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If I have a window on my desktop in OSX Mountain Lion, I see an icon in the top right corner o the window, made of two diagonal arrows pointing away from each other. I can click this to put the app in "full screen" mode and give it its own space.

Once I've done that, I can hover my mouse near the top edge of the screen and the menu bar will slide down. There's a blue icon on the far right that looks like the opposite of the first: two diagonal arrows pointing toward each other. That will take the app out of full screen mode.

I'm being so specific because I want to be clear about which "fullscreen mode" I mean.

What is the universal keyboard shortcut to toggle fullscreen mode in Mountain Lion?

I'm aware of a few application-specific shortcuts, but they're inconsistent.

  • In Google Chrome, Command+Control+F toggles fullscreen, and Command+Shift+F toggles "presentation mode", which is the same but without showing the tabs.
  • In Firefox, Command+Shift+F toggles fullscreen.
  • In iTerm2, Command+Enter toggles fullscreen.

I'm looking for something universal, like how Command + M minimizes the window for any app.

2 Answers 2

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You can try this tutorial.

IMPORTANT NOTE: for me it's not working with the shortcut Command+Escape as suggested by this tutorial, but it is working with Command+Shift+F, for example...

STEPS:

  • Open System Preferences and click on the Keyboard icon
  • Select the Keyboard Shortcuts tab and choose Application Shortcuts from the list on the left
  • Click on the + icon to add a new keyboard shortcut for all applications and type the following exactly:

Enter Full Screen

  • Now you need to assign it a keyboard shortcut, I chose Command+Escape because it serves no purpose in OS X, but it’s the old keyboard shortcut for entering into Front Row
  • Click Add and then click on the + icon again, this time typing:

Exit Full Screen

  • Choose the same keyboard shortcut as you chose before, in this case Command+Escape, and click onto Add again
  • Close out System Preferences
  • Give it a try!

enter image description here

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  • 1
    Works for me! Caveats: This is based on matching the name of the menu item. Eg, in iTerm2, it's "Toggle Full Screen", so I had to add another one with that name for it. Also, Firefox didn't respond to the new mapping, so I tried giving all apps its mapping of Command+Control+F, and that worked for me (at least for the three I mentioned and for MacVim, which calls its menu item "Toggle Full Screen Mode"). Oct 18, 2013 at 12:29
  • Waiting to accept in case there's a native way that someone can point out. Oct 18, 2013 at 12:31
  • @NathanLong what kind of "native way" were you expecting? If apps are not following convention, this is how you can override the keyboard shortcut. How is this not "native"? I see you want something "universal" - this solution is universal.
    – JBallin
    Feb 3, 2022 at 17:27
  • @JBallin in KDE (Linux) for example it is possible to set a wide range of global shortcuts including "minimize", "close" and "full screen" for all Applications. It is somewhat disappointing how few shortcuts you can set/configure system-wide in MAC. Matching names in the menu is definitely not the cleanest possible solution.
    – MarvMind
    Jan 5, 2023 at 17:04
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I'm using Mavericks, and MikO's method didn't work for me, at least not in Terminal, which was how I came to this post. BetterTouchTool, on the other hand, completely works, and, in fact, has a "Enter Fullscreen" action. Also, it's awesome.

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  • Can you provide more detail as to what you tried? Screenshots of your keyboard shortcuts config would be helpful.
    – JBallin
    Feb 3, 2022 at 17:26
  • Sorry, haven't used a Mac in like 5 years! Also, looks like BTT isn't actively developed anymore. I recommend switching to Linux!
    – samson
    Feb 3, 2022 at 20:13

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