What is Reddit's opinion of
Rectangle?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
73 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
In regards to question 2, I find Rectangle [https://rectangleapp.com/] to be a great tool to manage Windows. It basically tries to mimic the window management of Windows 10.
Also it's free and opensource.
A lot of these are pretty great applications. Under Spectacle it may be worth considering Rectangle if you're looking for an open source free alternative, though I use Magnet. https://rectangleapp.com/
Also Sublime Text is only free for evaluation purposes. It is a paid application.
Lacks shortcuts, takes much longer to get windows sized and placed where you want, lack of usability leads to people just having windows strewn about. I lived on MacOS with the default window management system for a while and actually didn’t care until I got a windows machine for work and used theirs extensively. When I came back to my Mac, I was surprised something similar wasn’t the default and decided to download Rectangle. It’s incredible and just lets me do what I need to do faster.
lol.
To answer your valid question, on behalf of OP, the windows don't snap to left and right like in other OS'. What Apple does implement is located by holding the green arrow and selecting "Tile Window to Left of Screen" which then allows you to select the window you want tiled on the right.
OP may have other issues with the Windows Manager but thats the one people are bringing up in the comments.
By the way, to get snapping, I recommend everyone try Rectangle (Free, Open Source).
I also simultaneously run Window Tidy but the company has recently released a successor to that app called Mosaic which I have yet to try but may be worth a look.
Happy snapping!
Download the app Rectangle. It's free, open source, and brings Windows' window management to the mac. I've got a MBA for work and a Windows machine for gaming, and I feel right at home on my MBA :)
Also, as for browsers -- I really can't do Safari or Chrome, so I use Firefox on my mac. It works like a charm and has full extension support; Safari is missing some vital extensions I use, and Chrome I just don't use out of principle (and it sucks battery on my 2015 MBP)
Why would you pay $8 for something so simple that an open source app does for free? It's Mac, you're not limited just to the app store.
https://rectangleapp.com/ is a lovely free alternative and is open source, so at least you can be sure that the app isn't doing anything fishy in the background.
Source code : https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle
The feature from Windows and Ubuntu I missed most was the dragging windows to edges to resize.
I tried a few apps but went with Rectangle as it was minimal, easy to set up, and free.
Another app I love is Bartender 4, great for organizing the menu bar.
If you have a MacBook Pro or use the Magic Trackpad, Swish is a must have app.
I previously used Magnet but recently got an Ultrawide and switched to Rectangle or Hookshot.
Rectangle I believe is 100% free and will do everything Magnet can do (iirc).
Hookshot is a paid upgrade to Rectangle that is more powerful. I've recently been trying it out and really like the configurability of using mouse movements.
For example, if I hold down one of the side buttons on my mouse, then move my cursor in a certain direction, I can control where the window will snap to. This is much better than the usual method of snapping it to the edge of the screen - on an ultrawide, the edge of the screen is too far away. (Keyboard commands also work great, of course.)
On Windows I use Power Toys, as the other commentor mentioned.
Btw, if you find a solution for your idea of "playing games in 16:9 with windows either side" please let me know! I would love to find a software solution to playing a fullscreen game in the center with "virtual" second displays to the side, but Im not sure that exists.
I practically do this on my Mac too. Using Rectangle (https://rectangleapp.com, free and open source) you can have keyboard shortcuts to set windows to certain positions. I don’t know whether the iPad screen is large enough to have quarters of a screen, though. I never use less than half a screen on my 13” laptop screen.
Drive DX is a third party app with a free trial that you can use, and keep in mind that you can natively install Windows 10 on it and use all your utilities from there (though getting proper APFS support and modern drivers can be a bit wonky since you sorta have to download versions made for newer Macs and trick them into installing if you wanna get into that).
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Otherwise, I use SuperDuper! to clone Mac drives. SuperDuper is the first place I'd look, it's free and super simple, but other software like Carbon Copy Cloner exists if that doesn't work.
