How do I set ‘open full screen’ in Notes, Messages and other apps(eg. Feedly RSS reader)? I find it annoying that they open in small useless windows in the bottom right corner of my screen and I’m constantly have to manually enter full screen through the menu bar. Thank you, Murray Wight, Australia.
I find these apps pretty useless in a small window. I prefer full screen views and being able to have apps to default to full screen on opening would be great.
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Murray Wight
Keep in mind a few things. First, some apps like Notes and Messages have a single main window, and you can open some additional windows as well. Other apps have one window per document or view, like Pages or Safari. Full Screen mode is for windows, not apps. So when you switch to Full Screen mode it puts that window into FulL Screen, not the "app."
Second, when you close a window, that window is gone. If you open another window in that app it is a new window. So if you had a window in Full Screen mode, then close it and open a new window, that is a new window. I doesn't care that another previous window was in Full Screen, it is a new window.
So let's say you have Notes running and are using just the main window in Full Screen mode. Then you close that window by clicking the red button at the top left, or using Command+w. The window is gone. Notes is still running (look in the dock). If you click on Notes in the Dock it will switch to it and open a new window since it has no other window open. This new window doesn't care about the previous window and it will open as a regular window, not Full Screen.
This can also happen if you have System Preferences, General, Close Windows When Quitting An App turned on, and you use Notes, Quit or Command+q. The window closes. It is gone. Now when you launch Notes again you get a new window that doesn't know you want it in Full Screen.
So how to avoid? Well, first, you can just leave Notes running. No need to quit it. If it is Full Screen then it is running in its own Space. So why quit or close?
Or, you can switch OFF System Preferences, General, Close Windows When Quitting An App and then use Command+q to quit. This quits Notes without closing the window. Now when you launch Notes again the EXISTING window will reappear, and if it was in Full Screen mode it will continue in Full Screen mode.
Also note that if you shut down your Mac, something you should rarely need to do, you get the option to "Reopen Windows When Logging Back In." You see this if you log out or restart as well. Checking that box will keep the current windows, and those windows will remember if that are Full Screen or not.
Ok, thanks. Quitting the app in Full Screen and reopening as required seems to be my only real solution. Cheers Gary.
Murray: Why doesn't just leaving it running an option for you? I never quit Notes, Mail, Safari or Messages.
That's not working for me. Quitting while in fullscreen mode with that System Setting unchecked still launches them in regular-sized mode, not fullscreen. They don't even get restored to the right Desktop Space most of the time, which is really annoying. Any ideas?
Adam: Which app?