages side-by-side I've got them in
different tabs here. The first thing I want to do is drag one tab out. So now I have two
separate windows. Now I'm going to take this window and go to Split View by tiling it to
the left side of the screen and choose the other Safari window for the right side of the screen.
So I've got two Safari windows here in Split View. Each works just like a regular window.
So I can even open up tabs in both of these windows here and view information side-by-side.
Now one of the things you may not like about Split View is you can't see the Menu Bar here
at the top. You have to move your pointer up there to see it. But you could actually change this in
System Settings. Go to Desktop & Dock. Then for Menu Bar look for Automatically Hide/Show the
Menu Bar. This is for Hiding. So you want to set it for Never. Now in Split View the Menu
Bar will always be there showing the menu for whichever app is the currently active window.
What if you want more than two windows? Now, of course, you can just use them as regular windows
like this. But say you kind of want them tiled. Well, you can simulate that using the regular
windows just fine. For instance, let's put Pages here on the left. I'm going to click and hold the
green button and then hold the Option Key down. This changes the Tile to Move. So I can move this
to the left side of the screen. I could do the same thing here in Window Menu. Hold the Option
Key down and now I've got Move. So I can move Pages to the left side like that and it takes
up exactly half the screen. I'm going to do the same thing here for two other windows. I'm going
to take the Photos window and I'm going to do the same thing there but Move window to
the right side of the screen. Then I'm going to grab the bottom edge and I'm going to move it up.
Then I'm going to select another window, like say this Numbers window here and I'm
going to go and move to the right side of the screen as well. That will cover that
other one up. But I'm going to move the top down. They actually will snap to each other
if you bring the edges close. So it is easy to get the bottom edge of one window and the top
edge of the other window to match. So now I've got three windows tiled. Not exactly the same as
Split View but it works the same. I can still access these 3 and I've got no wasted space.
Now besides Mission Control there doesn't appear to be any keyboard shortcut to do any of this.
If I go to the Window Menu I'm always going to see Tile Window to Left of Screen, Tile Window
to Right of Screen and then I could use those to start off Split View. Then when I'm in Split View
those all change to Move Window to Desktop, Make Window Full Screen, Replace Tiled Window. Well,
you can assign a keyboard shortcut to any of those because those menu items are consistent.
For instance, if I want to assign a keyboard shortcut to replace Tiled Window I can. I'm
just going to go into System Settings and then into Keyboard here at the bottom. Then I'm
going to click on Keyboard Shortcuts. Then to App Shortcuts. Then I'm going to click the Plus button
here. Then for All Applications I'm going to Add a Keyboard Shortcut for Replace Tiled Window.
So I'll use the keyboard shortcut Control Option Command R and Done. Now back here
in Split View. I'll make sure I have the right window chosen so I'll click here to choose Photos.
Under Window I can see the keyboard shortcut has been applied so I'll use that instead.
Now you can see I can choose a different window and I could do it again to switch back.
So even though you can only have two windows in Split View, if you have a main one like a document
you're working on, and then the other half is something that you're swapping out all the time,
maybe Photos to grab photos from, the web to do research, Notes to grab some text bits,
then you could really use Split View with lots of different apps at the same time even
though you only see two at once. I hope you found these tips useful. Thanks for watching.