I tend to run far fewer apps on my Mac now that I’ve divided all of my computing tasks between the iPad, iPhone, and MacBook Pro, but the ones that I do run tend to stay in full screen mode. Apple made a big deal out of full screen apps in Lion, and now that more third-party apps are stretching themselves across my 13” laptop screen, I find myself really liking this approach to desktop computing.
That’s really quite ironic though, since it was my switch to the Mac that got me into keeping apps in plain windowed mode.
Maximize!
Back when I used Windows as my primary operating system (pre-2009), I was used to simply clicking on the Maximize button and having whatever app I was using fill the screen (and I’d rely on alt-tab to switch between all the huge windows). Now here I am in 2011 and I’m suddenly making a big deal about how all of my favourite apps can grow so big that they blot out the desktop completely. Go figure.
Ohhh!
One thing about Lion’s full screen implementation is that it finally makes the metaphor of Spaces and Natural Scrolling work for me. In Snow Leopard I was accustomed to thinking of moving through different desktops (Spaces) in a grid layout to find my apps, but Lion and its “natural scrolling” has me thinking about literally flicking between adjacent apps. It’s a subtle change from thinking about how our apps and desktops are organized on the virtual desktop, and I like the newer focus on manipulating apps and spaces directly.
New Habits
There are a few things I have had to get used to though.
While I don’t miss the status bar much in full screen apps, I did miss being able to see the dock easily. I can still see them by using Cmd-Tab or moving my mouse to where the dock would be and giving the mouse pointer another push in that direction (which reveals the dock in full screen apps). However, I’ve found a much cleaner solution has been to summon Mission Control, which shows my dock nicely along the left side of the screen.
Dragging and dropping files from my desktop and into full screen apps is also a little funky. If I want to attach something to Mail, I tend to ignore the “attach” (paper clip) button because I’m a fan of dragging and dropping things into place, but the lack of a desktop behind a full-screened Mail.app made this process a little tougher. Luckily, Apple seems to have thought this through, and so I can grab a file (or files) from my desktop, activate Mission Control, hover over Mail for about a second, and then throw my files into my current message as attachments.
I’m pretty happy with full screen mode overall, despite the small setbacks. However, if anything, I’d like to see developers get a little more creative with layouts in full-screen mode. Hiding the dock and status bar is a given, but what about changing layouts dynamically, or adapting full screen modes when I’m hooked up to a larger monitor? There’s still a lot more potential here that developers can maximize.
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