How can I get a window to be full screen in mac os x?

Nope.

Can’t.

Just stretch it by hand. Full screen windows is seriously an ailment that Windows users need to overcome.

Learn to love the small windows that are efficient on screen real estate! Embrace them!

Presssing the green button in many, but not all applications will make a window full screen.

There is no full screen that locks your window in place the way that it does on Windows, but honestly, what’s the difference between a window that is full screen which you can’t resize and a window that is full screen which you can?

Depends on the app. The green resize button will toggle between maximized and minimized views, depending on the content of the window. Otherwise, as squirbel says, stretch it to fill the screen if you need to.

@squirbel – may I ask how small windows are more efficient on screen real estate? If I maximise a window I do that because I only want to look at that window – other windows are distracting.

Other windows can be hidden easily (Hide an entire app, different from minimizing or quitting) – the only thing visible outside the window’s boundaries would be your Desktop.

@PupnTaco – then why is showing the desktop more useful than showing the window you want to look at?

I had issues getting used to it too for a the longest time, once you’re used to it, it is nice.

Google megazoom, it’s a simbl plugin so it only works on cocoa apps, but check it out.

@vincentt: It’s obviously a user preference. I find smaller windows to be more efficient, since I can move between them.

Some people like one big screen, but this annoys me.

@ vincentt: it’s either the blank Desktop or a big empty white area (the unused part of the maximized window) – equally “distracting” IMO.

If you find the other windows around your main one distracting, just hit Command+Option+H. This hides all windows except the one you have active.

@Dave – why do you have pup’s avatar? **sad**

Wait – that’s weird…. you must’ve had the moderators change your name….because your avatar says dave but your name next to your stars has your name, pupntaco. awkward!

:D

oki, you’re fine by me nao…

@squirbel that text saying “Dave” is just on his display picture, so he must’ve changed it himself. It’s not actual text that can be selected.

—I just added my name below the avatar, “Dave” was already taken as a user name by someone who never posted.—

@PupnTaco – it doesn’t have to be a big empty white area. There’s a lot of useful, non-disturbing stuff you can do with that. For example, you can put big buttons in there for common actions – my current audio player does this, big Previous, Next, etc.-buttons in there. They’re not distracting and allow me to easily perform common actions.

Similarly, a website can use it to provide a non-distracting background that might not be that useful, but fits the website’s theme and, by not contrasting that much, is not as disturbing as my wallpaper would be.

@squirbel – of course it’s a user preference. And I can imagine how the “resize to a good fit” option is preferred by some, but that’s no reason to leave out the maximise option…

megazoomer is a SIMBL plugin that lets you fullscreen all cocoa applications in OS X

Hey guess what? I FOUND IT!!

It’s built in to mac already. Option+Click the green ”+” button in the top left corner of the window. Option+Click it again to revert to the last window size.

Don’t know if it works with all applications, but it has with everything I’ve tried so far!

Doesn’t work for me in safari… Do you get full screen or just fill up the space left? is this true full screen or is the dock and menubar still visible?

Here’s the difference:
Zoom: http://h4xr.org/erft
Mega Zoom: http://h4xr.org/yxz8

(never mind)

Oh you want THAT type of full screen, a.k.a. hitting F11 in Internet Explorer when running on a windows.
Thought you just wanted the windows to take the dimensions of the screen. My bad.

Need 3rd party software for that, no questions asked.

Mega Zoom works so great that it doesn’t deserve the term 3rd party on it :p