What keyboard shortcuts move, resize, and maximize windows under Mac OS X?

Question

I just checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table%5Fof%5Fkeyboard%5Fshortcuts but the following "Window management" entries are blank for Mac OS X:

• Move the focused window
• Resize the focused window
• Maximize the focused window

Are there really no built in keyboard shortcuts for these in OS X? I do this stuff all the time with GNOME under Linux.

Answer 1

Not built in, but you can install 3rd party software.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26411/mercurymover

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/30591/right-zoom

Answer 2

Personally, I prefer Size Up - it has a huge array of options for auto resizing with a single keypress including quarter screen, maximise and moving windows between monitors and even Spaces.

http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup/

Answer 3

Following along with the idea of windowflow - check out it's parent project Optimal Layout. I tried sizeup for a while and was actually trying to find a replacement for it when I found Optimal Layout.

It is by far the best OSX keyboard based window manipulation app I've seen yet! Rocks...

http://most-advantageous.com/optimal-layout/

Answer 4

If you consider yourself a "hacker" you may consider Slate. Slate is like Bettertouch or Sizeup on steroids. Here is the github repo.

There is a learning curve but it is very powerful and customizable. There is a great write-up on how to set up and use it.

Answer 5

I've tried the other third party apps here and have found Moom to be the best:

http://manytricks.com/moom/

Answer 6

See the following AppleScript for the popular (and free) Mac OS X keyboard/mouse shortcut program QuickSilver that will get you a keyboard shortcut for the green zoom button. When you install that and use it with Quicksilver, you'll be able to customize your keyboard shortcut.

tell application "System Events"
    if UI elements enabled then
        set FrontApplication to (get name of every process whose frontmost is true) as string
        tell process FrontApplication
            click button 2 of window 1
            --button 2 is the green "zoom" button for all applications
            --window 1 is always the frontmost window.
        end tell
    else
        tell application "System Preferences"
            activate
            set current pane to pane "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
            display dialog "UI element scripting is not enabled. Check 'Enable access for assistive devices'"
        end tell
    end if
end tell

Source: http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/1026

Answer 7

Spectacle hasn't been mentioned yet. "Move and resize your windows with ease." -- http://spectacleapp.com

It's open source: https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle