Over a year ago I switched machines for work. For design needs I felt like I had to start using a Mac. Back then OS X Snow Leopard was the OS shipped with Macs and still many was new to me, from the App Switcher to the close buttons.

The Fullscreen Apps

Before there was OS X Lion, there was no Full-Screen Apps. This was unpleasant for me because the only way I knew how to make my screen looked clean and organized is by having my current app in full screen mode¹. It made me focus on the task at hand for the active app.

You had the green button with the plus symbol, but I wanted the window to snap on all sides.

But as I use my Mac more and more and actually do real work, I realized that I’m not filling the screen with only one app as often as I do when I was on a PC.

Most of the Mac apps work best for me when not in full-screen mode.

So even now, with Lion offering the Full-Screen feature for apps, I don’t really use it. I think on a 27 inch display – and in fullscreen mode – a certain app can be harder to work with. The extra screen estate doesn’t necesarilly increase functionality of an app compared to when its on a window state².

Going back to the PC with a new habit

In the office where I work, I use a PC – I know right? Even though I know that on a 22 inch display the fullscreen view for windows works better most of the time, I still don’t use it anymore – even if I’m on a PC where this works best for most cases (atleast for me before). The result, a not-so tidy desktop.

It’s not just in me anymore to make all my apps in full-screen and view them one at a time. I find it as a waste of screen estate.

I found it more productive to have several apps/windows open in one screen and just click on them (the visible areas of the window) to activate the app if ever I want it to be the active app/window. The CTRL + TAB on Windows isn’t really useful to get to a specific window.

Its useful if you’re doing CSS where you have your coding app and a browser open side by side³. I usually get the job done faster this way.

This contradicts my minimalist taste

I know that being messy and disorganized while working contradicts my minimalist taste.

I’ve linked to an article by Trent Walton before about having a lot of windows open can be more distracting than helping. And what I’m liking now is the complete opposite. Not because I’m going against it; currently, the way I do things (for me) just works.

I’ll Leave it to my Display

If I had a smaller screen resolution with limited amount of space to work with, it would be a challenge for me. But lets say I do have a Mac Book Air, probably I will still have more than one window open and keep pressing CMD + TAB just to get the whole view for the window/s I’m referring to.

Since I mostly work⁴ on screens with a minimum of 1920 by 1080 resolution, I’m just making use of what I have at any given situation.

It looks so messy and disorganized when you look at it. But thats how I roll now and I love it.

1. Alteast on a PC, thats how I did it and I got used to this practice before. ↩
2. This depends entirely on what app and how you use the app. ↩
3. This is even more useful if you’re using something like LiveReload, where you don’t even have to press CMD + TAB to switch to your browser just to reload the page and hit CMD + TAB again to go back to your coding app ↩
4. Either at home and at the office. ↩