10 Tips for Using Split View on a Mac

Split View is a simple useful multitasking tool that lets you work with exactly two windows at the same time. Here are some tips to get the most out of Split View.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Here are ten tips for using Split View on your Mac. 
MacMost is brought to you thanks to a great group of more than 1000 supporters. Go to MacMost.com/patreon. There you can read more about the Patreon Campaign. Join us and get exclusive content and course discounts.
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 third 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.

Comments: 7 Responses to “10 Tips for Using Split View on a Mac”

Bent Tjørnemark

2 years ago

Thanks Gary. I have a Pages document and a Numbers document open. For one of these I chose “tile window to left screen”. It works. Then I take the pointer to the other document and get the message: “Not Available in this Split View.”

I have done “System Settings, Desktop & Dock, Displays Separate Spaces turned on”. and I have logged out and in.

Split Screen does not seem to work for me.
.

Gary Rosenzweig

Bent: Sounds like there isn't enough space for it. Maybe adjust your screen resolution?

Thank you Gary. It solved my problem.

robert gramling

THX Gary. I will be able to make this work for me re Sorting Photos to folders.

Terry McDaniel

EXCELLENT

Hazel Morgan

Hi Gary, You explain things well. I can do the split screen thing, but it doesn't last. I used to be able to have say Mail up and be able to keep that screen 1/2 of the desktop, then go to Safari or photos, etc. and another window would come up. Now if I add a window the Mail one disappears, and if I go back to Mail, etc. the new window disappears. So now I have to do what you describe every time I want to have a split screen, which is constant. What happened to the automatic method?

Hazel: I'm not sure what you are describing here. As long you don't quit those apps or close those windows the Split View should remain.

Comments Closed.

10 Tips for Using Split View on a Mac

Comments: 7 Responses to “10 Tips for Using Split View on a Mac”

Welcome to MacMost

Free Weekly Newsletter

MacMost Online Courses

Keyboard Shortcuts PDF

Connect with MacMost

MacMost Sections

Popular Tutorials

Information