Also, if you want window snapping similar to Windows, check out Rectangle. There's a bunch of mac utilities out there and I've been using Macs since I was like 4 years old in 2003 and used these random utilties for almost 20 years now so there's probably a couple crucial ones I'm forgetting.
I do tech support for work and Install Disk Creator is great if you have a couple spare 8GB or 16GB flash drives you want to turn into macOS installers.
While it won't speak to appearance, Rectangle does give you more control over window placement and alignment. https://rectangleapp.com/
The same author makes a few other apps to help with window management in some other ways.
Best of luck!
Command + space brings up spotlight search. I use it to launch everything. Only need to type enough to get the app you want then hit enter. Works for more than apps, as well.
For window management check out Rectangle. Some minor stuff exists natively but it sounds like you want more.
Beyond that, you can customize various shortcuts, of course. And plenty of windows shortcuts are same/similar, just swapping in command instead of ctrl. Also play around with the option key. A lot of times that gives alternative...wait for it...options for commands. Nice part is that you can right click, review choices, then hold option key to see what changed and if it's more useful.
You need a 3rd-party app for this. I’ve seen a lot of apps in this category, but I found one that’s FOSS and free to charge. It’s called Rectangle.
It has some nice customization options, but also works well out-of-the-box if you don’t to spend time changing the settings. You can install it in less than a minute. It supports both snapping gestures and keyboard shortcuts.
>https://apps.apple.com/us/app/magnet/id441258766?mt=12
Ah yes, I forgot about that. I found it after I already bought the software, but yes you can also use that. Here it is: https://rectangleapp.com
Try the Rectangle app. You can always long press on the green button of the browser window to select which side of the display you want the window but this app is very intuitive and unlike Magnet, its free and open source !
The GPU performance of the M1 isn't that great, so if you are running a lot of graphically demanding apps, then I'm not so sure it's the right fit.
As for window management.. I think that is just part of the learning curve of switching to macOS from Windows. Mac does some things better, but is missing quite a few things that people take for granted on Windows. There are some third-party apps you can use that might make it a bit easier. I personally use Rectangle which allows you to "snap" windows to the edges of the screen like you can in Windows 10. No clue why Apple doesn't have something like that by default..
That ‘polish’ in window management is patented to heck, and I’m sure Microsoft would absolutely love the legal case Apple would walk into by reproducing the same drag-snap window management.
However, there are free apps that nobody in their right mind would try to crush that apply the same management, like rectangle.
I too wish it was native, but in case you haven't heard of it yet I can recommend rectangle. It's very full featured.
I look forward to the day when Apple Sherlock's this app though.
I had never heard of tiles before, so I looked it up. You might want to check out Rectangle, also free. It does the same kind of thing but also supports quarter and third of screen, mostly the same shortcuts too.
Congrats and enjoy :)
If you're used to Windows' wonderful window snapping feature, you should check out Rectangle. It's free and open source, and provides similar functionality on your mac.
Enjoy!
I highly recommend getting Rectangle. It brings Windows-like window snapping features to Mac. Unlike Magnet, Rectangle is free and open source as well!
I genuinely love this application.
Your screen width would give me whiplash. Very nice setup and thank you for sharing the apps you used. Too bad Moom isn't free. I'm using Rectangle right now. Moom looks tempting but for $10 I'll wait and see haha.
Übersicht is very nice, I never heard of that one. I think it means 'overview' in German. I'm going to have a lot of fun with those widgets. Cheers!
I recommend the Rectangle app. It's free!
https://rectangleapp.com/
It just snaps to different squares not as perfectly as windows doe — when you know it detects an open window on the side and you want to snap another window on the other side and then it would perfectly fit the empty space? You'll see what I mean when you get to use it haha.
I don’t know if it’s a probable solution to your problem, but if you just switched from windows or want windows-type full/half screen snapping, you can use an app called rectangle. https://rectangleapp.com/
Hope it helps!
- Yes OneDrive works on Mac
- As does Office 365 and Standard Office
- It doesn’t automatically snap windows but you can’t use this open source app: https://rectangleapp.com/
- You heard wrong. It supports plug and play of USB and external devices. It’s running Unix remember!
