Mac Split Screen: Split View, Tiling and Panes
Nemo · · 4 min read
To split the screen on a Mac, hover over the green button at the top left of a window and choose to tile it to the left or right of the screen; then pick the second window for the other half. That is Split View, and it runs full screen in its own Space. On macOS Sequoia and later you can also tile windows without going full screen: drag a window to the edge of the screen, or use Window › Move & Resize. And some apps, Monok among them, split inside one window.
Why split the screen?
Because most work needs two things in view at once: the docs and the code, the article and your notes, the app and its server log. Without a split you swap windows with Cmd+Tab dozens of times an hour, and each swap costs a little focus as you find your place again. Two halves side by side remove the swap.
Which ways can you split the screen?
| Method | How | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Split View | Green button, tile left or right | Two apps, full screen, no distractions |
| Window tiling (macOS 15 and later) | Drag to a screen edge or corner, or Window › Move & Resize | Two to four windows on the desktop |
| Keyboard tiling (macOS 15 and later) | Fn+Ctrl+arrow keys | Tiling without the mouse |
| Panes inside an app | The app’s own split command | Several views in one window |
| A tiling window manager | Third-party apps | Automatic layouts for everything |
How do you use Split View?
- Hover over the green button in a window’s top-left corner.
- Choose “Tile Window to Left of Screen” or “Tile Window to Right of Screen”.
- The other half shows your open windows; click the one you want there.
- Drag the divider to change the sizes.
To leave Split View, move the pointer to the top of the screen and click the green button again. Split View needs the app to support full screen; most do.
How does window tiling work on recent macOS?
From macOS Sequoia, windows tile without going full screen. Drag a window to the left or right edge and it fills that half; drag to a corner for a quarter. The Window menu has Move & Resize with the same layouts, and Fn+Ctrl with the arrow keys moves a window to a half from the keyboard. It is quick, and it works with any app.
The limit of every system-level split is that it splits apps, not what’s inside them. Two browser windows side by side are still two windows with two toolbars and two sets of tabs.
Where does Stage Manager fit?
Stage Manager, turned on from Control Center, is the other window tool built into macOS. It doesn’t split the screen; it keeps one app or a group of windows in the middle and parks the rest in a strip on the left. Drag a window from the strip onto the stage to group it with what’s there. It suits switching between a few tasks more than seeing two things at once.
How do you split inside a browser window?
Monok is a Mac browser where every tab is a tree of panes, like tmux in a terminal. Instead of tiling two browser windows, you split the one you have:
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| Cmd+D | Split right |
| Shift+Cmd+D | Split down |
| Option+Cmd+arrow | Move the focus |
| Option+Cmd+= | Even the panes out |
| Shift+Cmd+Return | Zoom a pane, and back |
| Ctrl+` | A terminal under the page |
A new pane opens with the Magic Bar, so it can be a page or, with >command, a terminal running your shell. Layouts come back with the session. If you know tmux, the tmux cheat sheet maps its keys to these.
A Files pane, a native file manager you can split next to a page or a terminal, is in since version 0.1.1: type / in the Magic Bar.
It works alongside macOS tiling, too: Monok on one half of the screen, split into panes, and your editor on the other. If you’re still choosing a browser, the guide to the best browser for Mac compares the main ones. The home page has the full tour.
Try it: download Monok for Mac, free while in preview, macOS 14 or later.
FAQ
What is the shortcut for split screen on a Mac?
On macOS Sequoia and later, Fn+Ctrl+Left or Right arrow tiles the window to that half. Split View itself starts from the green button.
Why can’t I use Split View with an app?
The app has to support full screen. Try window tiling instead.
Can I split more than two windows?
With window tiling, yes: drag windows into the corners for quarters. Inside Monok, split a tab into as many panes as fit.
Where do I get Monok?
On the download page, free while in preview.