How to split screen on a Mac

Put two or more windows side by side, with or without macOS full screen.

Split View: the full-screen option

Every recent version of macOS includes Split View. Hover over the green button in a window’s top-left corner and choose a full-screen tile option, then pick a second window for the other side. Both windows fill the display in their own Space.

Split View works well for focus, but it hides the menu bar and Dock, holds only two windows, and switching back to your desktop means leaving full screen.

Side by side without full screen

To keep a normal desktop, resize the windows instead. On macOS 15 Sequoia and later, drag a window to the left or right edge of the screen, then do the same with a second window on the other side. On any Mac running macOS 13 or later, Tidy Screen does it from a grid:

1. Click the first window, press Control + Option + Command + T, and choose Left half.
2. Click the second window, open the grid again, and choose Right half.

Both windows stay on your current desktop with the menu bar and Dock visible, and you can open more windows on top.

Uneven splits and three-way layouts

Many tasks work better with an uneven split, such as a wide editor beside a narrow reference window. Drag across four of the six columns on Tidy Screen’s grid for two thirds of the screen, then give the other window the remaining two columns. For three windows, select two columns for each.

Split screen across two displays

Each display gets its own grid, so you can split one screen and maximize a window on another. Read arranging windows across multiple monitors for moving windows between displays.

Make it a habit

Save the layouts you use most and give each a global shortcut, so splitting your screen takes one keystroke per window. The tiling guide covers quarters, gaps between windows, and undo.