Using Alt + tab on Mac for me, I always feel like an idiot doing it.
Also, windows key + direction arrows to snap windows on a Mac. Then I found rectangle
I still hate how full screening windows on Mac punishes you. I don't like losing the top taskbar or navigation buttons on Chrome in fullscreen (luckily the command + back arrow is the same as alt + back arrow)
One more reply, if you were using BetterTouchTool for window snapping, there is a free alternative called Rectangle. I just downloaded and tested this, and I am able to have it active for Logic Pro and not have the same issue like BTT.
Window Management is worse. Get used to Spaces or download Rectangle.
CMD+' switches between windows of the same app. I'd actually prefer this if it worked across spaces.
But wait till you see the things that Windows can't do.
Search is the name of the game. Spotlight is accessible via CMD+Space and finds everything. No more Win+E: any folder, app or document is directly accessible by search. [1]
No need to type the whole name: "M Sup Co " will find "My Super Cool Folder". Then press tab to browse subfolders. When searching for an application, press tab to get to recently opened files.
The menu bar "File, Edit, ..." is fully searchable through CMD+?. No need to learn the shortcut for an action that you use twice a month. Just search for it by typing.
If you want to get even further, install Raycast or Alfred or Launchbar. They replace Spotlight to offer even more stuff such as Clipboard management, Snippets,
Finally: Accept that you often need the mouse. This actually isn't that bad if you don't have a numpad since the cost of reaching over to the mouse is lower. And some mouse-interaction is genuinely more intuitive, such as dragging a file into an "Open"-Dialog to navigate to it's location.
Whenever you switch to a new system, you'll first discover the stuff that you can't do anymore. Only later you'll realise what's been missing. Finding the cool stuff takes time, because both systems aren't exactly great at communicating their power-user features. I hope this list at least somewhat helped.
[1] yes, windows has a global search too, but I never managed the same level of productivity with it.
https://rectangleapp.com/ - Keyboard based window management app, you don’t realize how much time you waste moving/resizing windows with the mouse until you don’t anymore.
https://savecrate.com/ - Web based boookmarking tool, my replacement for del.icio.us from back in the day.
I just posted a comment here with some shortcuts I use if that sounds interesting or helpful at all. My work sometimes involves quite a bit of multitasking, so between those shortcuts and Rectangle to easily tile windows (usually Chrome on the left, Sublime Text on the top-right, iTerm2 on the bottom-right), it's not too bad.
The only thing I still want at this point to make it even easier is something to automatically tile all windows instead of having to do it one by one (even with shortcuts from Rectangle). Moom might be able to do it but I haven't spent a whole lot of time with it.
Many developers choose not to host their apps on the Mac App Store as they don’t like Apple’s rules for the App Store or simply prefer to host the apps themselves. This is fine on a Mac and in fact Apple allows this unlike on the iPhone. The app Rectangle you speak of is one such app, it can be downloaded from its website here. Simply download the app, it will come in a .zip or .DMG file. Open the downloaded file and drag the .app file (this is the entire application all self contained) into the Applications folder which can be found in the sidebar of the Finder (file browser) or by going to the menu bar at the top of the screen where it says Finder, click the ‘Go’ menu and select Applications.
i’ve experienced this problem as well on macos. what worked for me was using rectangle app to resize/recalibrate the window.
for this to work, i first make sure that the window is not in full screen in my desired monitor. i then scroll to the menu bar, and click on the rectangle icon. following this, i click center. this acts as a refresher to resize the window appropriately.
just sharing what works for me! i hope this can work for you as well.
there isn't much of an option because mac does not have that feature but there are third-party apps, I am also a windows user so I use this feature constantly, I use Rectangle mainly because its free (https://rectangleapp.com/)
Apple Window manager does not offer quick window resizing, for example, let say I have two windows and want to give have of my screen space to each window. In all other OS (Windows, Linux, Chroom os) you can just drag the window to the right/left side and the OS would snap it automatically for you but in macOS, this feature doesn't exist. You need to click on 3 buttons to just snap one window.
