How to tile windows side by side on a Mac

2 min read · 5 steps · Updated 2 October 2026

Tiling arranges two or more windows so they fill the screen without overlapping, which helps when you copy between documents or compare two pages.

The pictures are diagrams of the keys to press.

Step by step

1. Hover over the green button

   Do not click. After a moment a small menu of layouts appears.

   Done

2. Choose a layout

   Under Move & Resize, click the left or right half, the top or bottom half, or a quarter. Under Fill & Arrange you can place two, three or four windows at once.

   Done

3. Or drag to an edge

   Drag a window by its title bar to the left or right edge of the screen. A grey outline shows where it will land. Let go to snap it there. Dragging to the top fills the screen.

   Done

4. Use the keyboard

   Press Globe + Control + Left Arrow or Right Arrow to send the active window to that half.

   Done

5. Return a window to its old size

   Drag it away from the edge, or hover over the green button and choose Return to Previous Size.

   Done

Good to know

To switch tiling by dragging on or off, open System Settings, Desktop & Dock and look under Windows.

The small gap between tiled windows can be removed with "Tiled windows have margins" on the same page.

On older macOS versions, hold the green button and choose Tile Window to Left of Screen. That uses full-screen Split View.

In short: Hover over the green button and pick a layout, or drag the window to a screen edge.