14 DAY TRIAL // Full-screen apps in OS X is a highly appreciated commodity introduced by Apple in OS X Lion years ago. Mostly used by creatives and people who like to work without distractions, full-screen can be activated in almost every built-in app by clicking the appropriate button at the top right-hand corner of the app’s window.
In Yosemite, that button is a thing of the past. Don’t panic just yet. Apple isn’t doing away with the actual full-screen function (though they could spend a little more time tweaking it to ensure good functionality on every Mac). Rather, they’ve relocated the function to the green “traffic light” on the upper left-hand corner of the app’s window.
Any app that can go full-screen now displays two aslant arrows in its Maximize button, allowing Apple to remove a control from the app’s window and confine window controls to a single location that everyone will be able to memorize easily. The company explains:
“A lot of what you do on your Mac requires clicking things like buttons, checkboxes, and pop-up menus. In OS X Yosemite, we’ve redesigned these controls to make the Mac experience feel cleaner and more refined throughout the system. And we’ve made them smarter as well.”
“Take the red, yellow, and green ‘stoplights’ in the corner of every app window. Not only have we streamlined their look, but we’ve also updated their functions. Close, minimize, and maximize are now close, minimize, and full screen, eliminating the extra full-screen control and consolidating the window controls in one place.”
Apple has completely redesigned the entire operating system with the purpose of making OS X easier on the eyes, but also more attractive. While some are unimpressed by the new color palette and minimalistic design, there are just as many voices praising Apple’s decision to bring some of iOS 7’s oomph to the desktop.
“Streamlining these and other elements of the interface means you can navigate the desktop more efficiently. And you can get the most from your beautiful Mac display,” Apple adds, describing the full-screen tweak.
One drawback that we’ve noted in recent times is that OS X’s traffic lights are a little too small. While many users undoubtedly have no problem with this (mainly because they rarely use them), others would prefer these buttons to be larger, so they no longer have to employ aiming skills to perform a simple task such as minimizing a window to the Dock. Granted, Yosemite makes the stoplights a tad bigger, but only by a pixel or two.