If you want to experience how other OS doe windows management install Rectangle (It's free) and give it a try.
S Macom začínam, takze zatiaľ krátky zoznam, ale:
Notion - personálny Wiki/workspace/dokumentácia a pánboh vie, čo to dokáže este Aj mobilná appka
Lightshot - screenshot appka Dajak mi to vyhovuje viac oridzo.
Rectangle - Move and resize windows in macOS using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas
Keepassxc - trezor na hesla, plus plugin do Chrómu
Try https://rectangleapp.com/ you'll love it. Also you can map the keys any way you want.
In case you were reffering to Cmd/Option being in the wrong place system-wide, you can easily customize them in the "Modifier Keys" section of the System Preferences panel.
I use firefox for browsing the web, bitwarden for my password manager, Authenticator extension for totp app, and libreoffice for writing docs. Rectangle is a very good app that allows you to snap windows into a grid (fourths, sixths, twos etc), like windows. There is also a useful timer app I have installed.
> Snapping windows to corners or sides. I know there is an option to tile to the right and left but Windows version of this is much quicker and more robust. Especially on windows 11.
Try this: https://rectangleapp.com
This is what I missed the most when I moved to macOS. Following your LPT; if using macOS, install the free application called Rectangle and use Control + Option + Arrow keys.
macOS' window management is pretty bad out of the box; using an app like Rectangle will be nice, especially if you are used to Windows Snap. Assuming you'll be switching to a MacBook, be sure to learn the gestures because they can be an integral part of your workflow and use virtual desktops to organize your windows.
I just use the Rectangle app to resize and move windows around. I agree with everything you mentioned especially the flipping through open app windows (I used alt + tab a lot on my previous Windows laptop). I just use Mission Control (swipe up with 3 fingers) to switch windows. You can edit the trackpad gestures in System Preferences.
https://rectangleapp.com I am guessing you are in fullscreen view for chrome and when you are going close it's showing the menu bar. One thing you can do is use rectangle to do window management like windows does and have more of a fullscreen view without actually opening a new space. That way the menu bar is just always there but you are using most of your monitor for chrome.
At the last job I went from dual 27" to 38" UW and it worked great. Rectangle made it even better. But that was a Mac/Linux environment full of power users.
For not-power-users, I'm not convinced that it's such a good idea. Ever seen a 38 ultrawide monitor with a single full-screen browser window and a news website running centered down the middle sixth of the screen? Wasted pixels, far as the eye can see. And then there's the usability shift that will invariably upset the "I don't like change" types.
Will it make the office look more modern? I don't think so. Barely, maybe.
I'd argue for a third way: Let staff who genuinely want an ultrawide request one. Attach a proviso that you recommend apps x, y and z to aid with their usage. The first x users who get one get to be a test group that you collaborate with to figure out what works best in your environment. That kind of thing.
You can sign PDF documents using preview without having to print it out! Tutorial here
Airdrop is so powerful if you have multiple apple devices and want to transfer large documents between them!
Download Rectangle. It's a window resizer. You can create keyboard shortcuts or snap the windows in certain areas of your screen. It's pretty great!! Since Mac doesn't have that feature natively, it solves your problem download here
Hot Corners is a setting you can set under system preferences where you can customize what happens when you hover over a corner of your screen! I have mine where if I hover over my bottom right corner mission control opens, and bottom left corner launch pad opens. There's other customizations where you can quickly view your desktop, start screensaver, view notification center, etc.
CheatSheet is another good app to download where you can quickly view all the active keyboard shortcuts! Perfect for trying to get to know your macbook. download here
Thanks!
I used to be a big dual monitor person back in the day, but I find that I don't get much utility out of them anymore and they largely are a distraction for me. I imagine it would be different if I gamed, which I don't really anymore.
For multitasking, I prefer focusing on one thing full screened, but I need to reference something I'll just tile two windows side by side using https://rectangleapp.com/
I'm in a similar situation on an intel mac. Right now the only option is to play in windowed mode and manually scale the window down to a smaller size. Having a window manager really helps to make this process less painful. If you don't have one I recommend Rectangle since they're free and open source.
Also you can lower the resolution scaling of your display. In my case since I have a 4k monitor (LG Ultrafine 24") I scale mine to 1920x1080. This also happens to be perfect 2x for my monitor which comes with lots of other advantages, but if I really want silky smooth fps I'll sometimes scale it down even further.
No, there isn’t unless your hardware specifically supports this.
Your best bet would be to learn a tiling window manager such as Hummingbird, Amethyst, or Rectangle. This won’t hide the Dock, menu bar, or window chrome as full screen does, of course.
That is true. However current native solution is not really ergonomic. I use Rectangle and it is really handy, but I feel like there is a much better solution waiting to be discovered. For example, windows stick to each other now while moving. But the problem is they do not resize together when you grab the shared edge, which is a missed opportunity.
If you want a sensible window management on macos download Rectangle app. It gives you more of a windows way of managing windows which is far superior still.
If you are using external mouse and are annoyed by the inverted scroll wheel (because its coupled with the trackpad) you can de-couple it with several apps, like Karabiner app or Scroll Reverser.
Rectangle is lightweight and free.
Magnet is another good choice, costs $7.99.
BetterTouchTool isn't exactly a window manager like the others, but is capable of everything the other two can do and more. Snap to edge is an option in the preferences, but you'll have to configure the shortcuts yourself, so it's a bit more effort. You can configure shortcuts and trackpad gestures for damn near anything and it's the best way that I know of to configure the caps lock key to also function as a hyper key when held and used with other keys. The hyper key functionality is equivalent to holding shift, ctrl, opt, and command all at the same time, super useful. It costs $8.50 for a standard license (2 years of updates) or $22.50 for a lifetime license (never pay again) and comes with a 45 day trial period.
You could ask for the window manager preset and/or the hyper key preset and I'd send them to you.
Rectangle will get you window management similar window management to Windows. Since you’re on a laptop, however, I’m going to recommend Swish. It’s the must intuitive thing I’ve ever used and cannot recommend it enough.
You should try to get used to how the Mac handles things. We all install extra software for extra features, but try not to bloat it with unnecessary software to mimic windows. But that’s just my two cents.
I've been using https://rectangleapp.com/ (Free) to be able to resize my windows but I would like to get something for the dock previews without having to pay $20 for something so basic...
Bought an M1 macbook air and having the same issue with my new LG ultrawide monitor- Downloaded Rectangle and it seems to be just fine until LG gets a software
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Thanks for the non-help comment and defending Apple's honor. My stock portfolio appreciates it.
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>Also, while we’re here: VS Code is just fucking terrible.
This is true for any application that can run multiple instances, VS Code is just an example.
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> Mission Control gives plenty of detail
I want text without having to hover over stuff. App A is editing file B, like this. That screenshot is from a project that implements Window's Alt+Tab in OS X. The fact that projects like that or Rectangle (to implement sane window management) are necessary is saddening.
Maybe if you spend more money on Apple, their wm/de will be as good as Ubuntu 9.04 one day. I believe you can do it, please buy more Apple products.
Switched back to macOS after a couple of years having to use Windows 10 (which did impress me, if not completely). The transition has not been fraught. I use Microsoft Office and Teams for the vast majority of my client work, and it gets the job done. Teams is resource hungry, but it was the same on Windows - probably due to the way that it has been developed as a non-native client. For me, the software I use is platform agnostic, so I have been able to choose the platform that best suits me.
I've noticed that there are a couple of things missing, namely being able to capture system audio when sharing via Microsoft Teams - this has now been solved thanks to Rogue Amoeba and their update Audio Capture Engine (although I note that this is ongoing). I do find that I need to find and install utilities to ease my workflow, such as Rectangle. This can lead to some interesting discoveries, but I do find that I'm uninstalling more than I keep. There are some things missing though: I know Apple ships Automator, but Scripts (iOS) for macOS would be perfect.
I've actually purchased an Apple Silicon MacBook Pro (16GB/1TB) and am quite looking forward to the buttery goodness. :-)
... the entire Unix philosophy (which Linux inherited) is modular tools that do one thing well.
Why not just use the tool that fixes your problem well: https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle https://rectangleapp.com/
Like normally I shy away from "just install one more thing!" for non-technical users, but when you're touting Linux desktop inside Windows and your hang up is literally snapping windows....
The way that OSX does it works for the workflow most non-programmers have. Having a browser and a editor of some sort side by side, with easy size changes and a full focus mode (all the extra window management chrome is gone).
I can take 5 minutes setting up a new Macbook with homebrew and rectangle and still have a 2 hour headstart on someone about to go down the driver rabbit hole (yeah I know, ever year since 2005 "this year most of the drivers are fine, that's not really an issue anymore")
There are many utilities for moving windows around to be placed in sections of the screen. Windows has some built in snapping, and if you're on Mac I like https://rectangleapp.com/
Here's my take.
> If i resize the windows of MS Teams - it is so laggy, like my laptop from the 90s.
I agree. Window resizing on the Mac is kinda slow. Something like Rectangle helps.
> Even the mac os boot up time is longer than win 10, win 10 loads on Razer for 5 seconds, but this annoying line in mac os can boot for 10-15 seconds, and i have only 6-7 programs in the background.
This is not my experience. Windows is typically much slower off the bat compared to macOS. E.g., macOS resumes from sleep more or less in an instant where Windows is often choppy and unresponsive when resuming. Also, how often do you boot your computer for 10 seconds to be an annoyance? I only reboot my Mac once a month or so. Sometimes less. Use sleep mode.
> I searched for ages but i did not find any tool for window preview in dock Try to use the features that macOS comes with. It is not always the best idea to try and make macOS behave like what you're used to. Macs are a little different to most other PCs, and that's for the most part a good thing. Use Mission Control Control instead. I am proficient in both Windows and macOS and must say that macOS is an absolute powerhouse in comparison. But you have to be willing to learn new ways of doing things sometimes.
With regard to how well Outlook works on the Mac, I have no idea.
Rectangle is a free and open source Magnet alternative. It behaves identically, except that some of the keyboard shortcuts are different. I bought Magnet a long time ago, but switched to Rectangle recently.
Glad you like it and I wish I could share your enthusiasm... but I’m not here to ruin the party, just let you know that there are a few tools to make window snapping available on macOS, in case you missed them.
Personally, I’m using this little open source one: https://rectangleapp.com
One app that I highly recommend is Rectangle. It adds window snapping/ sizing functionality similar to that of Windows/ Linux desktop environments. It’s also opensource/ free of charge, though you may consider donating if you enjoy it!
Well, whatever works best for you. You could stick with full-screen, but use the relative commands (Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right) to switch, and/or pop up Mission Control. It's on the F3 key by default (or three-finger swipe up).
Cmd+Tab plus Cmd+` (to cycle through windows within an app) will get you to the right place too, without using the mouse/trackpad.
Unless you're constantly mobile, another option is to just add more monitor. I've got a 34" 21:9 [ultrawide](/r/ultrawidemasterrace) plus a portrait (vertical) 27" 16:9 attached to my MacBook Pro. I use Rectangle (free + open source) to snap windows. It's great to be able to see 3 or 4 apps at once with sufficient space that I can actually use them all. A common scenario is having an email or specification document on the portrait monitor, then actually implementing and testing it on the main monitor.
If you just want to split the screen, use one cable and LG’s “Onscreen Control” software to split the screen.
https://www.lg.com/us/support/software-firmware-drivers
Or get Rectangle https://rectangleapp.com/
Both are free.
> I need two separate screens to take advantage of OS X full-screen to view both google calendar and Microsoft To-Do applications.
Oh. And I guess the built-in Full Screen Split View doesn’t work vertically? I haven’t tried that.
since spectacle is no longer in development, others recommend to use Rectangle as an alternative! On a side note, I wanted to use yabai but i read that you're supposed to disable System Integrity Protection. Have you face any issues with that? Still debating on whether I should set it up or not